"… we are the same" Rhetorical and Theatrical Reinterpretation of Some of the Mass Genres (Böröcz – Pálinkás – Szigeti: Singing Youth)

Abstract

In August 2021, the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts hosted the festival Greek Inclusion –
Migration Stories Yesterday and Today. In all the performances this cross-genre programme
offered, two eras (the late 1940s, when about seven thousand Greek refugees were taken in by
Hungary, and today) are presented as they converge. Singing Youth is a choral theatre
performance structured around three central themes (sports, the reception of migrants, the
politics of art), which creates an organic link between two generations precisely by the renewal
of the genre. The real golden age of mass songs was the 1950s. This characteristic genre of mass
culture has found a variety of forms, including theatrical ones, but, unlike classical folklore, it
is characterised by a high degree of institutionalisation and political-ideological commitment.
This tradition has been reinterpreted by the three authors and performers of Singing Youth
who have renewed/redefined the genre and structural framework of choral theatre, using
elements of the cultural phenomenon they have associated with the NER*-pop. In my
presentation, I will try to explore aspects that show on the one hand, the survival of a
(seemingly anachronistic) performance style and genre and, on the other hand, the interplay
between the mass song and the (generational) mass culture of our time.
*System of National Cooperation