Gábor Berényi led the Szigligeti Theatre in Szolnok from 1959, but the most resounding success of his management was Cat’s Play, staged on 15 January 1971, a few weeks before his departure. The context of the world premiere, which launched the extraordinary career of István Örkény’s play, is determined by the decade-long programme policy of the theatre under Berényi’s management, the abrupt end of his leadership, the spread of thinking on theatres as workshops outside the Hungarian capital, and the special relationship established by rural theatres with certain playwrights. This study examines these four factors, trying to recall the world premiere from the obscurity into which it was plunged by the eleven-year-long series of Cat’s Play staged in Budapest two months later.