The Hungarian Theatre of Cluj will present the last premiere of the season, namely the production of Young Barbarians, directed by Attila Vidnyánszky Jr., on Wednesday, July 6, at 8 pm, in the Studio Hall. The play is inspired by the lives of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and is based on a text by Miklós H. Vecsei and improvisations by the creative team, in co-production with the Gyula Castle Theatre. The performance will be premiered in Gyula on Saturday, 9 July at 8:30 pm on the Gyula Castle Theatre's Castle Stage.

At the press conference preceding the premiere, Attila Vidnyánszky Jr., the director of the production, emphasized the collaborative work of the creative team. “The work was an emphatically collective effort. We created a play in such a way that it will probably make it impossible for it to be performed at other theatres. The process of working on the production is, for me, more exciting and instructive than the performance itself, but I hope that the performance will live up to that. In my previous work here, which was Romeo and Juliet, I was able to meet creative people who are capable of not necessarily being implementers, but of creating something together, collectively. The starting point for the current rehearsal process was the personalities of Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, we were inspired by their lives, and from that we came up with our own material, which is mainly my and the team's perspective: how to talk about the world around us through these people."

Miklós H. Vecsei, who is the writer of the play this time, stated the following on the choice of topic: "What is very exciting about the lives of Bartók and Kodály is that they went collecting folklore in their early twenties all over the Carpathian Basin. They were pioneers in a very serious cultural headwind - their own teachers at the Academy of Music did not support them. Without them, folk music and folk songs would exist in Hungarian culture today in a highly diminished form."

The two main characters of the performance are portrayed by Éva Imre and Ervin Szűcs, with additional roles being played by Csilla Albert, Balázs Bodolai, Loránd Farkas, Zsolt Gedő, Zsuzsa Tőtszegi and Lóránd Váta; four young folk dancers are also included in the play: Katalin-Bíborka András, Ágnes Lakatos, Nimród-Károly Kacsó and Hunor Vincze-Pistuka.

A special feature of the Young Barbarians is the live accompaniment and performance by the Tokos Band: Csongor Attila Tókos, Albert Vajas, Gyula Bálint Szép, Kristóf Szakács, Zsombor Bálint.

The creative team also includes: Csaba Csíki (set designer), Zsuzsanna Cs. Kiss (costume designer), Dávid Mester (musical director), István Berecz (choreographer) as well as Emőke Veres (assistant director).

After its premiere, Young Barbarians will be shown next on August 17 as part of the 13th edition of the Hungarian Cultural Days of Cluj, and will be performed again on August 26, in the theatre's Studio Hall. Tickets for the performances can be purchased at the theatre's ticket office (weekdays between 10 am and 2 pm) or online at www.biletmaster.ro.