The CEZ prize (sponsored by Philips) was given to Yaron Abulafia for creating together with the director of the performance David Zinder, the stage designer Carmencita Brojboiu, the costume designer Miriam Guretzky and the photographer István Bíró a memorable presentation where the light, which embraces the characters and the scene, while it visually emphasizes the moments of the action, unifies the creation of Ibsen dramatically but also with deep lyricism.
It is a visual binder of first class, which sustains the aesthetical identity of the performance in the whole succession of scenes.
The light-design created by Yaron Abulafia is very technical and of a high professionalism, and it has also poetical vibrations. Beside the actors, the light comments in a unique way the complex states of mind of the characters. So it is fantastic, that at once the light is following Solveig’s (Anikó Petho) face until they form a unity – aureoling it, as an external, but mainly internal light. In its chromatic avatars (red, an ethereal and mysterious blue, golden yellow, flashes and rays piercing the darkness) light seems like caressing the characters, recreating dynamically the visual context of the drama. The lighting obtains, thanks to Yaron Abulafia’s vision, a unique musicality, by expressing emotions in a flexible and lyrical way, but also a transfiguration related to the cathartic essence of authentic theatre.
