It’s indeed touching when life delights us with coincidences like the April performance of IMITATION OF LIFE! Since premiering it at Trafó on 27 April 2016, we have presented it in front of audiences in Austria, Germany, France, Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Greece, the Czech Republic, Italy, Bosnia, Finland, Spain – and of course Hungary. This year on 27 April, exactly seven years after the premiere, we return to Trafó to celebrate our 100th performance!

The month after the world premiere in Hungary, IMITATION OF LIFE received its international premiere at the Wiener Festwochen in May 2016. That same year saw the production touring to Oberhausen, Wiesbaden, Dresden, Berlin and Lille. In 2017, Kornél Mundruczó was nominated for the Faust Prize for his outstanding directorial work on the play. This was the first time in the history of the award that a production by a non-German theatre company – in this case an independent Hungarian one – was nominated. In 2018, our 50th performance was held in Paris at the beginning of the year, and a year later, the 75th performance of the highly successful production was presented to Italian audiences in Bologna.

The production’s march was interrupted by the Coronavirus: not only were we forced to cancel dates in Hungary, but also guest performances abroad. As a result, our appearance at the Tampere Theatre Festival in Finland could only take place virtually. The first tour after the epidemic took us to Turin, with all the associated airport anxiety and mask-wearing requirements included... Although the effects of the epidemic are still being felt today, the 2010s were not washed away by COVID: KULTer.hu has selected IMITATION OF LIFE as one of the ten most memorable independent theatre productions of the decade, while the Book Magazine’s list, no longer treating independent companies as a separate category, has included our piece among the most important theatrical stagings of the decade.

2022 brought events that are perhaps even graver and more far-reaching than the pandemic: the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine, threatening and forever changing the lives of millions of civilians, constantly weighs on our hearts. The propaganda about the war, the elections in our country, and the continuous destruction of cultural life all directly affect how our theatre functions. We are glad that we can at least still perform and, even if with a heavy heart, we want to be happy: if for no other reason than the fact that we have reached the 100th performance of IMITATION OF LIFE, despite the headwinds. Come share our joy and celebrate with us!

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