The Return of the Golem

by Edna Schon in Budapest

“My best ideas have always been born while I was having a bath”, said Andras with a great smile on his face. That was almost 3 years ago. I was working on a project in which I needed some portraits of Jewish people, so I asked him to be one of the models. That’s when I first heard about the Golem Theatre in Budapest.

Andras Borgula is the founder and Artistic Director of the Jewish Theatre of Budapest. He is a graduate theatre director from the Tel Aviv University. After coming back to Hungary he wanted to join a Jewish theatre company but it turned out one didn’t exist. Therefore, while having a bath he had the idea of establishing a new Jewish theatre. But let’s go back to our story.

I went to the rehearsals of Hanoch Levin’s The Wondrous Woman Within Us. After a couple of minutes I found myself not only watching the process but joining in to read a part, in French, instead of an actress who had not shown up. The actress did finally show up and with great enthusiasm I went to see the show. The day after I approached him to see if he needed my help. Being economically inclined. I offered to take care of financial, logistical and daily operational issues. A big smile again, and we had a deal. I had become the Producer of a new exciting company.

Nowadays Golem Theatre is not only a theatre but also a creative workshop. We have translated Israeli dramas and short stories from Hebrew to Hungarian, lead two European Jewish community theatre projects, and. put on stage at least one play a year. We also organize the biannual Golem Festival which is an International meeting of Jewish Theatres. The next festival will be held in October, 2009. Despite all the challenges we face here in the heart of Europe we do enjoy the work we do in the theatre and slowly but surely the smile of Andras will appear on more and more faces of our audience.

That is how the Golem returned to Budapest instead of Prague…

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