The symptomes: The meaning of life

Do you really think I’m going to tell you in the first sentence? How about a little effort? Isn’t this the point of it all? To focuse intensely on something, betting your life on it, doing it a hundred times and over again, to achieve a goal that has lost all significance? Interrogator: Snooze. Respondent: Sisyphos. Then they change parts. What does it mean to usefully spend the time that is passing right now, even during the time it takes me to say “right now?” Is it possible to formulate any answers to this question? And if it is, will these answers not cancel out one another? The structure and the special technical environment of the performance reflect the coercion to choose between alternatives that permeate life: Only the keen focus of the audience as it zooms in on a selected detail can make sense of the chaos whirling between the beginning and the end. In theater, as in everyday life, you will miss everything if you want it all. The fabric of the whole is made up of personal confessions by the actors, from which each member of the audience may in turn “create” his or her own version of the performance. The piece was inspired by Bill Viola’s video work Nantes Triptych. At the 2010 Dance Festival in the city of Veszprém, the piece won the award for Most Daring Concept. "This latest work from The Symptoms is characterized by a sense of unity and evenness rarely encountered today. While thematically it is about fragmentation, it is all varnished over by a crystalline purity of form, without a single idle moment. The basic concept is brilliant, and the execution both refreshingly playful and deeply fascinating." (Miklós Gergely Nagy, Revizor Online) Directed by: Réka Szabó Text, dramaturgy: Krisztián Peer Performers & co-creators: Gergely Bánki, Dóra Furulyás/Júlia Hadi, Rita Góbi, István Gőz, Hunor G. Szabó, Albert Márkos, Márta Szabó, Réka Szabó, Dániel Szász, Zsófia Tamara Vadas Music: Albert Márkos, Hunor G. Szabó Lights and space: Attila Szirtes Sound: Zsolt Korai Special thanks: Dóra Furulyás, Tímea Oláh Supported by: Balassi Institute, Florian Workshop – Moving House Fundation, Association for Hungarian Alternative and Independent Theatres, L1 Independent Dancers’ Partnership, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Ministry of Education and Culture of Hungary