On December 14, at Reactor, we are thrilled to meet our wonderful colleague and director Robert Kocsis in a brand-new format! He is bringing us the performance “For What It’s Worth”, a super exciting mix of a theater show and a TED Talk. Over the last few months, Robert has been exploring political choices and societal polarization, always looking for ways to bring us together rather than set us apart. Let's find out more about his creative journey directly from Robert in the lines below!

In creating this performance, I have been trying for a very long time to seek out and really understand different political perspectives. I've done this in cozy, informal settings—over a beer, at football matches, in the car, or during lovely walks. That’s how it all started! The polarization we see today deeply concerns me; I really don't like how often we choose to surround ourselves only with people who agree with us. I don't think it helps at all, and it's certainly nothing to boast about. We end up living in completely different realities, focusing way too much on why a person is the way they are and too little on what brought them there. I truly believe that when you look for the root cause, you open the door to real understanding.

When the elections were canceled, I started spending time with people who wouldn’t vote the way I do. And we talked! It was wonderful to realize that we actually share the exact same everyday problems. That inspired me to keep going: through this performance, I want to explore if we can find common ground and stand together when we face the same challenges. Sometimes I think it’s utopian, impossible, or even pointless—but I am absolutely thrilled to make this search!

As a person, I often need quite a bit of time to explain myself, to share my ideas, and to make myself truly understood. That’s exactly where this concept came from! I love to express my thoughts through the beauty of art: music, theater, prose, painting. Whenever an artistic piece makes me say, “Yes! That's it! Now what I was thinking makes perfect sense,” I realize how much it has helped clarify my mind. And you'll see a lot of that in this performance: it's all about how art wonderfully helps me explain what I believe about politics and life.

I was thinking about how TED Talks are these fantastic spaces where people passionately talk through a topic. That’s exactly what I want to do! I can't wait to see your reactions and find out what we can discuss next. Simon Stone has a brilliant TED Talk where he explains how to direct theater in about 10 minutes. I told myself that if I ever gave a TED Talk, I would recreate his one-to-one, and at the end, I'd share how I believe true originality doesn't exist. If someone has done or said something beautifully, you should carry it forward without any hesitation! I won’t actually recreate his talk, but this fun idea helped me develop the concept further: to playfully “steal” from the artistic works I loved and see how to adapt them. If an artist found a brilliant way to convey a message, I want to share that magic too! I will be proudly quoting these artists during the performance because they deserve all the spotlight. I believe that by focusing on the human side, they talk about politics in the most wonderful way.

I want this performance, this joyful meeting of different minds, to be a welcoming, shared space. Let's not build it on exclusion, but on mutual understanding, growth, and even the freedom to fail! A space where nobody jumps to conclusions or labels you the moment you speak, but instead asks with curiosity why those words were said. We are living in times where common spaces are often built on strict exclusion. Does that really help us grow? Let's find out together!

I warmly hope the audience will be open to dialog, because I am absolutely going to invite you to join in! I hope we won't jump to hasty conclusions without a good chat first. I am so excited for all kinds of honest and diverse reactions, because I want to see them, know them, and understand where they come from.

So, come along even if you feel you know nothing about theater! Come as you would to a cozy space where it is perfectly okay to share your thoughts. Because if we don't have spaces to express ourselves, we hide our thoughts away and only share them with those who already agree. And we can't grow without a beautiful, shared space!

This cultural project is co-funded by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the program results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary. 

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