Yellow Rose is a novel written in 1892 by Mór Jókai, in which the author goes into great detail regarding the nature and customs of the Hortobágy with the meticulousness of an ethnologist. In the dance performance, the choreographer-director Árpád Könczei and the Maros Dance Ensemble worked on the dramatic plot of this puszta-inspired novel.
The love triangle between the two childhood friends, Sándor Decsi and Ferkó Lacza, and Sándor's love, Klári, is a familiar theme in literature. But it will be quite unique when the temperament and values prevailing in the Hortobágy begin to control the conflict.
Jókai endows his characters with almost nature-like qualities: Sándor is passionate and decisive, similar to horses; Ferkó is cautious, disciplined like a bull; Klári is singular and peculiar, like a yellow rose.
The fundamental atmosphere of the performance is determined by the silence of pastoral solitude, the tensions built up in the shepherd and the words expressed with weight grown out of silence as well as the character-shaping relationship between man and the nature around him. The creators of the performance were inspired precisely by these symbolic topoi, reminiscent of Greek dramas. Thus, the performance of the Yellow Rose is like a permanent undulation of these ancient stories, symbols and forces. And what could be a better carrier of this undulation than the folk songs, folk dances and folk costumes of the Hortobágy? The threads of the tragic love story are unravelling before our eyes, and everything is resolved in its own way – as we know it from our own lives.
Dramaturgy – Kata Györfi
Music compilation – Árpád Könczei
Costume design – Margit Soós, Zsuzsa Szász, Andrea Szélyes
Dance Instructor – Tamás Majer
Dance instructor, assistant director-Villő Könczei
Set design – Csilla Csiszér
Director-choreographer – Árpád Könczei,
The Haragozó Award-winning leaders of the dance ensemble – Szabolcs-Zoltán Kovács, Magda Kásler
Band leader – István Moldován Horvath,
Director – Attila Csaba Barabási
Duration of the performance: ~ 1 hour (performed in a single act)