Színház a Város

•

During the lockdown of 2020 theatres had to close – and theatregoers have never fully returned ever since. Jurányi, Hungary’s most progressive theatre, found that online streaming just didn’t do the trick, so they needed a new solution to sell more tickets.

To help them out in this situation, we invented a brand-new kind of performance that is both safe for the viewers and feasible for the theatre under the circumstances. We proved Shakespeare right ("All the world's a stage") and turned the whole city of Budapest into a stage.

We chose 20 locations throughout the city and - with the help of famous Hungarian writers - created 15-minute theatre plays based on what’s happening at that place. Then, we recorded the performances in audio form (directed and performed by the Jurányi company), which you can listen to on the spot on your own device.

You are looking at the naturally occurring action of the city, while the story unfolds in your headphones. You can hear the thoughts of inanimate objects such as sculptures, buildings and subways, or dialogues of the animals and people living around the city.

We named this project Színház a város (also known as "Theatre to Go") which literally means "The city's a theatre" in hungarian. It became a permanent program of Jurányi, with new plays created every 2 months.