NEW STAGE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS U.S. PREMIERE OF "THE BAT" BY
PROMINENT HUNGARIAN LITERARY VOICE KRISZTINA TÓTH
As distrust and resentment take hold,
civility collapses in a kindergarten school community.
Tragicomedy warns of the dangerous culture of division in modern societies.

WHERE AND WHEN:
March 20 - April 4, 2026
New Stage Performance Space, 36 West 106th Street (basement), btw. Central Park West and Manhattan Ave. Subways: #1, B, C to 103rd Street.
(Note: this space is not wheelchair accessible.)
Presented by New Stage Theatre Company

PERFORMANCES:
Evenings: March 20,25,27,28, April 2,3,4 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 21 at 7:00 followed by discussion with author Krisztina Tóth, moderated by Hungarian film director Boross Martin.
Matinees: Sundays, March 22, 29 at 3:00 PM
Running time: 85 minutes (without intermission)
Tickets: $35 gen. admission, $25 seniors & students.
Purchase tickets: https://newstagetheatrecompany.ticketspice.com/the-bat
Performing company's website: www.newstagetheatre.org

Critics are invited to all performances.
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oSZLBqNU4hhmFTpX6

NEW YORK, February 23 -- “The Bat” by Krisztina Tóth is a darkly humorous contemporary Hungarian drama in which the disappearance of a child’s rubber bat from a kindergarten changing room triggers escalating suspicion, resentment, and outright hatred among adults in the classroom’s orbit. What begins as a seemingly trivial conflict spirals into tragicomic nightmare as Tóth reveals underlying fractures in contemporary Hungarian society. New Stage Theatre Company (NSTC), will present the piece's US premiere March 20 to April 4 in its New Stage Performance Space, 36 West 106th Street (basement). The play is translated by Szilvi Naray-Davey, directed by Ildiko Nemeth and performed by Adam Boncz and Sarah Lemp.

The story feels uncannily attuned to today's culture of division. As mutual distrust and resentment are laid bare, what unfolds is a tale of family and community life that is humorous, heartbreaking and familiar. By turns hilarious and unsettling, the play transforms an everyday setting into a microcosm of social discord revealing how quickly civility can erode when fear and suspicion take hold.

With this US premiere, NSTC comtinues its mission of introducing the works by important female writers who have received little exposure here.  Krisztina Tóth has met with international success and her works Shave been translated into twenty languages. She is regarded as one of Hungary's foremost literary voices. With absurdist humor, an astute eye for sociopolitical dynamics, and a commitment to asking uncomfortable questions, Tóth is an important figure in contemporary culture and a natural fit for NSTC. Artistic Director Ildiko Nemeth has built a company inspired by Eastern European experimental theater traditions and is known for its broad and deep engagement with world literature and drama. But this project is the first time that she and NSTC will present a full-length show from a Hungarian author.

Nemeth directed a reading of the play in 2024 at Hungarian House as part of the Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival honoring Vaclav Havel, produced by the Václav Havel Center and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in association with Hungarian House (AFHLE) and The New Stage Theatre Company. The cast of that reading returns in this production.

On opening night Saturday, March 21, following the performance at 7:00, there will be a post-play discussion with author Krisztina Tóth, moderated by Hungarian film director Boross Martin.

Krisztina Tóth (playwright) is a Hungarian author whose irresistible, absurdist humor makes her popular even with those who do not otherwise follow contemporary literature. Difficult relationships, dark perversions, games of subservience and manipulation, and strange twists of fate are common themes that Tóth has developed in her writing, which encompasses poetry ("Whale Song"), drama ("Pokémon," "The Bat") and prose ("Pixel," "Barcode"). Her latest novel, "The Monkey’s Eyes, "was Hungary’s best-selling work of fiction in 2022. No stranger to controversy, Tóth does not shy away from bringing to light hypocrisies or injustices. Her grotesque portraits of modern Central Europe are tinged with the region’s dark humor.

Born in 1967, she studied sculpting and literature in Budapest and spent two years in Paris during her university years. She has published almost 40 books of prose, poetry, drama, and children’s stories and her works have been translated into twenty languages. Her children’s books have approached touchy topics (for example, “Mom Had an Operation” is story about cancer). In 2015, her novel, "Aquarium," was featured on the shortlist of the German Internationaler Literaturpreis.

