FAZANOV PLES - 1

STERIJINO POZORJE FESTIVAL 2016 - Novi Sad, Serbia -
Bela Pinter Company, Budapest (Hungary) -
PHEASANT DANCE / FAZANOV PLES
Text & Directed by: Bela Pinter

Behind what is only seemingly a classical drama story, Pheasant dance is actually a serious satirical, even cynical deconstruction of what we might call the limits of national identity. The play is set in the period when the troops of the Holy League, which included Austria, expelled the Turks from Hungary and reinforced Europe's borders against the Ottoman Empire. The plot is, thus, set at that time, but it could very well take place in modern time, for example if modern Hungary were leaving the Warsaw Pact, or if Hungarians, in some new division of cards among the great powers, converted to Islam. This is not about a historical date, but about the historical mechanism that worked then as now. It is about human need to retain - in new circumstances - old habits and privileges; to change everything, and yet that everything should remain the same. This is about human unwillingness to accept changes, about selfishness which makes us treat other people badly – the newcomers, refugees, underprivileged... Bela Pinter extends the limits of our perception of social satire. Intolerance of others stems from the unwillingness of man to perceive his own marginality, and he, therefore, closes himself into a narrow circle in which he can prove his importance and uniqueness. Travesty is a commonplace in a closed society. This is confirmed by an endlessly funny moment when a former teacher - a Muslim woman in burqa - becomes a man in European clothes, all with only one goal: to become the school principal and grab the privileges that come with it. Is there any limit to human stupidity and selfishness, and must they always lead us into chaos and violence?