26 October 2025 19:00
Csokonai Fórum, Kóti Árpád Stage
The Yellow Rose is a pastoral novel written by Mór Jókai in 1892, in which he describes the natural world and customs of the Hortobágy with almost ethnographic precision. In this dance performance, choreographer-director Árpád Könczei, together with the Maros Ensemble, has adapted the dramatic story of this novel inspired by peasant life.
The love triangle between two childhood friends, Sándor Decsi and Ferkó Lacza, and Sándor’s beloved, Klári, may be considered well-known in literature. What makes it special here is how the temperament and values of the Hortobágy begin to steer the conflict. Jókai gives his characters almost elemental qualities: Sándor is passionate and determined, like the horses; Ferkó is cautious and disciplined, like the bull; Klári is rare and unusual, like the yellow rose.
The atmosphere of the performance is shaped by the silences of pastoral solitude, the tensions raging within the shepherd-man, the heavy words wrested from silence, and the character-forming relationship between human beings and the surrounding nature. These symbolic motifs, reminiscent of Greek tragedies, were precisely what inspired the creators of the performance. Thus, The Yellow Rose unfolds as the ebb and flow of these ancient stories, meanings, and forces. And what better vessel could carry this ebb and flow than the folk songs, dances, and costumes of the Hortobágy? Before our eyes, the threads of the love tragedy unravel, and everything resolves in its own natural order – just as we know it in life.
Director-Choreographer: Árpád Könczei
