In December 2020, during one of the pandemic waves, Hungarian director and actor László Göndör decided to move in with his ninety-seven-year-old grandmother and document their time together. Éva Katona survived the Shoah and enjoyed the admiration and love of her family and friends and their idealization of her. Her thirty-five-year-old grandson is going through an identity crisis. Under the strange circumstances of the pandemic, they try to comprehend each other's pain and trauma and understand their deep love for each other.  

During their days together, Grandma's apartment gradually turns into a stage on which an unusual celebration takes place: "Delicacies and fine champagne appear as if out of nowhere, expensive jewels appear here and there, the singing of a mysterious man can be heard from afar, the Virgin Mary shines on the shelf next to Lenin, crows fly outside, the first snow falls, and for some reason, we are wearing face masks." The production is a fragile, lyrical duet of human beings: László is physically present on stage; we get to know Éva through audiovisual recordings. Every performance is a moment when they can be together - again and for the last time. 

László Göndör is a theatre director, playwright, and theatre and film actor. He studied applied economics in Budapest and later studied acting, dance, and directing in the United States, Indonesia, and Hungary. He has performed dozens of roles as a theatre actor and performer since 2014. His first theatrical performance, the neo-Dadaist opera BajuSS, was nominated for the 2018 Hungarian Theatre Critics Association Award for Best Musical Entertainment Performance. In 2020, he won the Staféta (Relay) Award, a program to support the most promising young emerging Hungarian theatre artists. Dreaming with My Grandma won the Audience Award for the Best Project supported by Staféta.   

"Dreaming with My Grandma is a portrait of a woman who survived the Shoah and believed in the ideals of communism. It also reflects on how trauma transfers between generations and how to discuss the Holocaust in today's art. It is also a story about the fragility of being human, about the relationships between grandchildren and grandparents, about family customs and humor, about finding one's own identity in adulthood and seeing one's image in the eyes of grandparents, about how one feels as a child, about the history (including our) of geopolitical space and its pars pro toto imprint in the life of a strong woman. Dreaming with Grandma is also about many other things, and that's what's special about this subtle, funny, and moving production." 

(Martina Vannayová, theatre critic International Theatre Festival Divadelna Nitra 2022 )

Credits

Performer, Director, Playwright, Concept: László GÖNDÖR 
Co-director, Playwright, Concept: Kornél LABODA 
Audio and Video Editor, Concept: Alexandra LÁNG 
Sound Designer: Márk BARTHA 
Sound Masters: Bence SOMOSKÖVI & Bence KOVÁCS-VAJDA 
Technician: Ákos “Papa” LENGYEL 
External Consultant: Tamás ÖRDÖG 
Production Manager: Dániel MAYER 
Performer: Éva KATONA 
Dramaturge, Playwright, Concept: Zsófi BÓDI 
Psychologist Consultant, Concept: Lili Olga HORVÁTH 
Set and Costume Designer: Gabriella CSOMA 
Light Designer: Máté BREDÁN 
Documentary Materials, External Consultant: Máté BARTHA 
Production Assistant: Zsuzsi SZAKÁCS 
'Creative Producer: Andrea AUSZTRICS 
Special thanks to: Ádám FEKETE, Tamás TURAI, Dániel DAOUD, Rozi SZELECZKI, Leta POPESCU, Péter HAJMÁSI, Zoltán ÁSMÁNY, Nelli ORBÁN, Katalin FARKAS, Zsuzsa BÁNKUTI, Ómama Antikvitás 
Photography: Gergely Ofner