Pont Workshop: Bill Goes to Heaven
Sirály, 27th November 8.30 PM
a comedy in tree acts
Writer: Béla Szegedi-Szabó Béla
Director: László Keszég
Players:
Sheriff or Bill serif, later a missionary man – Zsolt Vicei
Bobby harebreeder - Botond Csillag
Daisy housewife, Bobby’s wife – Erika Pereszlényi
Elza housewife, Daisy’s friend – Andrea Gerle
Johnny harebreeder – Kornél Laboda
Elvis deity - Balázs Varga
Joe an Indian staging a coup - László Keszég
Old blind Indian - Kornél Laboda
Eulália nun, member of the Superstitious Sisters’ Order - Szilvia Baranyi
Musician: Dávid Szesztai
Music: Dávid Szesztai
In a sense, the comedy Bill Goes to Heaven is a follow-up to Béla Szegedi Szabó’s previous play, The Homecoming of Johnny Ringo—which was premiered under the title The Man Who Saw the Steak at the MU Theatre in the 2008/2009 season and performed by Pont Műhely in the stage direction of Zsolt Vicei—in that the story of mankind stretched out in space and time can be read as a grotesque „family saga”. The characters of the two episodes, their anti-Everyman-heroes, are very similar, they speak in the same language, motifs and happenings reappear. However, the setting this time is Mexico instead of the Wild West which, with the blind Indian’s crackling shop, is another familiar (rural, small town) setting: the drying out caused by our boring and helpless daily routine but also our desire for beauty, miracles, redemption and being redeemed are a reality and an experience which can be lived anywhere and anytime by all of us.
The play’s subject is also a continuation of the previous one since the author seems to be preoccupied with the same questions: who can become a hero and why, a community is moved by what sort of group dynamics, what is the pronounced and suppressed psychology of personal relationships, what’s there for us to do with the legends of the past, how do we come up with new ones, could we provide our existence with metaphysical depth? In Bill Goes to Heaven all of these are even more closely linked than in the previous play because the first is an absurd comedy about faith and blinded religiousness. Bill, the sheriff becomes the hero of his community through founding a new (private) religion which is built on Christianity as opposed to the ancient, pagan rites. The play’s humour derives from the word for word putting of the metaphorical dogmas and symbols into practice. (For example: Bill sees in the castrated Johnny the Messiah with his stigmata and, being a living proof, makes him the foundation of the new faith; whereas the fact that there is a similarity visible to the eye between Joe’s newly born children and the martyr, serves as a proof of the Immaculate Conception.)