Citing a map and an amphitheater, the work of István Böjte Horváth presents the cohesion of theater centers across the border and playgrounds within the border following the Trianon decision, the National Theater writes in a statement.

There is also a virtual exhibition attached to the monument, which can be accessed from the statue itself using a QR code. The documentary compilation of the National Museum and Institute of Theater History presents the large theater centers of the detached areas, the permanent and temporary playgrounds, especially those that took place between 1918 and 1920.

Forty-four of the seventy regular Hungarian-language theaters and six of the ten major theater centers have moved across national borders as a result of the Trianon decision, the statement said. If we take into account the temporary theaters, these figures are also a good indication of the blow to the cultural life and theatrical culture in the Hungarian language in 1920.

The work of sculptor István Horváth Böjte will be staged in front of the National Theater in Hajóorr (Photo: National Theater)

According to the article Our Kidnapped Theaters published in the Yearbook of Theater Life published in 1921, before the war there were ten Hungarian cities to which the National Actors' Association and the Minister of Culture granted first-class theater licenses, including Kolozsvár, Arad, Temesvár, Pozsony and Kassa. Their theaters were transferred to the territory of the successor states. "However, all this meant not only the loss of the buildings, the population of the cross-border areas was deprived of acting in the Hungarian language" the theater emphasizes. He also points out that the authorities of Romania, Czechoslovakia, Serbia and Croatia have prevented the operation of Hungarian companies, sometimes with words of power and even with force. In the second largest center of Hungarian theatrical life after Budapest, in Kolozsvár, for example, the company was removed by military violence on 1 October, 1919.

"Although much has changed in the more than a hundred years since the events, it is important to remember the series of events that marked the greatest trauma of Hungarian culture, including Hungarian-language acting, in the 20th century," they added. that this dramatic moment is captured by the monument created by István Böjte Horváth, initiated by Attila Vidnyánszky, the director of the theater, which will be inaugurated on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Hajóorr in front of the National Theater.

Historian Áron Máthé, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Remembrance, sculptor István Böjte Horváth and actor József Szarvas will give a speech at the inauguration of the monument. The folk dancers István Berecz and Nóra Kovács-Gál, Mihály Rosonczy-Kovács and his orchestra, as well as Péter Herczegh, the actor of the National Theater, will participate.

Source: National Theater

Cover photo: The monument, quoting a map and an amphitheater, shows the theater centers and playgrounds that crossed the border following the Trianon decision (Photo: National Theater)