Budapest’s Ujszinhaz will definitely feature a play by Istvan Csurka, although The Sixth Coffin, originally intended to be the highlight of next season, will be replaced by another piece, Gyorgy Dorner, the director, told a press conference on Wednesday.
Dorner said he had decided not to stage The Sixth Coffin – seen by critics as having anti-Semitic message – after a discussion with Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos. He said that he has not selected another play yet, but insisted that any Csurka piece could attract capacity crowd.
Dorner also voiced his conviction that “more people would be interested in The Sixth Coffin than not” and said it is a managerial mistake to skip the business opportunity involved.
The mayor did not ban the play but made a recommendation, which Dorner, he said, accepted as “the owner’s employee”.
On August 29, some 500 left-wing supporters staged a demonstration in Budapest and called for efforts to fight racism. The protesters’ demands included the removal of the late radical nationalist playwright’s title from Ujszinhaz’s planned programme.
Speakers at the demonstration lambasted the government for its “open support of the extreme right” and called Ujszinhaz a “stronghold of fascism”.
