Peter Handke / Sára Sahin-Tóth: Kaspar

Kaspar is the ugly, the incomprehensible, the faulty play. The writer of “word-theatre,” Peter Handke, is tempted by theatre without words, and just as Kaspar must learn language, Handke learns and rethinks theatre itself.

Sára Sahin-Tóth and her collaborators work with the playwright’s instruction of “speech-torture,” creating an experiment that radically reimagines theatre—where textual structures become visual elements, sentences turn into sound, and everyday objects become tools of manipulation.

Peter Handke’s drama is based on the story of Kaspar Hauser, torn out of human community. Kaspar grows up completely isolated from society, and thus—like someone waking from a coma of forgetting—must begin his socialization from zero. He must redefine himself and the world around him with the help of the Prompters, who guide his learning of speech and the process of becoming social through a series of instructions.

With speech—the most fundamental tool of shared reality-making—they push Kaspar toward the RIGHT PATH, while he tries to understand the phenomena around him through the acquisition of language. Yet the possibilities and contradictions are overwhelmingly many—and whichever direction he turns, he can hardly begin to exist at all.

Written by: Peter Handke

Translated by: István Eörsi

Cast:

Hevesi László: Áron Forrai

Áron Forrai: Noémi Juniki

Noémi Juniki: Kornél Laboda

Kornél Laboda: László Hevesi

Set Design: Haibo Illés

Choreography: Sára Korom

Lighting: Ákos “Papa” Lengyel

Production Manager: Magnum Produkció

Assistant: Veronika Vajdai

Dramaturgy: Lilla Szauer

Director: Sára Sahin-Tóth

Special thanks to: Sára Holczer