On Hungarian National Day, Tuesday, March 15, at 8 pm, Zsolt Bogdán's solo performance Back When... will be presented in the Studio Hall of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj. The production, created under the auspices of the Spectrum Theatre in Târgu Mures, is based on short stories by Attila Bartis and is directed and performed by Zsolt Bogdán.

"...Attila Bartis is a charismatic writer. In addition - if the forty years of communism do not disappear from history without a trace - he has written one of the immortal novels of Hungarian literature, Károly, avagy az irodalom története (Károly, or the History of Literature). If it will not be remembered, many other things will fade into oblivion as well. Then there will be few answers to questions like: what was communism? What was Romanian communism? What did the díszmagyar [Hungarian traditional garment] mean in Romania under communism? What was a whistleblower and what did it have to do with the díszmagyar and 'this miserable time in Romania'? What was Târgu Mures? What was "hospitality"? What morality made it natural for a family to take in a stranger for five and a half years? And so on. It will be a different world. Then Károly... will be just one of those novels that is a smidge better than perfect. (...) ''

The short stories included in the performance are: A magyar nyelv rövid története [A Short History of the Hungarian Language], Károly, avagy az irodalom története [Charles or the History of Literature], Engelhart avagy a fotográfia története [Engelhart or the History of Photography], Bohumi avagy a kenyérmorzsák története [Bohumi or the History of Breadcrumbs], Vámos és az Úristen [Vámos and God Our Lord].

"Zsolt Bogdán not only narrates Attila Bartis's short stories (five of them to be precise), but enlivens the fairy tales, gives flesh to the words, and while seemingly absorbed in the storytelling, he keeps the matrix detached from himself with subtle irony, adding commentary from time to time, with small actions, restrained gestures, even more restrained facial expressions. His manner of speaking is imbued with charm, wisdom, shimmering irony, a serenity that transcends the circumstances, a playful sense of humour, and empathy with what is being said." – wrote Dezső Kovács about the performance on the Revizor review portal.

Tickets for Back When... are available at the theatre’s ticket office and online at www.biletmaster.ro.