Attila Bartis
a play in one act
Catching sight of and desiring a young girl in one second, charming her, choosing her as one’s muse, taking her photo immediately, or even more, photographing her in the nude—not an unexceptional achievement from a man’s part, even if he is an excellent and successful photographer at the peak of his career. Attila Bartis’s powerful play opens with this daring and unexpected upbeat. But this huge and desperately suggestive energy radiates from the play’s hero only because he has just found out: he has little time left, he has an incurable disease.
The twosome’s relationship which is full of emotions and conflicts is made tragic not only by the closeness of death but also because of the presence of a third character, the man’s wife. Moreover, the situation is gradually becoming quite tragicomic as the author, with a daring twist, introduces a crime story thread as the girl’s relatives make their appearance and they start blackmailing and later threatening first the photographer and then his wife.
Attila Bartis is one of our most important contemporary writers. His extremely successful debut was in 2001 with his novel Calmness, which was also turned into a play and into a film. The novel was critically acclaimed and appreciated by readers abroad as well.
The performance is recommended to an adult audience.