site.bta"Operett Mahala" Presented at National Theatre in Budapest, Heads to Wider Audiences in Both Bulgaria and Hungary

The production Operett Mahala, directed by Istvan Nagy and Gabriella Hadzsikosztova, was presented at the National Theatre in Budapest on March 21 as part of the Jelen/Let Festival. A preview of the production was held on March 16 at the Liszt Institute in Sofia, and starting in April, the play will be performed for wider audiences in both Bulgaria and Hungary, said Hadzsikosztova, who is also deputy chair of the Bulgarian Republican Self-Government in Budapest and editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian-language newspaper Balgarski Vesti [Bulgarian News].

“We thank the Liszt Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia for providing rehearsal space, for the support, respect, and the kindness they showed us throughout the entire creative process. We are deeply grateful,” Hadzsikosztova added.

According to the synopsis published on the Institute’s website, Nagy’s play is set in a mountain hamlet, or mahala. A few houses and families located a few kilometers from a nearby village, yet not truly part of it. Such hamlets are gradually becoming depopulated, disappearing into overgrown landscapes or being bought by developers who try to make use of them. Even then, they inevitably lose their original character.

The production is a musical play featuring songs composed by Attila Simon, with lyrics by Istvan Nagy. The songs were translated by Radosztina Angelova, and the play itself by Svetla Kyoseva.

The cast includes Denica Darinova as the wife, Julijan Balahurov as the husband, and Attila Simon as the son.

The directors, Nagy and Hadzsikosztova, are also the founders of the independent theatre Malko Teatro, established in Budapest in 1996. The theatre’s mission is to promote Bulgarian culture in Hungary and across the German-speaking world.

In 2010, Hadzsikosztova - Malko Teatro’s artistic director - was awarded the Golden Cross of Honor of Hungary by the country’s president. In 2014, the theatre’s chief director, Nagy, received the Bulgarian Culture Ministry’s Golden Age Prize - Seal of King Simeon the Great, presented to him in Budapest by then culture minister Petar Stoyanovich.