Performances / Szigligeti Company / 2025-2026
Giania Cărbunariu
Magyarosaurus dacus
The year is 1899.
In Oradea, a theatre is being built — designed by the Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer.
At the Geological Institute of Vienna, Baron Ferenc Nopcsa presents to the world the dinosaurs of Transylvania.
It is Europe’s Golden Age — the era of the Belle Époque.
Yet Nopcsa’s life and personality are as full of contradictions as the turn of the century itself.
A man marked by both deep scientific curiosity and political ambition, by fearless world travel and paralyzing depression, by sensitivity and cutting irony.
While he travels across countries writing paleobiological studies, sending intelligence reports, and drawing maps, the great powers are redrawing the world he once knew.
Gianina Cărbunariu’s production invites audiences to rediscover both this forgotten scholar-adventurer and the transformative era that continues to shape the identity of Oradea today.
Research sources for the production included:
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Csaplár-Degovics Krisztián: “We Have No Colonies and No Imperial Ambitions” – Hungarian Participation in the Monarchy’s Colonial Endeavors in the Balkans (1867–1914)
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Robert Elsie (ed.): Reisen in den Balkan. Die Lebenserinnerungen des Franz Baron Nopcsa
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Robert Elsie (ed.): Traveler, Scholar, Political Adventurer. A Transylvanian Baron at the Birth of Independence. The Memoirs of Franz Nopcsa
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Főzy István: Dinosaurs of the Carpathian Basin
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Gyurkovics Györgyi (ed.): Ferenc Nopcsa – The Hungarian King of Dragons
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Dacian Muntean: The Adventures and Travels of Baron Nopcsa
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Ferenc Nopcsa: The Darkest Europe
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Ionuț Sociu: Baron Nopcsa, Between Kafka and Indiana Jones (Scena9, 2022/4)
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Tasnádi-Kubacska András: The Adventurous Life of Baron Ferenc Nopcsa
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Vanessa Veselka: History Forgot This Rogue Aristocrat Who Discovered Dinosaurs and Died Penniless (Smithsonian Magazine, 2016/7)
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M1 Channel’s “Múlt-kor” program on Ferenc Nopcsa
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DODA: The Life and Adventures of Franz Baron Nopcsa – documentary film, 2016, directed by Visar Vishka
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Contemporary press materials accessed via the Arcanum and Anno databases
Special thanks to Boka László, Csaplár-Degovics Krisztián, Ardian Kycyku, Molnár Attila, Dacian Muntean, and Ionuț Sociu for their invaluable assistance with the research.
Cast of characters:
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Nopcsa’s Band:
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Premier: 2023.02.03
