Chitrakari – revival

Composer: Sándor Fekete Kiss, Szabolcs Tóth

Props: Nikoletta Domak

Choreography: Panni Somi

Directed by: Panni Somi

Performers: Antónia Zboray, Mihaela Leat Leblanc, Kriszta Kunvári, Anikó Major, Lilla Péri, Virág Túri, Kincső Pethő, Panni Somi

The piece entitled Chitrakari (the painter) was inspired by the works of Elisabeth Brunner (Brunner Erzsébet), an Indian painter of Hungarian origin. By setting up an ephemeral memorial these images salute her long and fertile artistic career. Elisabeth Brunner’s paintings come to life with the help of dance and tell the story of the moment their painter captured.

Erzsébet Brunner (1910-2001) and her mother – renowned figures of the Hungarian mystical painting tradition – arrived in India in 1930, where they immediately immersed themselves in the hustle and bustle of contemporary modern Indian art and intellectual life. Music, dance, literature and fine arts, ancient and contemporary all found their place in this teeming cultural medium symbolising the extraordinary Indian force which honours and safeguards every tradition and accepts and assimilates new ones, making them characteristically ’Indian’. This is how the Hungarian Erzsébet Brunner was able to become a recognised Indian painter.

The first version of the play was presented in 2010 in the National Dance Theatre. The premiere of the renewed play is going to be on 25th March 2025.

Supported by: NKA