Dworzec w Braszowie [Brasov train station] - a symbol of the borderland

 

Musical happening „Dworzec w Braszowie” [„Brasov train station”] is the theatrical motto of the festival. The train station in Brasov - just like other stations - is a gathering point for metropolitan rubbish and a load of socialist culture, or rather lack of it. But the landscape still recalls the multicultural Transylvania: Hungarians, Romanians, Saxons from Sighiosar, residents of Avas with an archly skewed straw hat, Jews and Hutsuls traveling to Bukovina. There were the Armenians waiting for the connection, together with sitting on the ground the Moldovan Csángó Hungarians going to Csiksomlyó. Gagauzi (Turks) waited for an express to Bucharest, then traveled all day to the villages of the Tulcea region. There were also Swabian women from the Temes county who could be recognized by their characteristic bonnets. Of course, there were also Gypsies here, always on the road.

 

The show begins in the station hall, an elderly couple plays traditional instruments from Transylvania. After some time, a wedding party appears at the station: a young couple, an orchestra, dancers, wedding guests. The wedding party is being watched by children, beggars, a railwayman, a cleaning lady. After the wedding guests leave, sounds of Jewish music can be heard elsewhere, then trumpet players play elsewhere. At the end, everyone goes out onto the platform and gets on the train, at the station stays only a pair of old people, who leave with the sound of the passengers saying goodbye. In this symbolic way the progressive leaving of Transylvania by different ethnic groups is shown.

 

Choreographer, director: László Diószegi

Artistic director: Zoltán Szánthó

Performers:

Válaszút Dance Group (Budapest)

Szászcsávás band (Transylvania / Romania)

Trumpet players from Baciu (Moldova / Romania)

Zerkula János with his wife (Gyimes / Transylvania)

 

The show: 19 July 2002, 4:00 PM, Main Railway Station in Krakow

Parade: 19 July 2002, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM, Main Railway Station - Florianska Street - Main Square