Entering the Theater for the New City on 1st avenue, you think of a building that needs serious maintenance and renovation. Since, performing art is underrated and as tourists flock to Broadway, the theater’s wear and tears is a reminder of the embrace of mainstream and the abandonment of indie plays which is surviving on government funds and donations. From the bare walls, rancid smell of old buildings, I wasn’t really expecting much. Especially when I got the black and white playbill, saw the small stage set, and the seats that did not fill up although there weren’t many of them.
Liselotte in May is a Hungarian play written by Zsolt Pozsgai, the actors, directors and producers are also Hungarian. It is a “tragicomedy” about Liselotte, woman in her 30’s who inherited a flat at 10 Bleecker street from a old lady who she had looked after for the past decade. She had lived without friends and lovers for the last ten years; before she starts her job as a nurse in June, she wants to find a husband of whom she could share her life with. Her expectations are not high for the mate she wants to spend the rest of her life with in this lovely apartment.
First person she met is a classmate whose wife had just passed away. She cooks for him, they fall in love, it’s the first date, he chokes on fish (sounds ridiculous but imagine the death of someone you just fall in love with!). Reluctant to give up, she places an ad on newspaper for a husband, meets a nervous accountant, falls in love, almost got intimate, and he passes away from excitement. Still determined to find someone to spend the rest of her life with, she meets the nephew of the lady she had nursed, he’s a paranoid hipster- fearing the end of the world, global warming, and although they liked each other, you can see that she fears him, it was out of desperation she clings onto him, and sadly, he had to prove there is no reason to live and jumps off from the flat. Liselotte slowly loses it, with a room of disarray, she starts to drink. A plumber goes to fix her leaks, she is drunk, desperate, seduces and dances with him, in euphoria as they dance, they stumble, breaks the lamp she likes, in an attempt to fix it, he electrocutes himself and dies.
Low expectations turn to desperation since she still fails to find someone. All hell lets loose and she is close to dementia and hallucination. You are not sure if the poet who she has a relationship with is real or not as they recite the poems he writes, as he tells of the story of how he got admitted to asylum. He jumps out the window to prove the world is not real and all he has- is his poetry. Another tragedy befalls.
In her most desperate attempt, she brings a hobo home and tries to shape him to be the one. Humor mixed with sadness, of course, as the viewer can easily perceive, this will most definitely not work. Hobo goes through her drawers as she gets the bath ready, when she comes out, he is uncontrollable and attempts to stab her with a knife, they struggle, she kills him inadvertently.
The end of the play, our tragic hero is with a faceless man who hides behind his hat. She has her belongings packed in a leather trunk and asks the man to help her carry it. After an intense dialogue of nostalgia and emotions, they sit in front of the audience with their backs facing us, as though they were watching her life pass by with us.
The story is an exaggeration of reality; an emphasis on how loneliness can change into desperation; how we want a little piece of what we perceive to be happiness only to find it so difficult to attain, so meaningless at the end. It’s a melodrama presented in a comedic form. Liselotte is the hopefulness we cling onto to be happy, to be meaningful, to fit into society as we reach a certain age, to not be alone and to have a companion.
Chris Kardos is the actor who performs all the male roles in the play; his ability to be versatile and his control of his voice and accent is very amazing. The chemistry between the two leads (who are also the only actors in this play) is very convincing. Love the lighting to create atmosphere and mood along with the occasional tragically upbeat music is a wonderful complement to the play. Even though it’s a low production play, I was amazed at the quality of play you can see for $15. It was sad to see the actors a bit shy as audiences had not filled the whole theater. Go watch it if you have a chance! Still running till Sept.
nanansa 