The woke craze has already reached Hungary: the performance of Martin McDonagh's The Big Hand Robbery was banned in front of ap remier by the agency representing the author on the grounds that the African-American character was played by a masked white actor. The Thália Theater wanted to reschedule the performance. Seven years ago, the play was performed in the same way as it is now, and the agency saw nothing wrong with it then.
There was a black comedy, A nagy kézrablás, which was presented by the Thália Theater in 2016, i.e. seven years ago. The show was directed by Márk Radnai, and among the actors Tibor Szervét (Carmichael), Zoltán Tamási (Mervyn), Rozi Lovas (Marilyn) and Bálint Bán (Toby) were among the actors. According to its order and method, the theater bought the rights to play the play from the agency representing the author. Bálint Bán played an African-American character, and was made up accordingly.
The management of the theater has now decided to renew the performance. The director is the same, but some of the actors have been replaced: " In the character of Mervyn, Zoltán Tamási once again triggers tsunamis of laughter in the audience, perfectly mastering McDonagh's brilliantly crazy texts. The dangerously one-handed racist is played by Gábor Csőre, also excellently. Nándor Jámbor plays the role of Toby, the colorful grasshopper with dreadlocks, and Alexa Bakonyi portrays Marilyn, the half-witted girl, in a very fun and colorful way," noted Index.hu.
But this time, the agency did not take kindly to the masking, so it sent a message to the Thália Theater about blocking it due to the cast.
A lot has changed in the world since the 2016 presentation. Among other things, Martin McDonagh's agency somehow got the word out: Toby's character is played by a masked white actor, and a few days before the show, he informed Thália Theater in writing that he would not allow the play to be performed with such a cast.
About the ban, Gábor Kálomista, the managing director of the Thália Theater, said: they did indeed receive a written notice from the agency representing the author that they would not allow the play to be played if a white actor disguised as a colored person plays the character of Toby.
" The director, who is not averse to lawsuits, told our question that he is not dealing with the agency's position for the time being. If legal proceedings were to take place, he is anxiously waiting to see how the court will judge this situation, " reads Magyar Nemzet .
Source: hirado.hu
The featured image is an illustration: Bálint Bán as Toby, Rozi Lovas as Marilyn and Tibor Szervét as Carmichael in Martin McDonagh's black comedy The Big Hand Robbery at the Thália Theater in 2016 (Photo: screenshot)
