‘Hungarian Acacia’

The false-acacia tree, considered by many Hungarians as their national tree, arrived from North America 300 years ago. The tree is the subject of debate: numerous environmentalists are critical because it is a very invasive species and the toxicity of its seeds and wood have made it unpopular, even though thousands of people live off its cultivation for the honey industry. After the European Union came up with legislation to prevent its expansion, Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian nationalist party took this tree as a symbol for its fight against what it refers to as “Brussels the interferer”.

Going against this downward trend, Kristóf Kelemen and Bence György Pálinkás have, in turn, looked to the tree as a symbol for an open Hungarian society within which anyone who puts down roots in Hungary can say that they are Hungarian. In this show, the actors mix different mediums, perform music, declaim political discourses and present their plans for the future with a large serving of offbeat humour. They highlight the spirit of lightness and freedom represented by the false-acacia tree, when faced with a political power that in recent years has been constantly working on the revival of authoritarianism.

“To understand the performance, one doesn't need any special botanical knowledge; the production doesn’t take sides in ecological questions either. But it does point out clearly how various ideologies that use scientific facts in their arguments (taken out of context) exploit the black locust tree in order to prove their views or justify their own personal interests.”
Kitti Gosztola, Artmagazin

“The genre of the performance is balanced between the labour movement’s choral speaking, educational slam poetry, and multimedia performance.”
Sisso Artner, szinhaz.net

“…Hungarian Acacia, the most cunning, wittiest, most poetic and trenchantly political production of the 4th edition of dunaPart.”
Esther Slevogt, nachtkritik.de