ESZTER  NÉMETHI
theatre maker  &  researcher

Theatre Projects

  1. Speak Like No One in Particular 
  2. Given Landscape
  3. Border Stories
  4. Utopia Ltd.
  5. Exit Strategy
  6. No One Can Hear You In There


Pedagogical Projects

  1. School of Magical Politics
  2. Common Ground
  3. Public!
  4. In-Situ
  5. Future Producers
  6. TITLE
  7. Let’s Play!

Collaborative Art Projects

  1. Cycles
  2. To Be What We Are
  3. Mythmakers
  4. World of Scribes
  5. Office of Good Ideas
  6. Cloudlands
  7. Utopia Ltd. Laboratory


Curatorial Projects

  1. MOTA OOO
  2. Quarter Block Party
  3. Beyond the Walls
  4. Solstice

Publications

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©2024 Eszter Némethi

P013 → Utopia Ltd.



Utopia Ltd. was an off-site collaborative theatre performance about flawed and flawless heroes, a world mapped by international trade, and the optimistic impossibility that tonight we will change the world

Set against the backdrop of the working port and Inspired by the biography of Roger Casement, Makeshift Ensemble and a cast of activist/performers from Ireland, Belgium, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo invite you to question the role of idealism and our responsibility for action in a (faux)-globalised world.




“On arrival to the performance venue we’re greeted by a life-sized cut out of Roger Casement, valorised Irish rebel and gay man, noted here for his inspiring humanitarian work. Pundits line up to take selfies, but its easy to suspect director Eszter Nemethi is perhaps sceptical of heroes and worship. Her staging seems more interested in what can gained from their deconstruction.” Chris McCormack - Exeunt Magazine


Presented at

Poolbeg Yacht Club - Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival – Dublin, September 2016 
Cork Boat Club - Cork Midsummer Festival – Cork, June 2016  





“Suddenly the horizon opens, and as you leave the bay you wonder for a moment about what held you back until now. Why have you been clinging to that particular spot of ground when in front of you, always there was the endless possibility of the sea. For a moment you remember a storm and the peril of fifty orange life jackets. But it is gone again you are gliding in the fresh breeze leaving land behind. As it fades into the horizon you realise the futility of geography, your need to define who you are by rivers, mountains, valleys and walls. And in the middle of the horizon, with nothing else to see in any direction but blue and shades of blue you dream of nowhere land, the kingdom of the high seas where geography is replaced by boats, where mountains move, where horizons expand and where nothing can be claimed for the past or the future because water does not hold..”

- Síofra in Utopia Ltd.

MOTIVATIONS (excerpt from younger Eszter’s project proposal in 2016)

Utopia Ltd came out of a frustration with apathy and cynicism around the failure of the European ideals or the realization that these ideals or core values that seemed crucial to the world, in order to maintain peace were already a decade ago becoming more and more idealistic and less and less valued. As young European artist I felt the need to become activated and to stand up for an open and inclusive Europe I really truly believed in, that I was raised to be part of. 

I  questioned my own extremely Eurocentric world view and in face of a crisis of ideology wanted to look at our own biases, perceptions, ignorance about the world and about the stories we tell ourselves.

To a very real extent Utopia Ltd had the motivation to change the world, while also reflecting on the necessary failure of this ambition trying to explore this idea of action and responsibility for ‘others’ as honestly as possible through the very real questions, stories and
provocations of a cast of non-actor performers and the biography of Roger Casement. 

This historic and real connection, grounding allows for big ideas and concepts to have been explored and faced in earnest. We wanted to question global narratives also through the use and exploration of international trade as a physical, tangible link that connects and transports our material world and is also intricately intertwined with the Casement biography, making this historic character the base of this investigation and positioning it within the general context of the 1916 centenary celebrations.




“The best way to talk about Roger Casement is to not talk about Roger Casement at all” 

heard at the 2013 Roger Casement, a glocal imperative conference in Tralee







Concept: Eszter Nemethi & Nuno Escudeiro
Dramaturge: Bart Capelle
Cast: Siofra Richardson/Ciara Conroy, Guylaine Lema, Brendan Richardson, Serge Van Den Berghe and Matt von Zweigbergk 

Director: Eszter Nemethi
Video: Nuno Escudeiro
Sound Design: Caoilian Sherlock
Set Design: Eszter Nemethi
Production Manager: Anthony Hanley
Tour Manager: Caoilian Sherlock
Stage Manager: Maeve Scannell

Producer: Leah Hearne and Shona Slemon
Co-producer (Postmodernsquare): Daria Akimenko
Assistant Producer: Jane Creech
Digital Marketing: Brid O'Donovan
Production Assistant: Fiona Hegarty

Utopia Ltd. is a project by Eszter Nemethi produced by Makeshift Ensemble in collaboration with Postmodernsquare (FIN).

The production premiered as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival (2016) after a year long collaborative process with the city of Cork and the cast. Utopia Ltd. was part of the official programme of commemorations of the 1916 rising and was primarily funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ Programme,  Arts Council of Ireland, Cork Midsummer Festival and TAIKE. The project was further supported in it’s development by MA SPACE, Sample Studios, Meithel Mara / Currach Rowers Club, Kunstcentrum Vooruit, Theatre Development Centre, Civic Trust House, St. John’s College of Further Education, and Cork Film Centre