Original title: The Story of The Panda Bears Told By a Saxophonist Who Has a Girlfriend in Frankfurt

Translated by Péter Tömöry

Director: Zoltán Balázs

A slackerly young man wakes up with a girl in his bed whose name he does not remember. Nor does he remember where and how they met, their journey to his squalid apartment or what they did after they got there. The young woman is happy to explain, however—indeed, so reassuring is her recollection of the facts that he pleads with her to stay. She promises to return that night. He promises to wait for her. Nine nights are a lifetime to a man and woman brought together under curious circumstances. Bound by a promise and a bottle of wine they travel through a dream like caged lightening. Together they discover sometimes, all you need to approach perfection is a saxophone and a broken alarm clock.

„A good writer can feel the inner energy of the text, and if one follows this, the text completes itself, but if someone constrains, nothing will remain.”
Matei Visniec

Matei Visniec is one of the most famous European playwrights. He studied philosophy at Bucharest University and became an active member of the so-called Eighties Generation, who left a clear stamp on the Romanian literature. Before 1987 Matéi Visniec had made a name for himself in Romania by his clear, lucid, bitter poetry. Starting with 1977, he wrote drama; the plays were much circulated in the literary milieus but were barred from staging. In September 1987, Visniec left Romania for France, where he was granted political asylum. He started writing in French and began working for Radio France Internationale. At the present time, Visniec has had many of his works staged in France, and some twenty of his plays written in French are published. After the fall of the communist regime 30 of his plays were staged in Romania. The Hungarian theatres also play his dramas very often.

Daniela Magiaru – Critic, translator. She acquired her PhD in Arts in 2008. Her essays were published in Romania and Germany. Her first book, titled Matei Visniec, The illusion of kind words was published in 2010.

Players:

Zoltán Lendváczky
Erika Tankó
Ákos Orosz
Mariann Molnár

Discussion with Matei Visniec
(Daniela Magiaru, theater historian and Anna Scarlat, translator will also be the guests of the discussion)