János the Brave

“Let this play speak for János the Brave, he who fights for pure emotion and his beautiful lover, he who chooses the orphan Iluska instead of the princess and half of the kingdom, instead of money and power... Let it be a fresh, lively voice in a world drowning in human weakness and the smell of gasoline. It is a spring connected to the wisdom of folk tales, clad in the luscious language of Sándor Pet?fi.” This is the kind of instructions that Ildikó Kovács left in the playbook of the puppet show titled János the Brave, written just a short time before her death. This play is based on this, and the long talks before that, when the all-important instruction was always: “Play!”
Enik? Simó's colourful and beaming puppet army completes this world of folkloric wisdom perfectly. It wasn't easy to “jam” Sándor Pet?fi's 27-chapter poem into 45 minutes without changing it totally,, but we think we did it. We tell a story, show pictures, play with puppets, all the while involving the audience into the play.
We have everything from the world of pastoral carvings, gingerbread hussars and Turkish dolls made of rags. Of course, a spirit of grotesque is also present, where else if not in the French court... Also the all-head figure of the master and the shapeless shape of the evil stepmother are almost absurd, while still remaining true to Sándor Pet?fi.
All that is good and pretty in the play is thanks to the two ladies, Ildikó Kovács and Enik? Simó, and the performer responsible for everything else is Ferenc Demeter.