KALAMAZOO

It could be that even we ourselves often don’t fully comprehend how many ways the digital age has changed our relationship with music. Nevertheless, there remain themes that simply demand an analogue, more traditional approach. Active since the ’10s, singer-songwriter Gergő Szakács has transitioned over the years from monumental pop sounds to more intimate, live instrumental productions, and this journey will reach its next important milestone at Müpa Budapest.

Recirquel’s new production, Paradisum explores the myth of rebirth following the silence of a destroyed world, where the means of communication is the body, and the only common language is movement. The creatures of this idyllic existence unfold from the ever-changing, swirling natural forces of the ‘fabric of life’ that pulsates around them, so they can reach the anima mundi, the world soul, through scenes of purification, birth, awakening and ritual.

What would happen if Sándor Petőfi were to write János Vitéz right here and now, before our very eyes? In this new stage version, the story emerges from a giant laptop, from which the two-dimensional and living characters of the tale come to life to bring the world of Johnny Corncob and Iluska into being through spoken word and song.