From the crushing land of the earth, we will soon be able to sail out into the "boundless ocean of the sky".
Late November, 15 degrees below zero and still no snow. A circus arrives in a small Hungarian town with a dead whale as its only exhibit. Rumour has it that the circus is being followed by a mob of hundreds, which is devastating every village where the troupe performs, and the town is filled with tension and anticipation of disaster. The frightened inhabitants cling to the last vestiges of order they have left: in the home, in music, in space.
László Krasznahorkai (b. 1954) is a renowned Hungarian writer known for his dense, poetic style and apocalyptic themes. His work often explores human resilience and the collapse of the universal order, masterfully combining existential angst with black humour.
In the novel The Melancholy of Resistance, we follow the fate of several characters: Valuska, the town "idiot" who is only interested in the movement of cosmic bodies, a pure-souled freak who is unable to protect himself from the impending threat; Esther, a professor of music who closes herself off from the world and does not get out of bed, a misanthrope who is only interested in the old tuning systems of instruments; his wife, Esther, who is trying to make her way to power under the guise of "moral rearmament" and "cleansing"; and Pflaumne, who has turned her apartment into a jungle of houseplants and who is locked in a lock-up, waiting for the apocalypse to pass by without her being touched.
According to director Adam Juška, he is interested in how people react to the collapse of the established order. How to live in the face of a threat that exceeds one's strength? Can people create their own inner, personal order and does it make sense in the midst of global chaos?
Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre Grand Stage
