Réka Szabó and The Symptoms present:

Croak

Community Performance

with Twelve People Who Have Lost Their Vocations, and a Bird

Screening with English subtitles

We premiered our special performance, Croak two years ago, and we performed it three times for a full house at the Jurányi Art Incubator House each time. Many people didn’t get to see it, and they’ve been hoping to do so ever since. Unfortunately, we are unable to perform the piece again for several reasons but the troup composed of civilians has kept together since and we are now jointly organizing a screening of the recording of the performance because the English subtitles are finally ready, and because the subject matter is more relevant than ever now.

After the hour and a half long screening we invite you to join the performers and creators for a moderated conversation involving the audience, for which we won’t be able to provide translation unfortunately.

Topics: vocation, loss, courage, pain, struggle, shame, loneliness, betrayal, passing, restarting, and anything else of interest to you.

Time: April 23, 2026 at 6.30 pm

Location: MU Theater

Tickets: HUF 2000 Ft, Supporter tickets: HUF 5000

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7rD3xuKWf4&t=7s

For more information: https://thesymptoms.hu/darab/kar-koezoessegi-szinhazi-eloadas-tizenket-hivatasat-veszto-emberrel-es-a-madarral

About the performance:
Croak. It’s a shame I could not say what I meant to say. What I should have said. To those concerned.
Croak. It’s a shame that I let it go on. That I believed there was a limit. Nevermore. Quoth the Raven.
Croak. It’s a shame that my fury is eating me alive on the inside. That it wasted me. If you look at me now, you will not believe what I could do once. Perhaps I no longer come off as someone worth fighting for.
Croak. It’s a shame that I believed everything was questionable. That I had no choice.
Croak. It’s a shame that there was no more of me. Always alone, so miserably.
Croak. It’s a shame that I, too, betrayed us all. Don’t give me that look. There is no right decision to make.
Croak! It’s a shame to regret.
Croak! Croak! Croak! — quoth the Big Black Bird perched on a small, bald Hungarian tree.
Yet it would be a shame to leave it that. Not to hang together tight, not to sing, scream, or dance, not to own up to what I have become.
For who am I if I cannot do what keeps me alive? I will no longer teach my people, one and all, / much greater things than what you call /college / knowledge…[1]
And this NEVERMORE, this shame, this damage is a loss beyond words.

The project entitled The Bird Experience, sponsored by the Creative Europe Program, brought together a contemporary dance troupe from five European countries who worked as a team in their own ways as they tackled the theme of loss, involving various civil groups and a big black bird.

In Hungary, Réka Szabó and her creative team worked with a closed drama group featuring twelve determined civilian adults from various walks of life. They were all individuals who have lost, or were in the process of losing, the ability to honor their vocations, which had been at the core of their identities.

In this community performance, we joined forces with civilians and the Big Black Bird to initiate a dialog on how to articulate loss, the awareness of anguish, the experience of how we feel. We offer confessions of power, pain, courage, loneliness, struggle, shame, and betrayal—in text, voice, and movement.

The show provides a glimpse into performances staged simultaneously in real time in four other countries. The participants were: NextDoor Project of Copenhagen (DK); The Symptoms/Szünet Együttes of Budapest (HU); Northern Sustainable Futures of Moskosel (SE), Zita Dance company of Athens (GR), and Asociación Companiá Danza Vinculados of Grenada (E).

Director: Réka Szabó
Actors and creative contributors: Tímea Andorka, Katalin Balpataki, Márta Barbarics, Zsuzsanna Bereczky, Ági Blaskó, Piroska Clease, György Cseh, Kata Kiss, Krisztina Losits, Andrea Pászthy-Sipos, Andrea Simon, Lilla Szűcs
Featuring Balázs Oláh, dancer
Dramaturgy: Zsuzsanna Simányi
Creative collaborators: Lili Raubinek, Viktória Dányi
Light: Miklós Mervel
Music: Ábris Gryllus: Parent I, Parent II, Post_2, Post_3, A.D. I,
            Ahad aka Zsolt Sőrés: Astro-Noetic Chiasm χ (részlet)
            Henriette Groth: VingeBeat
Costume consultant: Zubor Kata
Video – camerman and editor: Benedek Bognár
English translation: Andrea Csanádi
The bird was made by: Anette Asp Christensen
Consultant: Kinga Kánya
Stream: Tamás Pilipowski, Tamás Dunajcsik
Special thanks: Máté Czakó, Tímea Andorka, Platinum Grafikai Laboratórium, Workshop Foundation
Sponsor: Creative Europe Program