We kindly and odiously invite you to our first or last candle-lit dinner. Such a grandiose occasion is a rarity indeed, so this won’t be one either. But let’s just give it some style! You are asked to dress formally, elegantly, as you would come to a wedding or a funeral. The menu is taken care of by the dwarfs, Mummy and Daddy will make sure about the high family spirits, Pope’s Nose will bring you the sacred altar-bread. Donna Cobra and Donna Molotov will hopefully find the love of their lives. And after all this if you would still feel like dancing then let it be.

Candel-lit Dinner is a theatre performance that is the closest to the world of cabaret and immersive theatre events. The viewers sit around a table and have dinner thus becoming participants of a surreal, absurd gathering. The event is hosted by two figures who serve the guests while transforming into one grotesque character into another. These characters were all created through the research of the creators into the world of bouffon, in which the peculiar language of the performance was developed evoking the humour and mood of black comedy, sketch films and cabaret.

The bouffons are creatures with a distorted body, their movement is determined by their bodily limitations, which all results in a grotesque, surreal, contorted figure. Their appearance questions social norms, and with this they make a parody of accepted social behaviour, especially one of the higher classes. And an elegant dinner party is a perfect scenario for such mimicry. In the sketches we address family dynamics, subordination, sexuality and blasphemy. The characters are rotten both physically and spiritually, they are anti-hierarchical and believe in nothing. They are walking on the thin line between heaven and hell, and invite the viewers into this world.

Creator-performers: Csaba Molnár, Veronika Szabó
Lights: Kata Dézsi / Margit Hodován
Producer: SÍN Arts Centre
The research of phase of the performance was completed within the framework of the Zero Step Programme of SÍN Arts Centre, supported by the National Cultural Fund.