Bitef

theatre was founded in 1947. It was nationalized in 1949, the name being changed to State Puppet Theatre. Being unable to continue non existent traditions, it created its own, laying down the social and artistic foundations, familiarizing Budapest with puppet plays, it had for so long done without. In 1958 it was transformed into a nationwide institution, with the task of regularity touring the country. It gradually grew in size, and so did its operations, that is the number of performances grew as well. 1.400 — 1.600 performances a year, seen by close to half a million adults and children, are an evidence of its popularity. There are three to five new productions a year; eight ensembles perform a repertoire of 28. .30 pieces, in their bulk tales and modern and classic works for childi-en and young people. In high season six to eight performances are given daily in Budapest, provincial towns, and villages. Shows on tour are regularity seen in three hundred Hungarian towns and villages. After years of planning and reconstruction the HQ of the State Puppet Theatre opened its doors in 1976. The multi-winged six and eight floor building is the largest puppet theatre in the whole of Central Europe. Modern equipment and a large stage permit the production of all kinds of theatrical and puppet performances. At its Budapest HQ the theatre puts on performances for adult audiences as well. At first these were largely of the revue and cabaret type, starting with the early 'sixties however a break-through was effected, and the conventional limits of puppetry were transcended by the staging of classics of international drama and music, the ice being broken by Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was soon followed by puppet performances of Bartok' s Wooden Prince and Stravinsky's Petroushka. An experimental programme included avante-garde scenes and one-acters, musical grotesques and pantomimes by Beckett, Mrozek and van Itallie, to be followed by Durrenmantt's comedy An Angel touched down in Babylon, and Zoltdn Koddly's Harp Janos, the latter in a special production designed to present Hungarian folk-art and peasant ornamentation as well. Later works for grown-ups were also based on musical works. They included Bartók's The Miraculous mandarin and Suite for dancing. The seven cardinal sins of the petit-bourgeoisie by Brecht and Weill, Britten's Prince of the pagodas, Stravinsky's A soldier’s tale, Prokopiev's Classical symphony, Ravel's La valse, and Mozart's Les petits riens. All these were hammered into genuine puppet plays in the creative workshop of the Puppet Theatre. A modern formal idiom reformulated the original works in terms of vision and movement. The Puppet Theatre's music pantomimes aroused interest beyond the country's borders as well. In the course fo the past ten odd years the theatre, taking programmes for adults, has often toured abroad, participating in international theatrical and music festivals. It often appeared in France (in Paris, Caen, Avignon, Reims.) and also Great Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Sweden Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Poland, and outside Europe, in Egypt, Cuba and India.