FRISSON

Frisson is based on the dancers’ shadow-play, projected on a square-shaped platform on stage. The fantastic journey in the realm of shadows is obviously a symbol: the search for the deepest layers of man and their unconscious contents, to extend limits and to find some final truth, some kind of pure reality, the most desired goal of mankind.

The shadows on the platform attract our attention. Not only the spectators, but also the dancers are trapped by their own silhouettes coming to life. They are moving together, trying to touch or possess them. However, the tempting or sometimes fearsome phantoms flying by within reach finally prove to be unreachable.

In the western civilization, people are afraid of their phantoms and want to defeat them. In the Japanese culture however, which has had a deep influence on Frenák’s art, facing the inner self is a virtue. In this new creation, Frenák tries to remind us that shadows are stronger than the physical body, because they cannot be touched by fate, and since we are unable to control this world of shadows, it is best to accept it and dissolve in it.

Recommended for ages 16+

[Frisson] can be characterised by sharp movements, the total destitution of the body and grotesque dismay. It is hard, metal-like and shameless.

Adam Mestyan

Magyar Narancs

The best scenes in Apocalypse-Frisson are those featuring a male-female couple. Having studied girls and boys and separately, Frenák has unleashed the representatives of the two sexes on each other. (...) The most dreaded horrors vary from individual to individual. Some tremble because of this, some because of other reason. There are of course numerous iconic apocalyptic horrors, which are brilliantly complemented by idiosyncratic symbols of dread. We could count among these human relationships that have become hell.

Csaba Kutszegi

Szinhaz

Pál Frenák is a daring, still hiding artist. (...) His artistic performance could become so enormously popular in a basically prudent society inclinable to hypocrisy. The pieces of Frenák are stories of suffering. The bodies twitching from pain, the exaggerated nudity, the provocative temptation and the system of relationships among figures treating each other in a cruel and cold way are quite familiar. It is good to see the dancers working with fantastic talent and the simple, still elaborate stage highlighting dance itself in quite an exciting way.

Masok