Nona Ciobanu

Who Shuts the Night

Script based on the film The Night Porter by Liliana Cavani
Hungarian translation: Andor Horváth

Studio
RO
EN
16+
1h 10' without intermission

Hanna
Enikő Györgyjakab
 
Max
Gábor Viola
 
The Housband
Zsolt Bogdán
Voices (Kurt, Klaus, Bert): Szűcs Ervin, Váta Loránd, Marosán Csaba
SS officers (videoprojection): Orbán Attila, Bogdán Zsolt, Bodolai Balázs, Váta Loránd, Marosán Csaba, Györffy Zsolt
Johann's Head (videoprojection): Orbán Attila


directed by
Nona Ciobanu
 
set design
Nona Ciobanu, Peter Košir
 
costumes, music, light design
Nona Ciobanu
 
photo, video for the projections
Matyjž Wenzel
 
videoprojection
Peter Košir
 
set designer`s assistant
Tibor Tenkei
 
stage manager
Ágota Tatár
Date of the opening: October 05, 2014

A former Nazi officer and a woman who was once a prisoner in a concentration camp accidentally met in Vienna thirteen years after the war. Their relationship in the camp began with a rape.
Both Max and Hanna, the main characters of the performance, are prisoners of their own dark fate and history. They cannot (or maybe don’t want to) take a single step outside the walls of this prison. They need to make the past present again and again in order to cleanse, understand and punish the other – and themselves.  When they are willing to look at the world through the other’s eye, a dynamic relationship develops between the two of them and they play untiringly, continuously, interchangeable roles: either the part of the victim, or the part of the oppressor.
I think that the relationship between oppressor and victim is relevant today too. It may be manifested within a family or, more broadly, throughout all of society. It is our responsibility to be aware of such abuses and how we often contribute to their preservation.
Nona Ciobanu