The Playwrights Database
ANDRAS VISKY (1957 - )
Nationality: Romanianemail: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: Textbridge Literary Agency
Andras Visky (born April 13, 1957 in Targu-Mure), Romania) is a poet, playwright and essayist and the resident dramaturg at the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, Romania, where he also holds the position of associate artistic director. His plays have been staged in several countries including Romania, Hungary, France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and the United States. He has a DLA (Doctor of Liberal Arts) from the University of Theatre and Film, Budapest and since 1994 he has lectured at the University of Babes-Bolyai in the Department of Theatre and Television. He is one of the co-founders and the former executive director of Koinonia Publishing. Visky joined the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj as dramaturg in 1990. This was also the beginning of his long professional collaboration with Gabor Tompa, the artistic director of the theatre. The pair have worked together on innumerable performances, including plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ionesco, Caragiale, Gombrowicz and Beckett, and Tompa has directed Visky's Julia, Tanitvanyok, Hosszu pentek, Visszaszuletes and Alkoholistak. Visky has also worked with directors Dragos Galgotiu, Mihai Maniutiu, Robert Raponja, and David Zinder
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below is a list of Andras Visky's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Born for Never or Backborn Disciples I Killed My Mother: a play about identity for two actors in 18 scenes Juliet: a dialogueBorn for Never or Backborn
Synopsis:
"Born for Never"/"Backborn" is a story about survival - surviving concentration camps, surviving others, surviving one's memories, surviving oneself - a story of a nameless man without identity. A choir joined by the Man Without A Name makes up a minyan, i.e. a number of ten adult men which is a prerequisite for a Jewish prayer. The players act and sing in Hebrew, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, Italian, French, English, Spanish and German to the accompaniment of the sad melody of an ancient Jewish funeral song from Northern Transylvania. Born for Never is a play that makes us think about the human condition, about what we leave behind, about a place where omnipresent religion determines our relationship with the world, about what we are and, first and foremost, why we have come to such a pass. Gabor Tompa's production is a theatre created to bandage wounds and to reflect upon them.
Notes:
The play was written in Hungarian under the title, "Visszaszuletes" And had its world premiere in 2009 At the Festival d'Avignon.
1st Produced:
Laboratory Theatre, Grand Rapids, MI 15 Apr 2010
Company:
Laboratory Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageDisciples
Synopsis:
In this play, Andras Visky attempts to assimilate recent past memories by retelling through theatre the tragic but, at the same time, comic stories of the gulag world he experienced in his childhood. Enlarging the time and space of the Bible, the play places the persecuted disciples in a small hut, in this way sketching a picture of Romania in the 50's and 60's and invoking an atmosphere of intimidation. The play works not just on the Biblical level and on the level of the political reality of 1950's and 60's Romania, but on a third level also: that of absurd plays. Two of the disciples take lines from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, creating a clown scene, suggesting the absurdity of a world abandoned by God. One can best talk about the Communist Romania of the 1950's and 60's in terms of the absurd. The Cluj (Romania) performance, directed by Gabor Tompa, focuses on the collective experience of losing freedom.
Notes:
The play was written in Hungarian under the title, Tanitvanyok And had its world premiere in 2005 At the Hungarian State Theatre, Cluj, Romania, directed by Gabor Tompa. The Hungarian text was published in the collection, A szokes in 2006.
1st Produced:
Laboratory Theatre, Grand Rapids, MI 2006
Company:
Laboratory Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
1h 30m Drama One Act
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageI Killed My Mother: a play about identity for two actors in 18 scenes
Synopsis:
Bernadette has been abandoned by her parents, her father whom she has never known (and whom she is, thus, inclined to mythologize) and her mother, a poor Roma (Gypsy). She grows up in a series of Romanian orphanages, in one of which she meets a boy, Clip, and they become friends. Bernadette moves through a series of relationships with would be parents, lovers and friends, as she seeks to eradicate her orphan status. In a mixture of curiosity and anger, she looks for her mother, but their meetings are not successful. She "kills" her mother ritually, symbolically not having any resources with which to integrate her mother's life as an organic part of her own identity. The play ends with Bernadette and Clip alone on stage, their orphan status confirmed, but maybe, finally, accepted by Bernadette. THE CHARACTERS: Bernadette: a girl/young woman in her late teens/early twenties; Clip: a boy/young man of the same age. It is unclear to the audience if Clip is real or some kind of imaginary friend. Or, perhaps, an angel
Notes:
The play was originally written in Hungarian under the title Megoltem Az Anyamat.
1st Produced:
Greenhouse Theatre, Chicago 19 Feb 2010
Company:
Theatre Y
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
1h 30m Drama Solo Show Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageJuliet: a dialogue
Synopsis:
A woman's enduring love is tested while imprisoned with her children with no chance of survival. Caught in a passionate love triangle between her husband and her god, she makes a final gamble for her life.
Notes:
The play was written in Hungarian under the title, Julia. And had its world premiere in 2002, featuring Eniks Szilagyi And directed by Gabor Tompa, A co-production of the Thalia Theatre, Budapest, Hungary And the Hungarian State Theatre, Cluj, Romania. In 2005, Romanian director Mihai M?niu?iu directed A Romanian language version At the Romanian National Theatre, Cluj And featuring Vava Stefsnescu. There have Also been radio productions of the play in both Hungarian And Romanian. The English text is Available for purchase At www.juliet-tour.com
1st Produced:
New AmericanTheatre, Rockford Illinois (English language premiere) 2006
Company:
Theatre Y
1st Published:
Theatre Y (English translation), 2007 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
1h 30m Drama Solo Show Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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