DUST

1925 East Kenilworth Ave, 5th floor.

Discount options for seniors and students also available.

Pay-what-you-can tickets available for the 10/26 performance.

DUST is a delightful, dark comedy by György Spiró, one of Hungary’s leading contemporary playwrights. Set in post-communist Hungary around 2005, a couple, struggling to stay afloat in a new world, one lucky day, is given an opportunity to alter their fate forever when the husband comes home with a winning lottery ticket.

The couple travels through 75 minutes of whirlwind reasoning and discussion as they face this opportunity that rarely comes around to anyone. Spiró loads the stage with many vital and pertinent issues, seen through the eyes of the couple. Handled with a sense of humor and deep understanding, this play touches the heart and inspires the mind.

György Spiró, born in 1946 in Budapest, is a dramatist, novelist and essayist who has emerged as one of Hungary’s most prominent post-war literary figures. His plays have won numerous awards, including several for best Hungarian drama of the year. A few of them are available in English translation. The best known one is Chickenhead (1986). Dramatic Exchange described it as "widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years." His most recent novel is the hugely successful Tavaszi Tárlat (Spring exhibition, 2010), describing the early days of the Kadar regime.

We chose DUST because it is particularly pertinent to the plight of many today living in poverty. It is not merely a story taking place in post-communist Hungary. It is a play that could be taking place anywhere, today – familiar to us here in the United States, and familiar to societies, the world over, as the middle class dwindles, and more and more people struggle to meet even their most basic needs.

We first saw DUST in Ljubljana, Slovenia, performed by the Slovenian National Drama, and fell in love with the play due to the cleverness of the playwright, the timeliness of the issues, and the comedic and dark approach to presenting the issues. Theatre Gigante premiered the piece in the Midwest in 2013, and, as far as we know, it has not been performed in the U.S. since then. Therefore, we are very happy to bring it back to life.

Host or Publisher Theatre Gigante