At the New Theatre in Budapest, staff are ruefully counting the days until February 1, when the director of the house is due to be evicted from his job on the orders of Hungary's conservative populist government. This is no regular change of guard at the renowned building in Pauly Street with its magnificent Art Nouveau facade. For the first time, a self-confessed right-wing extremist is taking over at the playhouse: the actor Gyorgy Dorner.
In his application for the prestigious position, Dorner vowed to turn the theatre into a "hinterland" for burgeoning Hungarian nationalism. He also pledged to end what he called the "degenerate, sick liberal hegemony" in Hungarian cultural life - using a terminology reminding many Hungarians of Adolf Hitler's National Socialism.
Dorner was put forward for the post at the end of last year by Budapest mayor Istvan Tarlos. A commission of experts favoured incumbent Istvan Marta, who had been director for the past 13 years. Tarlos, for his part, owes his position to the conservative Fidesz (Hungarian Civic Union) party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. No one in Budapest doubts that Tarlos was carrying out the will of the Fidesz leadership when he ran roughshod over the commission's recommendation by installing Dorner.
The actor, who is known for overdubbing the voice of Bruce Willis in Hungarian film versions, recently declaimed patriotic verse while campaigning for the far-right Jobbik party. He also admits to having been influenced by the anti-Semitic writer Istvan Csurka.
When applying for the job of theatre director, Dorner freely admitted that his views were based on Csurka's thinking. The gruff intellectual, who suspects "a world Jewish conspiracy" behind different troubles arising in Hungary, is an ardent Orban supporter. Outgoing director Marta describes the choice of Dorner as "very foolhardy" - especially since the man has no practical experience of running a theatre.
The heirs of Hungarian authors Gyula Hernadi and Andreas Suto were so incensed by the appointment that they have withdrawn permission from the theatre to perform works by the two writers. German classical music director Christoph von Dohnanyi was also scandalised by the choice of Doerner, and has cancelled all his concerts in Hungary.
Meanwhile, the New Theatre is rehearsing the last work to be performed before the changeover. It is a dramatisation of German author Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. "The will to live prevails despite the atmosphere of death and physical decay," is how artistic director Janos Szikora sums up his production - an elegiac farewell in the tradition of European humanism.
The Dorner affair is only one aspect of the multi-faceted cultural revolution in Hungary. Viktor Orban is not only bending state institutions and democracy to suit his own ends, according to critics. The premier also claims that he and his followers are interpreting Hungarian history and aestheticism.
His claims spark echoes of the clerical-conservative ideology of the inter-war years during the authoritarian rule of constitutional figurehead Miklos Horthy (1868-1957). Martial monuments have been springing up across the land, in honour of Hungarian conquerors. Road signs in Old Hungarian script have been put up outside many towns and villages. Anti-semitic popular writings of the Horthy era have been elevated to the status of literature.
At the beginning of the year, Orban opened an exhibition of 19th-century paintings at the National Gallery in Buda Castle. The title was: "Heroes, kings and holy men." To accompany the show, the government commissioned 15 contemporary artists to illustrate the last 150 years of Hungarian history in oils. The much-ridiculed results of this exercise in state-ordained art have been put on display in an ante-room.
At the same time, massive subsidy cuts are crippling the cosmopolitan and urbane cultural life that used to characterise Hungary. The 83 independent theatres had to make do last year with a total of 759 million forints (3.2 million dollars), which amounts to around half of the funds they received in 2010.
Many of the countless personnel changes on the country's cultural scene are the result of Orban's carefully orchestrated policy of political patronage and of forging useful alliances, observers say. One victim was Gyorgy Szabo, the head of Budapest's Trafohaz, who was dismissed after 13 years in charge. Up until now, this cultural institution has been a genre-spanning window on the world. Szabo's replacement is dance artist Yvette Bozsik, whom Fidesz cultural secretary Geza Szocs had favoured for the post.
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