We wanted to get our friends tickets to The Broken Jug at the Miskolc National Theatre, a production directed by Artur Szőcs we thoroughly enjoyed a couple years ago. Unfortunately, it is only scheduled to be performed again in March or so. A bit late for a Christmas present, so we settled on the Illatszertár. It turns out that it is the original Hungarian version of one of my favourite classic movies, The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring Jimmie Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. The film, for anyone in the know enough to spot it, is full of Hungarian references. The shop is on Andrassy Ut, the cash register rings up sales in the old Hungarian pengő currency, etc. It then comes as no surprise that the play was written by Hungarian Miklós László. A more modern film version took place in Seattle and starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, You've Got Mail.

But I had no idea about this at the time. All I knew was that the Illatszertár was supposed to be good. I was overjoyed when I discovered my good fortune to finally be able to see the original. I have never been able to find the story or film in Hungarian. The set was magnificently secessionist - everything from the stairs to the windows and shelves. A truly beautiful set. As the action took place in a basement shop, the stage designers installed a big window through which one could see the legs of passersby (other actors) through the falling snow. We have now seen András Rusznák

Zoltán Simon in several other productions including Momo, The Attic and The Broken Jug, but so far I think these were their best roles.