On Friday, August 28, at 8:00 pm, the Budapest-based Forte Theater Company will present its production of Gyöngyélet in the Main Hall of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj. The production, based on a script by Zsolna Ugron, was directed by Csaba Horváth.

Gyöngyélet is set in a Hungarian village in Kalotaszeg in the 1970s, where the tension between preserving tradition and embracing modernization defines the life of the community. At the heart of the story is the Kalotaszeg practice of “one-child policy”: families consciously limited the number of children they had in order to preserve and increase their wealth.

A young man from the city, bound to the community by his inheritance, arrives in this closed-off world. As an outsider, he is confronted with the power of traditions and the human sacrifices made to uphold them. Meanwhile, a young woman also tries to defy community norms and forge her own path, as the hidden sins and connections of the past gradually come to light.

Csaba Horváth’s sensitive perspective and powerful physical theatrical language are particularly well-suited to portraying communal traumas and the contradictions inherent in folk traditions. Through the microcosm of Kalotaszeg, the performance raises universal questions: How can an individual strike a balance between personal happiness and community expectations, and where does the line lie between preserving tradition and self-destruction?

Cast: Nóra Földeáki, Kristóf Widder, Barnabás Horkay, Márton Pallag, László Hevesi, Fanni Hevesi, Márton Béhr, György Veress, Ákos Kukovecz, Veronika Kozma and Emilia Pigler.

Live music and dance also play a defining role in the production. Musicians: Ádám Bernáth, Péter Lisztóczki, Attila Mihó, and Alinka Pandák. Dancers: Hanga Borbála Kacsó, Borbála Pákozdi, Anna Kiss, Réka Deák, Zoltán Weingart, Zalán Pásztor, Boldizsár Balogh, and István Berecz. Technician: Ferenc Payer.

Tickets are available at the box office of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, as well as online at huntheater.biletmaster.ro.