How did someone become a leading actress in Hungary in the 1870s, at the turn of the century and on the eve of the second world war? What family background, what inspiration moved them, what education helped them? What studies did they pursue, who encouraged them? Who were their lovers, colleagues, friends, women friends? What relationships did they develop with their managers, the leading figures of artistic life, the critics and the press? How did they appear off stage? They created fashions, customs, hairstyles. Recipes were named after them, they bought cars, caused road accidents, sometimes got involved in politics and were compelled into exile at home or abroad.
The aim of the exhibition is to track down and introduce these personalities. Three significant Hungarian actresses form the centre of the exhibition: Mari Jászai, Sári Fedák and Katalin Karády. It is not only a struggle for written theatre history to reconstruct theatrical performances, it is also incapable of recording the details outlined above. It does not take note of these, believing it is not its role, but it would be difficult to record this process in purely written form. Thus the exhibition and the programmes accompanying it serve to introduce new methodology and propose ideas for further research.
Mari Jászai, the tragedienne
(Born Ászár, February 24, 1850 - died Budapest, October 5,1926.)
Ran away from home in 1866 to become an actress. Under contract first in Kolozsvár (Cluj), then from 1872 at the National Theatre in Budapest. With her outstanding performances, she contributed to what was referred to as the "golden age" of the National Theatre. At a guest appearance in Vienna in 1892, it was she who met with the greatest success. Meanwhile she taught drama at the Theatre Academy. She performed her roles in the great Greek tragedies and the works of Shakespeare, Racine and Grillparzer with her romantic, heart-rending style and filled them with vitality. Playing Ibsen's women characters was also an exciting project for her. She studied history and art history in the smallest detail for her tragic roles.
Her main publications: My Mirror (Budapest, 1909); Actor and audience (Budapest 1918); The memoirs of Mari Jászai. Edited by István Lehel (Budapest 1927); The writings of Mari Jászai. Recollections. Diaries. Essays. Selected and introduced by Ferenc Debreczeni (Budapest 1955); Mirror games. Selected writings, letters. Edited by Monika Balatoni (Budapest 2002).
Sári Fedák, the primadonna
(Born Beregszász, October 26, 1879 - Died Budapest, May 25, 1955)
She made her name in the title role of János the Brave, following which she became the leading star in the Budapest theatre. She performed in the following theatres: the Népszínház, the Király Színház, the Víg Színház, the Magyar Színház and the Új Magyar and also abroad. At the time of the Republic of Councils, she enthusiastically enlisted in the Red Army, and was therefore forced to emigrate to Vienna. She was a guest player several times for Hungarian immigrant audiences in the United States. Between 1922-1925, she was married to Ferenc Molnár. In 1944, she became an announcer on the Donausender Radio in Vienna, which encouraged the continuation of the war. She was condemned for this by the People's Court in 1945. After eight months in prison, she retired to Nyáregyháza.
She published her memoirs Along the Way in 1928.
Katalin Karády, the diva
(Born Budapest, December 10, 1910 - died New York, February 8,1990)
Started studying acting in 1936 and assumed the name Karády. Her first role on the stage was in The Woman and the Devil by Somerset Maugham and Zoe Atkins at the Pesti Theatre in 1939. Lajos Zilahy discovered her as a film actress. Between 1939-1948 she starred in twenty feature films and three short films. In the autumn of 1944, she was arrested by the Gestapo on charges of espionage. And after 1945, she was placed under police surveillance. She left the country in 1949. She lived first in Brazil and then moved to the USA.. Apart from a few performances and occasional recordings, she did not accept any parts - she ran a milliner's shop in New York. From 1949, her films were banned in Hungary. But she retained her popularity at home even in her absence: her record published in 1979 was snapped up within days. She died before she could fulfil her plan to appear on stage again in Budapest after 1989.
Her autobiography How I became an actress, appeared in Budapest in 1989.
The larger thematic units of the exhibition fall in line with the similar turning points in the careers of the three actresses. These moments not only draw our attention to the parallels in their lives and the behaviour patterns and attitudes generally associated with actresses, but also give a many-layered cultural historical view. Due to their contacts with personalities in art, music and literary life, they often appear, along with aspiring politicians and patrons of the arts of the period, with the social butterflies who liked to be seen mingling in social life.
The variety of the exhibition is also due to the locations: apart from the sights of Budapest and provincial Hungarian towns, the silhouettes of Vienna, Berlin and New York also emerge. The locations of their private lives are also diverse: bathroom, kitchen, boudoir, beach etc.
The exhibition also follows closely the actresses' work in the theatre: it shows rehearsals, partners, playwrights and directors, the technical functioning of the theatre, the audience and the fans. It is not just gifts from the public, the ceremonial banquets for premieres, the bohemians in theatre companies that are interesting, but also the way the actresses cultivated their relationship with the public: autographs, signed postcards and a few lines written in souvenir albums, all give a glimpse of this process.
Tamás Gajdó