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Sunflower / EURODRAM Festival
The story is set in a small provincial town. If there is such a thing as bourgeois drama, then this is a middle-class play, in the sense that the plot takes place in everyday locations and involves simple and vulnerable characters, such as the kind and pretty single teacher, the friendly old caretaker, the young teens Dzseni, Erik and Julcsika, the sympathetic hairdresser boy, the handsome doctor, the hopeful shop assistant at the second-hand shop, the little boy dressed as a terrorist, and the cheated housewife in the psychiatric ward. They complete the story of a family of three, whose tragedy cannot be kept secret from the closed community for long. The Father, his daughter Janka, and even her dog Bodza, are all manoeuvring in the minefield of the Mother’s frightening emotions, until trouble strikes.
Performed by: Kata PETŐ, Andrea PETRIK, Bálint FORMÁN, Dóra SZTARENKI, Pál KÁRPÁTI, Hella TOLNAI, Mária KŐSZEGI, Károly HAJDUK
Costume: Márton István SZABÓ
Lighting design: Máté BREDÁN
Musical assistant: Bálint FORMÁN
Assistant to the director: Dóra TÉSI
Written and directed by: Andrea PASS
REVIEWS
“Sunflower is a highly important piece of theatre of the season and of our times.” Katalin Gabnai, Spiritusz.hu
“A beautiful, serious and visceral piece of theatre.” Andrea Stuber
“Psychologically accurate theatre that is also honest and real. It is both deep and analytical: the situations involving the group of children, the family and the apathetic father, and the interaction between teacher, child and parent are all superbly constructed. Andrea Pass leads her actors exceptionally well.” Andrea Tompa, Magyar Narancs
“Andrea Pass’s production of Sunflower is an exceptional piece of theatre, as there are hardly any plays today that talk to adults about children. Or to be precise, it shows us how we treat our children. (…) Among today’s theatre-makers, apart from Béla Pintér, it is probably only Árpád Schilling who is assiduously concerned with the relationship between adult and child. And Andrea Pass, whose approach and theatrical tone is both private and personal. And brave: she writes and directs her shows herself. She creates an author’s theatre, something rather uncommon in Hungary.” Noémi Herczog, Élet és Irodalom
“What makes Andrea Pass’s texts and theatrical thinking so different from the rest is that she treats an issue in a truly inductive way, and although she most likely has a personal opinion about each conflict, she uses theatre as a method of examination or inquiry, similarly to the great theatre-makers of the past and present. I also very much like the fact that she doesn’t answer the questions she so beautifully asks, and I like it even more that I cannot answer them either.” Lilla Proics, Revizor
“Few can write plays these days the way Andrea Pass does. A couple of dialogues are enough for her to create tension, which she can then sustain until the end of the play. The piece is full of insecurities, full of ifs, and this is exactly what makes it exciting. Authors very rarely produce such crucial yet positively funny performances from their own plays. Sunflower at the Jurányi is an exception that proves this rule.” Szabolcs Szekeres, art7.hu
“Sunflower, written and directed by Andrea Pass, would certainly deserve to tour the country as a kind of pedagogical supplement (…) since there is something in her play that fills a profound gap. It seems to be about the eternal hopelessness of youth, about deeds that were never done seen in the light of those that were. The ideal spectators of this play are those similar to its characters: the fallible.” Zsolt Gábor Stermeczky, Pótszékfoglaló
“The extravagance of an unusual figure makes the others show their hand. The peculiarities of the slightly pathological or otherwise simply unstable woman (also mother and wife) act like a litmus paper, evoking the sensitive points of marriage, child-rearing and human relationships in general.” László Zappe, Nol.hu
ANDREA PASS
Andrea Pass (playwright and director) graduated as Theatre Historian from the University of Veszprém, Hungary. During her studies, supported by grants, she also spent time in Nancy and London. After university she worked as an assistant to Béla Pintér, and later to Viktor Bodó (Sputnik Shipping Company). During this time she studied scriptwriting and received a degree in drama pedagogy. She has twice received the Örkény István Playwriting Grant. She started to write and direct plays five years ago and has created seven shows since then, all of which are currently running in theatres across Budapest. Three of her works have been published in print, one of which appeared in the Polish Dialog Theatrical Magazine.
Her performances deal with serious social issues. She often works with young people and creates performances for students. Sunflower, however, is for adult audiences, revealing a strong sensitivity towards the parent-child relationship, in terms of how adults treat young people and how children respond. The production won the STAFÉTA award from the Budapest Talent Supporter Program, and also came in for nothing but positive reviews. Many of Andrea Pass’s performances have been invited to festivals in Hungary. One performance, titled New World, received the Grand Prize at the 8th Youth and Children’s Theatre Showcase.
SUPPORTERS
Staféta, Budapest City Council, FÜGE Production, Ministry of Human Resources, National Cultural Fund, Jurányi Incubator House