Hungarian and Independent

Retracing the movements of Hungarian theater over the past ten years, Andrea Tompa details the rise of Hungary's two most influential independent and contemporary theater directors, Árpád Schilling and Béla Pintér. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, an emergent, internationally prominent Hungarian theater scene took shape: Tompa chronicles the rise of the independent theater movement in the context of the work of other influential directors, such as Viktor Bodó, János Mohácsi, Balázs Kovalik, and Sándor Zsótér, whose daring, performative approaches exploded the psychological-realism tradition. Schilling and Pintér are the heirs: Schilling, praised for the founding of his company Krétakör, whose constant, chameleonic reinvention resists stasis; Pintér, for the theatrical incorporation of Hungarian folk tradition and the resultant questioning of the parameters of identity.