A provocative performer until his death, Halász said his farewells to a close circle of friends and family, from a coffin, in Budapest's Műcsarnok on 6 February. The final act was, as his previous ones were, an affront to order and an effort to break taboos and step over boundaries.
Halász started his independent acting career after leaving Hungary?s Universitas Theatre. Forced off the state-sanctioned stage, he started performing in private flats. In 1976, he had to leave Hungary. Halász and his band travelled to Paris, Amsterdam and then New York, where they set up the Squat Theatre in a flat on 23rd Street.
After the break-up of Squat, Halász reorganised a group of experimental actors under the name Love Theatre. Halász returned to Hungary in 1991 and put on a homecoming performance paying tribute to his own past.
[Photo: Halász in "The Helmet Maker's Beautiful Wife"]
Halász produced some of his best work afterward with the Katona József Theatre and Kamra. There he and his troupe produced a month-long series of gripping improvisational performances based on news items from Népszabadság, one of Hungary?s most widely-read dailies.
[Photo: Halász in "The Diary of a Madman"]
Not the kind of director whose performances could be marketed to the theatregoer who buys season tickets, Halász created for independent and unconstrained thinkers.
[Photo: In Műcsarnok]
Source: szinhaz.hu
