The theatrical kamikaze that destroys all the mechanisms of the world and itself—that is, theatre as such—is the performance Nexxt, directed by András Urban, which premiered at the Novi Sad Theatre/Újvidéki Színház (Serbia) on February 28, 2025. A show of communication with the audience and the public in live broadcast, “ultraviolence,” excessive consumption of the comprehensive resources of stripped-down life, the banalisation of art, the meaningless culmination of interpersonal relationships reduced to an Animal Farm, the broadcasting of bloodshed on both individual and collective levels, create a provocative performative form and content.
The Novi Sad Theatre no longer exists; it has been transformed into a media bunker, a reality show stage, and a crime scene. Everything is under constant surveillance. The atmosphere is dystopian: dazzling and apocalyptic.
Reality among the audience is suffocated and hypnotised, self-annihilating and devouring itself.
Nexxt directed by András Urban. Foto: Srdjan Doroski
Emina Elor, in the role of Frau Plastic Chicken, in a bizarre episode of her reality show, brings together two unusual guests. The first is the man after whom A Clockwork Orange (the novel by Anthony Burgess, then the cult and cult-forbidden classic by Stanley Kubrick) is named, the former violent offender Little Alex, who now lives a peaceful life and refuses to speak about his past (played by Árpad Mészáros). The second one is the arrogant, modern serial killer Rex Madison, who films the murders of prostitutes in his apartment and is arrested live on air during the show, only to immediately become its special guest (played by Bence Szalai).
Nexxt directed by András Urban. Foto: Srdjan Doroski
The author of the stage adaptation, István Tasnádi, in collaboration with director Árpád Schilling, in the year 2000, staged the play Nexxt at the Budapest-based Krétakör Theatre. A year later, an eponymous film based on the play was made, as a tribute to the Hungarian millennium new wave. This artistic movement is marked by a low-budget style and a strong personal signature, exploring taboo topics, and it developed based on the avant-garde, controversial Dogma 95 Manifesto by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. Both film movements focus on the story and acting, shooting with handheld cameras (or multiple cameras), and completely forbid temporal and geographical alienation: “This means the film happens here and now.” Existential themes such as conflict, alienation, and urban decay, are common among the aforementioned authors.
Since both the play and the film were created at the beginning of the new millennium, in the transitional period of the thousand-year shift, they aim to depict scenes of a new reality and a terrifying future, or perhaps, through their explicit rebellion, to destroy all old art before them in order to announce the arrival of new theatre and the new seventh art, a new era, and new people. With the latest premiere by András Urban, twenty-five years after the original production of the text, the same question arises. We are still in the realm of realistic horror, black comedies, trash films, and life itself.
Nexxt directed by András Urban. Foto: Srdjan Doroski
The Flowers of Evil never fade. Artificial Paradises, artificial intelligence, milk with vellocet, synthemesc, or drencrom – it’s all the same, it all goes into the same stomach, and it all leads us into Singing in the Rain. Pepsi-Cola, Spielberg, bottled water. A world in a can. A world on a screen. A world that doesn’t know if it still exists. The leather jacket represents a symbol of individuality and belief in personal freedom, while animal prints (costumes by Lina Leković) reflect inner characters. While the suits exude showbiz, the set design by András Urban and Stefan Milošević creates the vast space of television and armchairs – a scene from Utisak nedelje (Impression of the Week) and quiz shows through which, of course, one becomes a millionaire or famous.
The square of the Novi Sad Theatre has become the Sunset Boulevard. Different scenes are constantly changing in the background: live broadcasts, parallel programming, home video recordings, and security cameras. Applause is programmed, and sound effects support the dramatic tension. The audience is instructed to participate in a program with no boundaries. The audience watches. The audience applauds. The audience doesn’t know when it became part of the performance. Behavioural theory, one of the themes of A Clockwork Orange, is applied in practice – here and now, daughter of Elysium.
In a world where reality is a spectacle and the spectacle is reality, violence becomes content, content becomes currency, and art is only for those Wild at Heart. This is not criticism – this is the consequence. If theatre was once a place of truth, it is now just another screen in the endless chain of reflections of real smoke machines. But what remains after the last reflection? Can art still produce authentic resistance, or has it, like its protagonists, become nothing more than a program scheme?
The director of the play András Urban, drawing inspiration from countless television and film platforms, thoughtfully questions the audience: “Are you still watching?”
Nexxt directed by András Urban. Foto: Srdjan Doroski
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Emilija Kvočka.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
