Sunflower in Debrecen
The company of the Tamási Áron Theatre is preparing for one of the biggest theatre events in Hungary, the Deszka Festival in Debrecen, where the company will perform Sunflower directed by Radu Afrim. The performance, based on the play by Andrea Pass, will be held at the Csokonai Theatre on Monday evening at 7 pm.
This year’s Deszka Festival will take place between 9th and 18th May and will feature thirty-one performances in eight venues, as well as music events, film screenings and talks.
Andrea Pass’s contemporary drama Sunflower focuses on ten-year-old Janka, who we get to know through her dog, her family, her school and friends. Janka is a very happy and lively child. It’s just that sometimes her mum shouts and other times she doesn’t even notice her. Janka has friends. They are also very happy and lively children. It’s just that their parents are either fighting or divorced or don’t even exist. The children sing and dance and Janka draws the world around her exactly as she imagines it: full of odd characters and unexpected events.
The performance of the Tamási Áron Theatre holds up a mirror to the society of our time. It tells the story of three families, in which lonely, lost children and adults search for a better life. It’s as if we are looking at our own families, our own communities, small and large, all of us looking for happiness as sunflowers. But what happens to people when the sun doesn’t shine for a long time? How can we deal with the wounds we sometimes receive from our loved ones, or erase the pain we sometimes cause our loved ones?
As we have come to expect from director Radu Afrim, his performance is full of humour and playfulness, illustrating the way children’s imagination colours the sad reality of their everyday lives. Some of the actors play multiple roles, appearing in the story as children and adults, or as characters in the children’s imagination.
