Asterion Project presents Square- Theatre play in English
Asterion Project, a multicultural Theatre group based in Budapest will have a new premiere titled SQUARE! First premiere of Square will be in Wien on 8th of March and then on 14th of March in Budapest`s RS9 Theatre.
After the big success of their last performance, Most Budapest, a comedy about foreigners living in Budapest, this time they picked up a different, more serious and sensitive topic.
Square touches topics like: human rights, ignorance, love, hate, humanity,crime, gender. It is inspired by Diana Son`s play Stop kiss,” a poignant, funny play about the ways both sudden and slow that lives can change irrevocably.” Callie is an unhappy traffic reporter on a New York tv channel. Sara is a highly dedicated teacher in an under-privileged neighborhood in the Bronx. What could they possible have in common? Well nothing it seems at first- Callie has grudgingly agreed as a friend of a friend to look after Sara’s grumpy cat Caesar. They seem to irritate one another when they first meet.
This taut drama has the underlying theme of the problem of acknowledging one’s sexuality and as the bond between the two women grows so does the tension.
A relationship that isn’t consummated can still provide a lot of humor and the comic timing between the two lead characters couldn’t be sharper as they grapple, our rather don’t with the physical side of their relationship. Throw in a couple of unsympathetic ex-boyfriends and the story gets more and more tangled. A chance kiss in a West Village street leads to a horrendous physical assault on Sara. The crime is treated with disdain by the police and bewilderment by the ex boyfriends.
Read alsoTheatre scene for expats in Budapest: Asterion Project Theatre
And worse still Callie is reluctantly “ outed “ by the subsequent publicity. Just when you think the play couldn’t get gloomier there’s a kind of redemptive catharsis as Callie tells the speechless Sara “ choose me “, its a powerful and touching moment. What has kept “Square” fresh is its inventive dramatic structure. Square with its nonlinear storytelling that tackles both tragedy and comedy, is a tumble dryer of emotion.
The chronology of events is fractured in such a manner that the play isn’t simply leading up to a crime incident.
It’s about the subtler effects of living in a society in which intolerance is an unspoken fact. Nearly 20 years after its premiere, this 1998 drama remains uncomfortably relevant. The recent London bus assault on two women, an attack that eerily mirrors Square plot two decades on, occurred less than a year ago. Not to mention situation and reactions that happened in Budapest when Coca-Cola launched their campaign called Love is love or what happened the other day in Budapest bar Instant. “People are not born to hate. Hate is a learned behavior that begins early in life as children watch their parents and relatives as well as their peers on the playground. Hate is a product of ignorance and is fueled by fear and anger.
Hate can be “unlearned” through education and awareness.”
But even as Square confronts the reality of physical violence, imaginative, moving, and surprising comedy brings audiences and her principal characters to unexpected places. The tragic consequences of their kiss, the center of this powerful drama, serve as both an indictment of hatred and a moving study of the perils inherent in living life fully. Living life fully, making choices and commitments is a scary business, ”Square” suggests, but what is the alternative?
Like in our previous projects, also now we have a multicultural team, actors, artists from different countries, India (Payal Vashist), USA (Michah Himmelman), Nigeria (Kevin Ogunleye), Costa Rica (Paula Parducz), Hungary (Barnabas Réti), Croatia (Čarna Kršul,), Russia (Rita Lem) and for the third time we are collaborating with a world known Hungarian choreographer, János Feledi.
Square
Date: 14th of March
Venue: RS9 (Rumbach Sebestyen utca 9)
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