The Katona József Theatre is the best known Hungarian theatre company - a public theatre, supported mainly by the City of Budapest. As an independent company, it was born in 1982, seceding of the National Theatre of Budapest, led by general director Gábor Székely and art director Gábor Zsámbéki. Since 1989 the post of general director has been held by Gábor Zsámbéki with Gábor Máté as general stage director, Tamás Ascher and Péter Gothár at his side as stage directors. Besides them, Andor Lukáts as well as guest directors of the younger generation regularly direct on its stage. The Katona József Theatre has extensive international connections and it is a founding member of the Union of European Theatres. The company regularly embarks on international tours and to date has performed in more than 60 cities of the world from Paris to Chicago, from London to Bogota, from Milan to Adelaide. The productions and artists of the Katona have received numerous important national and international awards.

Viktor Bodó – András Vinnai
RATTLEDANDISAPPEARED

Directed by: Viktor Bodó
Set: Levente Bagossy
Costume: Krisztina Berzsenyi
Assistant: Réka Budavári

The performance is not the adaptation of „The Trial” by Kafka. Even if the storyline in a sense follows the original novel, we modified all the scenes to bring the whole story closer to us, also with the intention of creating something new. Josef K. is arrested. First he thinks that the events are a result of his colleagues’ bad joke on his birthday, but later he understands that nothing is as he has imagined. After this point his story completely lacks dramaturgical turning points. The tribunal of existence, the women who want to help him, and his own obsession more and more compel him to a battle, which he cannot win because he does not even know against whom and why he has to fight. During the process Josef K. makes enormous efforts to go deeper and deeper, only to assist his own execution at the end, where he arrives completely out of mind, singing and dancing. Franz Kafka is said to have burst out with laughter several times while reading his manuscript of The Trial to his friends. This is all K. could do in order to defend himself, but by wanting to trick out and escape certain rules, he also accepts their existence. There is no help for him, his only chance would be to disappear from this world. But the guard is always alert at the doorway.
Awards:
Best direction, Best performance and Best set design - National Theatre Festival Pécs
Best direction, Best performance - MESS Festival Sarajevo
Best direction, Second price of best performance and Best male actor - KONTAKT Festival Torun
Best performance – EX Ponto Festival Ljubljana
Best performance, Best set design, Best costume design and Best male actor - Studio Theatre Festival Rijeka