László Krasznahorkai, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in literature, wrote, "Krisztina Tóth is irredeemably a poet. This is revealed by every element of her latest novel… [She] is a magnificent artist; receive her as such.” Elfriede Jelinek, 2004 Nobel winner in literature, wrote, "Reading 'The Eye of the Monkey' is like peering into the abyss and finding your consciousness forever altered. You cannot escape this book, you already hear its thunder!"

Dr. Szilvi Naray (translator) is a university lecturer, translator, and theatre director. She was born in Budapest and grew up in Hungary and Geneva, Switzerland. She currently lectures in drama and translation studies at the University of Salford, England. She is the founder and artistic director of Ignition Stage, a Manchester-based theater company which specializes in pioneering Eastern European plays in English translation. She publishes in the fields of literary translation with a special interest in feminist translation and has been critically acclaimed for her English world premiere productions of her translations. She co-wrote the chapter “Goulash Socialism vs. Feminism? Beauvoir in Hungary” for the book "Translating Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex," published by Routledge in 2023.

Ildiko Nemeth (director) is Founder and Artistic Director of the New Stage Theatre Company (NSTC) and director and producer of all the company’s premieres. From 1990 to 1998 she was a member of the R.S. 9 Theater Company in Budapest, touring internationally with numerous critically acclaimed productions. After moving to New York City in 1998, she graduated from The Actors Studio Drama School in 2002 and started New Stage Theatre Company the same year. With her ensemble, Nemeth adapts and directs foreign writers’ works in New York and creates original pieces through collaboration with her team of artists. Her productions are distinguished by their bold visual style and a compelling mix of absurdist and physical humor to deal with dark and difficult themes.

NSTC has built a name for itself as a "daring experimental group" (Backstage) offering a "unique theatrical vision that creates wonder for mature sophisticated audiences" (New York Theatre Wire). Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post wrote of Nemeth, "The theater artist is second to none in terms of the images she creates and the moods she spins," resulting in "works of great beauty and heightened theatricality." Jessica Rizzo (Theatre Times) wrote, "New York needs more dauntless directors like her."

Nemeth's 2015 and 2019 productions with NSTC won NY Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Performance Art Production and her shows have been nominated for numerous IT Awards over the years, including Outstanding Director. In 2017, she was honored with the prestigious Caffe Cino Fellowship, awarded to a company consistently producing outstanding work. In 2017, Nemeth established NSTC's permanent artistic home, The New Stage Performance Space, where she continues to present boundary-defying works and to support the creation of original, multidisciplinary productions.

Ádám Boncz (actor) started his career at the Szeged National Theatre in Hungary. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and performed on New York stages for more than 10 years, including La MaMa ETC, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. He worked on numerous productions with the New Stage Theatre Company, Gia Forakis & Company and the International WOW Company. At HERE in 2014, he performed "Fatelessness," a stunning solo play based on the novel by Imre Kertész about a Hungarian teenage boy's passage through three WWII concentration camps. His film and TV credits include "Shadow & one" (Netflix), "Rematch" (ARTE/HBO), "Infinity Pool" (NEON) and "FBI: International" (CBS).  www.adamboncz.com

Sarah Lemp (actor) has appeared in many NSTC productions including "Lists of Promise," "Near to the Wild Heart," "Some Historic/Some Hysteric," "The Round of Pleasure," "Oh, Those Beautiful Weimar Girls" "Hypnotic" and "Jollification/Mortification." Select Off-Broadway credits include "New Country," "Rantoul and Die," "The Hallway Trilogy," "Ghosts in the Cottonwood," "Hotel/Motel," "The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side," "Happy in the Poorhouse" and "The Bad and the Better." She has appeared in productions of Hartford Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre and The Den and in workshops of NYTW, The Public, The Atlantic, Rattlestick and Second Stage. (www.sarahmarielemp.com)

Lighting design is by Federico Restrepo. Projection design is by Hao Bai. Set design is by Ildiko Nemeth. Costume and prop design are by Tamar Mogyle. Sound Engineer is Dalton LaPree-Chavez. Stage Manager is Joshua Jackson.

This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.  It is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The project made possible in part by the support of the First Hungarian Literary Society and the Tulipan Foundation.

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CRITICS ARE INVITED to all performances.
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oSZLBqNU4hhmFTpX6