cast: Tóth Szilvia, Végh Emese, Baksán Mónika, Nagy Brigitta, Gyorgyevics Milán, Bács Péter, Alpár Viktor, Nagy Bettina, Bodnár Dóra, Imre Krisztián assistant to the director and prompter: Bitter Csilla Enikő lights and sound: Kiss Tímea director: Varga Norbert
„we create a circle around us in vain – the outside world follows us night and day”
Shakuntala is a fairy child. She lives in the forest in solitude and speaks the language of birds. When she meets King Dusjanta, she falls in love with him at once. Though Kama’s arrow hits both of them, a curse separates the lovers. The beautiful recluse has to make a sacrifice for the presumptuous king. Our heroes cannot even reckon upon the whimsicality of gods and instead they have to take the advice of the wise: “we have to bear life as we can live it.”
The gates of eternal life open up in Shakuntala, the two thousand year-old play written by Kalidasa, though the shadow of gods poisons the eternity of love. Géza Hegedűs relied upon the work of the great Sanscrit poet and adapted the fascinating story of the recluse in his book The Ring of Shakuntala. Footnote Theatre from Szeged used both authors’ work in order to stop time for a while. The young company stages ancient feelings and doubts: they are sitting on the bank of the sacred Ganges, meditating on issues like sin and respect, affection and sacrifice, love and death.
The ex-members of Öthalmia Drama Group founded Footnote Theatre with the intention of addressing the young generation. A footnote is a way to give additional remarks to written works. This concept can also be applied to our theatre, as we would like to express and form our opinion. We get inspiration from values and ideas we think are important, be they written, staged or music-based. |