I could watch the dress rehearsal of Ionesco’s Jack or The Submission the other night in the Gypsy Parliament, in case of Dragan Ristic’s production it was directed by Zoltán Balázs with a (mainly) amateur Gypsy group. I should list all (I could not) the contributors, let me emphasize from them Ildikó Gyenes’ choreography, Judit Gombár’s set and costumes.

I do not like Ionesco, I do not know this play, I cannot speak Gypsy language, I did not understand even a word, only the whole of it in its unity, that I watched theatre there. A real theatre. It is more than this. It is a good theatre.

It is a collected, humble play, a well worked out pantomime, coordinated movements at the same time!!! (The ballet group of the Operetta Theatre would envy it); the actors’ achievement... like professionals were playing together (they looked into each other’s eyes, the mimic was punctual, it came from inside, there were no falling outs), their speech technic was on a high level too. even though I did not understand the language, I can tell, that the direction is coherent, logical, its rhythm is whirling, but it can hold out the silences, the frozen movements; the director feels what is met communication is about, what can have an informative power, his style is coherent (there is no eclectics!); the set, the lighting (up to the possibilities), the costumes, the music (pot and vocality): each of them are excellent. And the humour! If people are able to laugh, even though they do not understand the language, then the humour is a real one! A real Ionesco and a real Gypsy theatre. Here they could combine the ethnic specialities with the most European culture.

This is culture – on a special level. The main part of the audience is young, Gypsy intellectuals, the pleasing descendants, it was good to see them, it was good to be with them, despite of the fact that there was no cloakroom, the place was tight and airless, only the older ones got chairs, the younger ones were sitting cross-legged on pillows on the ground. Some theatrical experts, real veterans were interested in the group too. And the Gypsies are wonderful (this is not politics, not public affairs, it is really your own business – it is up to your taste. The Afro-Americans are wonderful too, but for a long time they have not known it about themselves too, we have had to explain it to them for a long time, that black is beauty!)

They told me that thanked you Ákos for coming there. No! I thank you for the night, thank you for the invitation that I could be there.

Meanwhile in the Gara Street there was an eviction. They calmed me, that it was only the beginning, there are plans for sixty more of them. (It seems to be the Gypsy Széchenyi plan.) The Gypsy activists of civil rights were taken in bonds...

Ibolya Dávid – according to the public satisfaction - will solve somehow the Gypsies’ problem, or at least get it from everyday topics. In the evenings they have already called the popular minister of justice, who knew that there is some loophole here – she would look it up the next day. It made everybody calm. They did not take in bonds the Gypsies who were fighting against their own eviction, but the fighters of civil rights. To learn it for once and forever...

The message is clear. Gypsy, fawn to power, you can get some charity! But do not talk about your rights, it is not America here. No „civil organization” – do not play with fire! You cannot become a martyr here, like Martin Luther King; for the Gypsies no bullets remain just the bond. And a big national, conservative slap by a patrol officer. By the way: the mayor is socialist, the district leader of the financial department is liberal. Are there any antifascists in this country – besides the minorities who are affected?

And Ionesco is said to be absurd.

Ákos Kertész, Könyvhét, 2002