The study examines the theatrical adaptation of a defining event in Hungarian history from the point of view of theatre aesthetics and the politics of memory and identity. In the 2019/20 season a theatrical representation of the Treaty of Trianon was not only made necessary by the centenary, but also by the ideological and cultural-political position of the National Theatre under the directorship of Attila Vidnyánszky. A commitment to national heroes, symbols, and mythologies, a desire to build rather than deconstruct national consciousness has shaped the theatre’s repertoire in visible ways. The central figure of Thirteen Apple Trees, written by Albert Wass, is meant to represent a specific and defined mentality, the “Székely”, who does not ever change, even if the borders of the country are drawn across his own land. The focus of the performance on Trianon makes the question of identification somewhat confusing: in the first part, the Székely identity is offered as a model, and this viewpoint is in tension with the clearly Hungarian-centred interpretation of Trianon in the second part, which idealises the historical role of Hungarians.