Milán Füst / Poetry Recitals at Müpa Budapest

19 September 2019, Thursday
8 pm — 10 pm

Milán Füst was one of the most multi-faceted Hungarian writers of the 20th century. His poetry and novels, particularly The Story of My Wife, have gained a prominent place in modern Hungarian literature, as have his plays Boldogtalanok and Negyedik Henrik király. His language and voice are distinctive and disquieting. The poets of times past permeate the background of his poetry, where a tragic pathos is counterbalanced by irony, even by a kind of transcendent humour. Füst examines finite human existence in both the context of time and the futility of the infinite, while examining this infinite nature in relation to the human floundering, ceaseless activity and complications in the face of death.
'His work is told in a direct style in the first person, with laments, weaving turns of phrase, reflections and prayers, always addressed to himself, or another though always present person. Even in his descriptive poems, we feel that he is speaking to a person who is present as he expresses his visions, which are always poetical in the true meaning of the word,” wrote Füst's friend Zoltán Nagy about his poetry in Nyugat in 1914. And truly, not just Milán Füst's poems, but also his prose work can read much like the performance of an intimate theatrical monologue. Full of ambiguity and enigma, representing the driving force between emotion and intelligence. A passionate voice, the kind of spoken voice that sees through the irrationality of the world and all of the folly of passion. That sees through the weakness and relativity of every insight. All this resigned fragility eventually develops into power, as the absurd flow of life elevates man to a higher position, seeing and being seen in the comic side of human tragedy.
During the evening, a selection of the verse and prose of Milán Füst will be performed by the artists of the Katona József Theatre. Wonders just waiting to be discovered from the studio of a great writer.

The production's cooperating partner is the Katona József Theatre.

Featuring:
piano    Ferenc Darvas
artists of the Katona József Theatre

Creators:
director   Gábor Máté
programme compiled by    Gábor Schein
series compiled by    Tibor Keresztury