The premiere of Karol Wojtyła’s play “In front of the jewelry shop” was presented by the Budapest Opera and Voeroesmarty Theater from Szekesfehervar on the occasion of the International Eucharistic Congress.
The director of the show, Janos Szikora, said that Wojtyła’s drama was much more difficult than any other dramatic text that was made easier to understand by a plot or an action.
“Hearing it once is not enough, you have to think about it. (…) Here the story is behind the text, but it is not the story that carries the words, but the opposite – words carry history. Therefore, the play’s subtitle is Meditation on the Sacrament of Marriage. You have to find the right form for this meditation on stage,” he pointed out.
As he emphasized, the text of the play is to be an introduction to spiritual considerations, and its understanding is facilitated by the music used in the performance.
“If we combine Karol Wojtyła’s work with music, the most appropriate would be the work of a composer who got to know him when he was young and also studied in Krakow. Thus, the choice fell on the works of Krzysztof Penderecki. Now I think it is very good because Penderecki’s music deepens the spiritual layer of the text so much,” he said.
Szikora said that for the first time he encountered the dramatic works of St. John Paul II in 1991 when he came to Hungary on his first pilgrimage.