Movement songs from the 50s and pop songs from the 2010s, as well as newspaper articles and texts of open calls for government-run grants provide the rich material this choir theatre performance utilises. Absurd food for thought.

"Now song is a ringing weapon."
“Because sport can reinforce political achievements and compensate for lack of achievement.”
“Because sport is connected to the democratic re-education of youth.”
“Now the only question is, are we dreaming or are we awake? The question still remaining is, can this really be?”*

Makris Agamemnon’s statue, Singing Youth was erected at the passage leading to the People’s Stadium in 1953 and it has been standing there until this day along with other statues, surviving the regime change, when many artworks made in the socialist era were removed from public space. The stadium was torn down and a new one, the Puskás Arena was built, re-using crushed concrete from its predecessor. Singing Youth, double life-size aluminium figures of two girls and a boy with a flute, bear witness to the last 70 years of Hungarian history full of turbulent times, during which music and culture in general remained important in young people’s lives and was a key tool for politicians to communicate or promote their ideas, ideologies.

*/Fragment of an agitational song /”Even Small Children Know” Studies about the creation of the ideological and cultural base of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Áron Máthé (editor)  /Balázs Rigó, Full-court attack, 2017 / /Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Băile Tușnad (Tusnádfürdő), 2019
 

Written and directed by Judit Böröcz, György Bence Pálinkás, Máté Szigeti

Music by Máté Szigeti

Choir director: Péter Fehérváry

Choreographer: Zsófia Tamara Vadas

Vocalists: Benjamin Bozi, Péter Fehérváry, György Juhász, Maxim Jurin , Katalin Mezei, Eszter Sokhegyi

Light technician: Balázs Szabon

Video: Sári Ember

Photo: Sári Ember, Dániel Pék, Zsófia Sivák

Documentation: László Dinea, András Szőnyi

English translation: Anna Bentley

Production: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts

Supporters: Budapest Főváros Önkormányzata, Staféta, Nemzeti Kulturális Alap, FÜGE Produkció, Jurányi Produkciós Közösségi Inkubátorház
 

The production was realized in the framework of the Staféta program, announced and supported by the Municipality of Budapest.

The performance is created in the framework of the Liberty international partnership with the support of the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.