Svetislav Basara
THE CYCLIST CONSPIRACY
The Novi Sad Theatre /Újvidéki Színház, Serbia
Dr. Herbert Mayer ‒ Dániel Huszta
King Carl the Ugly ‒ Árpád Mészáros
Major-domo Grossmann ‒ Dániel Gombos
Sigmund Freud ‒ Emina Elor
Ernest M. ‒ Áron Szilágyi, s.a.
Hertha Mayer ‒ Terézia Figura
Sherlock Holmes ‒ Ágota Ferenc
Watson ‒ Gábor Pongó
Józef Kowalski ‒ Bence Szalai, s.a.
Adaptation and lyrics: Róbert Lénárd
Set and Costume Design: Nóra Árva, as guest
Composer: Adrián Kovács, as guest
Stage Movement: Gabriella Crnkovity
Stage Manager, Assistant: Csilla Lovas
Lights: Róbert Majoros
Sound: Tibor Bíró
Makeup: Bojana Radović
Poster Photography: Elvira Kakuszi
Photo: Srđan Doroški
Directed by Róbert Lénárd
Running time: 90 minutes
“It is no longer Yugoslavia that is breaking up like thirty years ago, but the entire world. Europe in the first place. Nevertheless, conspiracy theories are more current than ever: from the CIA to the KGB, from Jews to HAARP, from Islamic terrorist to football hooligans… Moreover, there is the mysterious territory of cycling, with its understanding of time and space, dreams and psychoanalysis.
The Tower of Bable of the Big Nuthouse is no longer a dream, but reality. That is where the schizoid inhabitants of our world are, dancing and singing as if everything was fine, while the tower is already quite shaky, on the very brink of breakup. In this nuthouse, which is not just built but functions perfectly well with its imbecilic mechanisms, the rule that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, falls through. Here, blindness is the most cherished of all human traits.
A crime story and a philosophical play, a musical and a psychiatric diagnose – this is what the adaptation of the cult novel looks like.”
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“A Game in the Castle” directed by Muci Draškić was the longest running production of the Novi Sad Theatre, having been played for 10 years. The productions which have brought home most awards were “Play Strindberg” directed by Radoslav Zlatan Dorić and, more recently, “Orange Peel” directed by Kokan Mladenović, which has been awarded as many as six Sterija awards. The most successful plays of the Novi Sad Theatre include the brilliantly contextualised – at the time – “Hair”, the furious “Rocky Horror Show”, the mischievously poetical “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the entertaining “The Wizard of Oz”, the long-standing “Portugal”, the outstanding “The Tragedy of Man”, the lucid “Marat/Sade”, the dramatically humorous “Who’s Gonna Get the Bicycle Back”, the spectacular “Opera Ultima”, “Off – Transgressing Borders”, “Piaf Marche”, “Fiddler on the Roof” or the still current “Neoplanta”, the absolute champion of the 59th Sterijino pozorje festival and the most accomplished play of the 48th Bitef festival where it won two awards. Thereafter, the production’s dazzling success took it to the Borštnik Festival in Maribor, Gavella Evenings in Zagreb, Biennial of Montenegrin National Theatre in Podgorica… It is currently the most popular and sought after theatre play, not only in the Novi Sad theatre, but in Novi Sad as a whole.
This theatre of Novi Sad is original for yet two other theatrical events. Once a year it organises the “Drama Competition of Hungarian Writers in Vojvodina” where three writers write their texts in one day for three directors and three casts, who then prepare them in one day and perform them in front of an audience the following evening. The other unique event is the “Show Funeral”. Namely, it is the way for actors to bid farewell to a show that is being retired. The show assumes completely different unusual contours; it is infused with some new, primarily humorous stories that enable actors to show their knowledge, craftsmanship, talent, humour – actually, their entire acting persona.
The Novi Sad Theatre still performs plays in Hungarian, always with a simultaneous translation in Serbian, showing in the most practical way that dialogue and understanding among people is possible. All you need is will.
And it is easy to have will when your theatre is home to actors such as: Áron Balázs, Szilvia Krizsán, Emina Elor, Terézia Figura, Dániel Huszta, István Kőrösi, Livia Banka, Gábor Pongó, Gabriella Crnkovity, Edit Faragó, Ágota Ferenc, Attila Nemet, Dániel Gombos, Judit Ferenc, Judit László, Attila Giricz, Zoltán Sirmer, Melinda Jaskov, Attila Magyar and Árpád Mészáros. These are the names of today’s members of the company who, continuing the good tradition of this theatre, brought it into the company of the best. The present General Manager of the Novi Sad Theatre is actor Valentin Vencel.
The Novi Sad Theatre is an institution of special significance of the National Council of the Hungarian Ethnic Minority.