A Novel of Ulitskaya on the Stage in Budapest

This article was originally published in The CEU Weekly, Issue 26, Year 3, January 16, 2013

http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/01/ulitskayas-novel-on-stage-in-budapest.html

Lyudmila Ulitskaya is certainly the most popular and well-known contemporary Russian writer in Hungary. She has already visited Hungary twice and she has even an official Hungarian website (www.ulickaja.hu). Ulitskaya was the honorary guest of the International Book Festival of Budapest in 2009. At this occasion I succeeded to approach her for a dedication in one of her books. When she was invited to several Hungarian cities in 2011, she had already pain in her hands by the time of her arrival to Budapest, so she did not give dedications, for my disappointment.

Eleven of her books have been translated into Hungarian, some of them were published more than once. For instance “Sincerely Yours, Shurik”, which has been adapted to the stage by a Hungarian play reader, Bea Selmeczi. This staging now is played in Rózsavölgyi Szalon with great success.

In the first few minutes of the performance I felt a bit strange, since the narrator’s style was pretty sarcastic and all the characters were interpreted as if they were totally crazy and I imagined them in a different way. However, after a few minutes I started to enjoy it very much and I realized that the performance is not a parody of the novel, although I laughed all the time. The absurd tone of the narrator and the slightly exalted behavior of the actresses made the recognition in the end only sharper, that Shurik’s youth went by, his years were gone suddenly while he was overwhelmed with little and not really significant tasks to console almost all the women in his environment (first of all sexually). The novel’s narrative was supplemented by Bea Selmeczi with short historical remarks on the events of the Cold War (the story occurred in the years between 1959 and 1989) in which these characters living in the capital of the Soviet Union were absolutely disinterested, since overwhelmed with their own pains.

Agnes Kelemen

Nationalism Studies, Hungary