Spring Weekend 2020: Mine Flowers at Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival

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2. Spring Weekend 2020: Mine Flowers

Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival, honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel, presents "Mine Flowers." A present-day mining town in Romanian Transylvania has experienced mass unemployment due to its mine closure. Deep poverty and despondency drive many men into alcoholism and suicide. Yet, life stubbornly creeps up. Is there somebody able to mend the fate of a community? The downtrodden, unemployed miner Ivan Vajda takes care of his ill father. Alongside his half-sister, Ilonka, his friend and his neighbors, Ivan copes in a world vastly different from what he had envisioned. Consumed by desires and ideas, all characters try to escape in their own way.

Mine Flowers (2011). Playwright: Csaba Szekely (Hungary). Director: Mary Linehan. Cast: Chris Carfizzi (Illes), Kendra Lee Oberhauser (Irma), Kevin Sebastian (Mihaly), Michael Turner (Ivan), Stephanie Windland (Ilonka). Running time: 90 min. A tragicomic tale, Mine Flowers uses clever linguistic humor to explore destructive social issues as well as the emotional tolls that unemployment takes on an individual.

"In spite of the characters miserable destinies and the multitude of regrets, Mine Flowers is not a gloomy play. The dark humor of the play helps us observe, from a safe distance, the world that we live in. We wake up from a bitter dream from which the characters of the play can never escape, states the author," Csaba Szekely.

Mine Flowers first prize at the 2011 National Theater Festival in Pecs, Hungary, for best script. The performance is followed by Q&A.

The event is free and will be broadcasted online, live on Zoom, at 7:00 pm. RSVP is required to receive password for free viewing. RSVP online: www.rehearsalfortruth.eventbrite.com.

ABOUT THE 2020 SPRING WEEKEND
The 2020 Spring Weekend is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Untitled Theater Company #61. Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by New York City-based actors and directors. The program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; and Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair, the Slovak Center - International Association of Theatre Critics.The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.