From the agents’ reports about the Orfeo-group, one gleans insights into one of the most unique alternative theatre companies in Hungary. These accounts were based on personal meetings and recollections of the performances. The secret police was interested in members’ political views, and they wanted to know how their ideas were presented in the plays and the talks and debates held after the performances. These documents are preserved at the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL). The folder with the cover name “Community” shows how the political police created a picture about a group of “hostile” artists, who were perceived as dangerous to “the existing social order.”
The Orfeo group was established in 1969. It united a puppet theatre, a theatre, a music band, a circle of people in involved in the fine arts, and circle of photographers. An agent with the cover-name “Emese Kárpáti” wrote the most reports (150 pages) on Orfeo between 1971 and 1975. She came into contact with Orfeo as a cultural organizer. According to her work method, she attended the same performances and events again and again because she was curious about the dubious sentences and the covert criticism of the system in the texts of the plays and because she had to record the discussions and debates following the performances. We can read very little about the plays themselves. One exception is the Etoile, in which the agent discovered anti-regime and anti-Soviet tones. “Emese Kárpáti” got close to the group, mainly to István Malgot, with whom she talked about his political ideas and theoretical concepts about Marxism and society. She participated in Orfeo’s tour to Poland. The liaison officers were satisfied with her because of her confidential information.
The state security thought that Orfeo communicated their oppositional opinions through complicated forms of expression, and these messages were understandable only to educated, cultivated viewers. However, the complex artistic solutions become devices of deception from the point of view of the police. The secret police were concerned that Orfeo wanted to appear as a non-political company. This misled even the agent, according to the liaison officer.
One other agent who went by the cover name “Regős” wrote about how the members of Orfeo tried to influence their audiences and spread their ideology among viewers. He gave reports to the police from 1971, and he focused on proving this view. Among the members of Orfeo, István Malgot got the most attention from the secret police, because he previously had been accused of holding hostile views in the so-called Maoist-trial of a group of Budapest-based young radicals in 1968.
Description of content
The name “Orfeo” appears in numerous work files sent by the agents to the Office Division III of the Ministry of the Interior. In some cases, the task of the agent was to observe the Orfeo group, but other persons met the group only a few times, for example on a tour to the countryside or in clubs and community centres. In this latter folders, we can find only a few pages about Orfeo.
The most important agent was “Emese Kárpáti” (this was her cover-name). She wrote most of the reports, and she went into considerable detail. Her duty was to infiltrate the group, attend their performances, visit their commune in Pilisborosjenő, and travel with the members on their tour abroad. On these occasions, she had opportunities to watch the actors and artists, and she also organized a personal meeting with the members to discuss various political issues with them.
The agent with the cover-name “Regős” reported on Orfeo beginning in 1971. He attended the political debates, in particular. “Tamás Fehér” wrote 12 reports. He dealt mainly with the commune. He had to collect data about people who lived in the house or visited the commune and the kinds of political views they professed. Furthermore, four other agents’ folders contain accounts related to the Orfeo.
The reports mainly focused on the political views and ideas of the group, its performances, and its members’ way of life. The state police was interested in the intra-group relations, István Malgot’s role, and the conflicts that emerged when a few members left the group. The agents did not discuss the effects of the plays on the audience, they only gave the number of viewers at most. Because of the closed structure of Orfeo, its connections with other groups and possible participation in bigger actions were not the centrefocus of observation. Furthermore, we read nothing about the members’ opinions about the actual political news. The reports were structured around the performances, and the description of any given person was limited typically to his or her relationship to the group.
