Prah

György Spiró (1946) is a dramatist, novelist and essayist who has emerged as one of post-war Hungary’s most prominent literary fi gures. He is a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. His plays have won numerous awards, including several for best Hungarian drama of the year. His avant-garde style, depicting coarse language and characters outside the pale of respectability, often dismayed more traditional Hungarian critics. His play Prah (2005) is a story about unexpected fortune and incredible opportunity. Spiró tells the story of a middle-aged couple, who have just won six hundred million forints on the lottery. These characters, born and raised under the communist regime, are used to observe and comment upon the societal changes that have occurred since the collapse of the Iron Curtain. The couple can not cope with the unexpected fortune: they can not buy their past years back, and they also can not purchase their future. It’s easy to dream about something, but difficult to be really happy about it. In that certain minute they do not know what to do, but while they are thinking about it, planning the future: just to make sure they hide away the sweep-ticket in a box labeled KAKAO-PRAH. This box is from an old summer holiday at the Croatian seaside, and it contained"kakao prah" cocoa powder. So the box is like the past, in which they imprison their future.