Csaba Székely: BANSKY FLOWER

Life in a backwater village has always been hard and poor, but poverty does not lose its honour. But the closure of the survivalist mine disproves this age-old wisdom. Unemployed Ivan knows this. Moreover, for two years now he has been taking care of his bedridden father, who is somehow not going to the next world. Even Ivan's sister Ilonka, who has tasted city life for a while and brings new energy to the despair, doesn't change that. Michal, the local doctor, has also gradually worked his way up from educating about healthy living to alcoholism, but he has enough to do - suicides in the village are somehow increasing. What role does neighbour Elias have in all this? Why does his wife Irma bring Ivan compotes? And why has Slovak Television come to the village? Is there even a chance for change or is this a heavy legacy of generations?

Csaba Székely' s tragicomedy Mining Flower shows the true reality of life in a village where people live as hard and strict as a mine, but inside they hide great human wealth. The author knows very well the soul of a man from the rural periphery, where not only the hustle and bustle of the mining machines, but also time has stood still. The play has a strong social line, but is laced with a gritty black humour in the spirit of Martin McDonagh's best writing (e.g. the play Beauty of Leenane, the film Ghosts of Inisherin). The Košice production situates the story in the multinational environment of central Gemer, which is also adapted to the specific dialect of the characters. The play was the best new Hungarian drama of the 2011/2012 season, its first performance in Slovakia.