Energy crisis: drastic steps for theatres in Budapest

The József Attila Theatre has to implement some changes due to the energy crisis. One of these measures is to only play on weekends. Like this, they do not have to heat the building on the other days of the week, ATV Híradó reported. Other theatres have also decided to make savings.

Reviewing their November programme, which has already been released, and their December programme, which is in the pipeline, they saw that the easiest way to save energy was to target the weekends and play on those days, director Károly Nemcsák told Híradó. However, he could not say how long this measure would last, napi.hu reports.

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At the Vígszínház, they expect that “the audience will warm up the space” at sold-out performances. Zoltán Mádi, the economic director, said that the temperature will rise from 22 to 24 degrees Celsius like that. Still, a number of cost-cutting measures have been taken. In rehearsals on the main stage, only working lights are used, the windows have been insulated and the boiler has been replaced.

At the Centrál Theatre, overheads have quadrupled. Previously heated with gas, they are now planning to install air conditioning in the main hall, but this will cost tens of millions of forints. Director Tamás Puskás said that this is “eating away” at their future, atv.hu reports.

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Source: atv.hu, napi.hu