KLAUDIA GARDENÖ
PROJECTS
THE TRAVELS OF K
November 5, 2022 @ VÍGSZÍNHÁZ - MU SZÍNHÁZ, Budapest
DIRECTOR
A contemporary dramatic poem, written by Attila Komán. Our aim was to create a show which is relatable to the youth, and serves a social purpose too.
The play has 3 parts. The main Character is Kokó (Coke) who has a stand-up comedian's personality. Throughout the show we follow his journey. At the beginning he is a brick of 1211 kg cocaine originating from South America. They put him on a ship there, so he could wander the whole world, but he gets in trouble near the Azores. He suffers a shipwreck and a fisherman finds him. After we see the rise and fall of a family, he gets to Europe. Firstly to Budapest, where he becomes the third wheel in a relationship, then because of unfortunate events, his last portion - 2 grams by this time - gets to Romania. In an illegal house party with young people on the way to tragedy, he runs out, and stops existing.
HERE WE WERE!
May 31, 2022 @ RADNÓTI SZÍNHÁZ, Budapest
DIRECTOR / CO - WRITER
A site specific performance created with a participatory theatre approach, performed and co-created by a group of non-professional adults.
Our research centred around Klauzál Square, which is in the middle of the city. In the past it was outside the city walls, so all the different nationalities had to live here. They created a colourful cultural district. Decades later, the square and the district became part of the ghetto, and it was used as a mass cemetery. During the revolution in ‘56 it was used again as a cemetery.
There is a playground here today, a few broken benches, a sports-field made of concrete, and a dog park. It is a meeting point of different worlds. There is no memorial here of the square’s rich past. Therefore with the group we started collecting different stories from the past, we also wrote our own stories. We also became part of the square’s timelapse.
STEWIE IN THE BLOODRAIN
April 22, 2022 @ AURÓRA, Budapest
DIRECTOR / CO - SCRIPTWRITER
An adaptation of István Örkény's grotesque play.
“Will there be a war or not?” Is it possible to exist or not?
The maddening cycle, with constant compromises and pushed transformations, which we call history, can’t stop. The panic, the anxiety, and the need for peace, drives the characters of Stewie in the Bloodrain. Stewie’s reality is slippery and he has a shattered identity. He has different personalities, which react in different ways in unfortunate, controversial historical times. No matter how hard he tries, he constantly ends up dying. That is the part of the cycle. At the beginning he believes in new thoughts, in new ideas, in change. By the end he gets burned out by the constant repetition no matter whether he tries to be good or bad.
One of his character's philosophies: Being two people, that’s the real freedom! Stewie is two, four, and ten million people at the same time. He has a past, a present, maybe a future, lovers, a profession, but he has no surname.
AMBIVALENT HUNGARIAN FREEDOM
March 15, 2022 @ Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest
DIRECTOR / CO - WRITER
We created an individual, interactive walking performance to explore our controversial relationship to Hungarian freedom. There were 6 places in the city which the spectator had to find, following the instructions given by our app.
To each of the destinations we connected specific material. For example: political speeches narrated by a female actress - showing similarities in rhetoric no matter the time and party; we created a VR experience for smartphones - showing the participant a collage of the brutal and changing past of one of the most frequented squares of the city. The participants were invited to get involved in the event by solving a task at each of the stops.
Our aim with the 2 hour long walk was to give a glimpse of how radical our past is. No matter the political side, we have had enough of both left and right radicalism.
TIMELINE
May 1, 2021 @ TRAFÓ HOUSE, Budapest
DIRECTOR
The city itself seems like a mausoleum of the past at the moment. We walk by places which used to be the centre of our social lives, we walk by benches where we made important decisions, but there is no one there anymore.
Our audience consists of 8 people. These 8 viewers are walking around the city to specific places led by the instructions coming from their headsets. We were trying to create documentation of our presence, of an apocalyptic city when we can’t go to concerts, theaters. But, what if we make the city a constructed theatre space? There will be a few scenes, where we don’t know anymore what is “staged”, or what is real life. Whether the accordion player on the tram, playing a famous hungarian song about time passing away, is constructed or not.
