A DRAMATURGIA ÉS A RENDEZÉS KÉRDÉSEI A KULCSKERESÕK SZOLNOKI ÕSBEMUTATÓJÁBAN.

Fifty years ago, István Örkény’s Kulcskeresõk (Key Seekers), an atypical allegory embedded in a farce, took shape with the effective assistance of Gábor Székely, chief director and manager of the Szigligeti Theatre in Szolnok. However, it did not reach its final form, as the author revised the play again after its world premiere. Before the reading rehearsal in Szolnok, six or seven versions of the play were prepared. Székely believed that “Örkény could express great things in the second act”, but “the first act was more of a separate play than a preparation for the next one”. As a result, the director requested multiple modifications from the author. The version of the text, reshaped several times by Örkény and staged in Szolnok, was published in the December 1975 issue of the journal Korunk. However, before the play’s next premiere at the National Theatre in Budapest in January 1977, Örkény revised the first act 126 again, still dissatisfied with its beginning. (Nonetheless, in the three-volume collection of his plays published in 1982, the version staged at the Szigligeti Theatre was included.) My study examines the dramaturgical and staging characteristics of the 1975 Szolnok production, highlighting the differing approaches of contemporary reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]