PARTI NAGY, LAJOS - IBUSÁR
PARTI NAGY, LAJOS - IBUSÁR
(1992. Play in 2 acts, prose. Characters: 11 men, 4 women)
Jolán Sárbogárdi, the ticket clerk at the Ibusár train station lives an unexciting life with her mother. The woman in her forties chooses writing to escape from the mundane word. Jolán is an amateur operetta writer, with Mother as her sole audience, who zealously reads her daughter’s works. Jolán turns all stones to make her works public, but her manuscripts are refused one by one by the editors. After all the failures she would even fancy her operetta to be staged in the train station building. The operetta tells the story of the love between Princess Amalia and Richárd Bajkhállóy, the handsome Hussar captain, which reflects Jolán’s own desires. Amália is Jolán herself, while the captain is Mihály Kleisemann, the ticket controller who had left her. Mihály and Jolán only spent one summer together but the woman already had big plans with the man, who broke up with her in a letter, scattering all her hopes. The characters of the operetta slowly creep back into reality: at times it is Amalia, other times it is Jolán who worries about the life of Richard on the warfront.
Lajos PARTI NAGY (1953-)
Originally from Szekszárd, the writer, poet, literary translator, after having received a degree in Pécs , started working for the Baranya County Library. He was an editor of Jelenkor literary magazine, then moved to the capital and became the secretary of the Hungarian Association of Writers, later as editor of the poetry column of the Magyar Napló. Both his prose and verse can be characterized by an inventiveness of language. He constantly references works from both popular and high literature, incorporating many quotes in his works. He plays with the phonetic similarity of words, riming terms which are similar in form but very far in meaning. Plot is minimal in his plays, with a focus on diction. His adaptations and dramatizations are also very popular.