A present-day mining town in Romanian Transylvania has experienced mass unemployment due to its mine closure. Deep poverty and despondency drive many men into alcoholism and suicide. Yet, life stubbornly creeps up. Is there somebody able to mend the fate of a community? The downtrodden, unemployed miner Ivan Vajda takes care of his ill father. Alongside his half-sister, Ilonka, his friend and his neighbors, Ivan copes in a world vastly different from what he had envisioned. Consumed by desires and ideas, all characters try to escape in their own way.
Mine Flowers (2011). Playwright: Csaba Szekely (Hungary). Director: Mary Linehan. Cast: Chris Carfizzi (Illes), Kendra Lee Oberhauser (Irma), Kevin Sebastian (Mihaly), Michael Turner (Ivan), Stephanie Windland (Ilonka). Translated by: Paul Crowson. Running time: 90 min.
A tragicomic tale, Mine Flowers uses clever linguistic humor to explore destructive social issues as well as the emotional tolls that unemployment takes on an individual. “In spite of the characters’ miserable destinies and the multitude of regrets, Mine Flowers is not a gloomy play. The dark humor of the play helps us observe, from a safe distance, the world that we live in. We wake up from a bitter dream from which the characters of the play can never escape,” states the author, Csaba Szekely.
Mine Flowers is the first of a trilogy, followed by Mine Pitch Dark (2012) and Mine Water (2013). It won first prize at the 2011 National Theater Festival in Pecs, Hungary, for best script.
The performance is followed by Q&A. It is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit the festival website www.rehearsalfortruth.org.
This event will be broadcasted online, live on Zoom.us. RSVP is required to receive password for free viewing. RSVP online through Eventbrite.
ABOUT THE 2020 SPRING WEEKEND
The 2020 Spring Weekend: The Unimaginable of Reality is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA) in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Untitled Theater Company #61. Spring Weekend is part of the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. The 2020 edition showcases contemporary European plays through live online readings performed and directed by New York City–based actors and directors. The program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair, the Slovak Center - International Association of Theatre Critics; and Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York. It is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.