AD ABSURDUM
February 15, 2021 @ TRIP HAJÓ, Budapest
DIRECTOR
A multimedial apocalyptic show based on the texts of Danyiil Harmsz, a Russian absurdist. All the characters are taking part in a contest to win the prize of the saddest, most absurd, most pathetic life; accompanied by a band playing Mingus. Behind the glittering show, there's a rotting reality.
THE CASE OF MIHAELA
May 26, 2020 @ ZOOM
DIRECTOR / CO - SCRIPTWRITER
The Case of Mihaela is an interactive ZOOM adaptation of Gianina Carbunariu's Mihaela, the Tiger of Our Town. We created an online, live TV news channel to be able to model the fake news mechanisms used on social media, by replicating their own tools. Chat, fake names, radicalism. At the end, one of the reporters rebels and goes to the “less radical’’ news channel (a breakout room). The audience can then switch between the channels, and check if one really is better than the other...
HOW ARE EMPERORS BORN?
February 27, 2020 @ ODRY THEATER, Budapest
DIRECTOR
An adaptation of Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. My aim was to create a metaphorical system in an empty space which is able to represent the humor and brutality of the play. The live band made the form even more organic and satiric.
PUNCH & JUDY
December 20, 2019 @ ODRY THEATER, Budapest
DIRECTOR / CO - SCRIPTWRITER
The play is based on a traditional puppet show, working with the most archetypical forms of aggressive behaviour. I wanted to break the tradition with some irony and new forms.
MISERABLE WOMEN
October 19, 2019 @ JURÁNYI HÁZ, Budapest
CO - DIRECTOR / MUSICAL DRAMATURG
My class was working on The Hungarian University of Fine Arts student's BA diploma project. Our performance was based on the life of 6 martyr women, each of us directed one story. The etudes were bound together by a chamber orchestra playing Hildegard von Bingen pieces.
SMASH-UP / A DOCUMENTARY ROCK PERFORMANCE WITH RAMY ESSAM & SIHAM SHURAFA.
March 10, 2016 @ TEATER FORATT, Malmö
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / CO - WRITER
As the result of a long experimental process we got a personal show based on two people's life and identity, framed by Egyptian revolutionary rock music..
What does it mean to be an Egyptian Rockstar revolutionist in Sweden (Ramy)? What does it mean to be Swedish with no actual Swedish roots (Siham)?
THE DEAD SOUL
October 24, 2018 @ THALIA THEATER, Košice
COMPOSER / MUSICIAN
A woman’s story from WWII. She receives reports of her husband’s death, but when the husband turns out to be alive, she cannot return to her life as a non-independent wife.
I wrote the arrangements for double bass and cimbalom to get a sound which is authentic and can represent the era, whilst retaining minimalism.
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
September 16, 2016 @ JOKAI THEATER, Komárno
PERFORMER / COMPOSER
I played the role of Letta, but in this case the biggest challenge for me was to compose and also perform. I’ve had experiences as a musician before, but this was the first time I had to write music based on a specific dramaturgy.
CHICKENHEAD
January 9, 2015 @ JOKAI THEATER, Komárno
ACTRESS
My career in theatre started with the role of Bakfis (Subdeb). Here I learnt what it takes to be passionate and less inhibited in theater.
The play is about how social class is leaving families predestined, and people without a choice.
UNTITLED
May, 2016 @ HKU, Utrecht
We collected specific memories of our lifes and made interviews with each other as a part of Zsofia Hajdu's exam work at the MA Scenography Department. Our video was originally presented in a theater space behind the seats, projected on the wall with a crack in the middle.
WHO AM I?
Well...
I was born in Sweden, and spent some of my childhood there but I primarily grew up in a village in Slovakia. I studied Theatre and Puppetry Directing at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, Hungary for 4 years. After minor structural and political changes of the university, I switched school and received my degree at Accademia Dimitri in Switzerland. Prior to this I studied vocals and contrabass, specialising in jazz at the Conservatory in Vác and Swedish Language and Literature at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
My main interest in theater is considering how to use different genres and elements to create one metaphorical theatrical language, not based mainly in words.
