Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is pleased to present the New York premiere of Our Secrets, in which the world-renowned Béla Pintér and Company from Hungary look back at the absurd but true phenomenon of government surveillance of the amateur folk dancing scene in Cold War Budapest. By turns hilarious, disturbing and poignant, and reminiscent of the Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others, Pintér's play tells the story of a musician forced to choose between exposing his own criminal sexual acts and dooming his community. This no-holds-barred production, directed by Pintér, uncovers a generation of artists who learn the hard way that there is no such thing as a right to privacy. Our Secrets offers a searing and incisive look at Hungary's Soviet occupied past while providing insight into the present day-WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, and security cameras on every corner.
Béla Pintér and Company will perform Our Secrets in the
Jerome Robbins Theater at Baryshnikov Arts Center (450 West 37th Street Manhattan), January 25-28 at 7:30pm, and January 28 & 29 at 2pm. Critics are welcome as of the first performance, which will also serve as the official opening. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at www.bacnyc.org or 866-811-4111. Our Secrets is performed in Hungarian with English supertitles. The production contains adult language and graphic sexual content and is recommended for audiences age 18 and over.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, founder and artistic director of BAC, says of Our Secrets, "Béla Pintér is one of the foremost theater makers in Hungary today. Our Secrets is a dark and powerful piece, examining the country's politics of 35 years ago and its staggering resonance with today's global climate. It is a singular work and the opportunity to share it with New York audiences is nothing short of extraordinary."
Our Secrets takes place in Soviet-era Budapest, amidst a revival of Hungary's folk music and dancing tradition. In one of many dance halls across the city, as a live band plays and dancers twirl along, a musician, István Balla Bán, reveals to his therapist his disturbing transgression: he is sexually attracted to his seven-year-old stepdaughter, Timike. Little does István know that the government is taping his every word and will use his confession against him and his friends, forcing him to be an informant on his underground activist friends, or have his shameful secret revealed.
The production alternates between dance hall vignettes, with live music and dance, and scenes of everyday life in early '80s, communist Hungary: abysmal restaurant service, blind party loyalty and the state's embrace of folk music as "proletarian." Members of the cast-including Pintér himself, Zoltán Friedenthal, Eszter Csákányi, Hella Roszik, Éva Enyedi, Zsófia Szamosi, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Angéla Stefanovics, György Póta and Gábor Pelva-sing, play instruments and portray multiple characters.
Our Secrets offers insight into the Hungary of today-where the increasingly nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continues to exert control over the cultural scene-and the worldwide prevalence of mass surveillance of civilians.
"Pinter's wonderfully acted, beautifully staged play prove[s] hilarious and horrifying by turns-and fast turns at that, pivoting around its theme of corrupted lives with the effortless precision of a film by Pedro Almodóvar," writes American Theatre.
Our Secrets comes to Baryshnikov Arts Center as part of a U.S. tour made possible by the Trust for Mutual Understanding. The Hopkins Center for the Arts, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, presents the U.S. premiere January 13 & 14, followed by a run at ArtsEmerson, at Emerson College in Boston, January 19-22.
The New York premiere of Our Secrets marks Béla Pintér and Company's first production in the city since 2009, when
Lincoln Center Festival presented their work Peasant Opera, which Charles Isherwood of The New York Times described as a "strange but surprisingly satisfying" sendup of opera.
Tom Sellar wrote in The Village Voice, "Pinter is a comic genius: a former folk dancer who creates wildly ironic, charmingly grotesque fables reflecting on folk life, ethnicity, and nationalism-with original music and, yes, Hungarian folk dancing."
About Béla Pintér and Company
Founded in 1998, Béla Pintér and Company is a leader in the independent theatre scene in Budapest. Béla Pintér is considered of the most influential playwrights, directors and actors working in Europe today. While deeply rooted in classical theatre tradition, Pintér's singular approach to playwriting fuses comedy, tragedy and live music to create original, accessible and personal approaches to life's absurdities and current events.
Although the communist regime and system of surveillance depicted in Our Secrets was disbanded in 1989, Hungary's present day cultural scene has been rocked by a rapid return to government control of artistic choice. Despite these aggressive political divisions, Béla Pintér and Company is dedicated to creating productions based on critical and ironic observations of contemporary Hungarian and global society.
About Baryshnikov Arts Center
Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director
Mikhail Baryshnikov who sought to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC's opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC's activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information, please visit www.bacnyc.org.
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