The Good Life in Aggtelek National Park Part XXXVI: Kassa and The Broken Jug

Our friends Nora and Andras came to visit us this weekend. Kata made a yummy eggplant moussaka for dinner, and I threw together a rocket-carrot salad from the garden. The next day, they went off on the Vörös-tó Intermediate Baradla Cave Tour, and then we met them in the afternoon for a trip to Kassa/Kosice. The outer city is still a pit, but the old town is full of gorgeous old beautiful buildings.

For my 47^th birthday a couple weeks ago Kata gave me tickets to a play of my choice at the Miskolc National Theatre. I chose the premier of The Broken Jug not only because of the story, but because our friend Nori's younger brother Artur Szőcs was directing.

Before we went to the theatre, we made a pilgrimage to the Kortyolda across the street for 3 bottles (4.5 litres) of their scrumptious chestnut beer. For me, it has the strong flavour of hazelnut. 400 HUF for a litre of excellent homebrew cannot be beat.

By this time, we were also in desperate need of a meal, and grabbed a pizza at Dolce Vita Pizzeria next door. The pizza was nothing special, but the service was very friendly.

"The Broken Jug (also sometimes translated The Broken Pitcher) (Der zerbrochne Krug) is a comedy written by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. Kleist first conceived the idea for the play in 1801, upon looking at a copper engraving entitled "Le juge, ou la cruche cassée." The Broken Jug mocks the failings of human nature and the judicial system in a forgiving way. It is similar to Sophocles' tragedyOedipus the King (c. 429 BCE), in that in both plays the judge is guilty, but different insofar as Adam knows from the start who is guilty, as does the audience, and is trying his hardest to conceal the truth." - Wikipedia

From the start, I knew I was in trouble with the dialogue. This does not happen very often anymore, but sadly I missed a lot because of the vocabulary and the speed in which the lines were delivered. Even so, I was able to follow the story and was able to recognise that the actors and actresses did a magnificent job, in particular Anna Györgyi. Julianna Czakó's face and body language as the emotionally pent up and tense young girl reminded us a lot of our adorable two year old neighbour, little Emma. Tibor Gáspár on the other hand reminded me a lot of John Lithgow in The Magistrate. The staging was also full of creative ideas. It is difficult to describe, but drawing and writing on blackboards placed on walls and furniture sometimes took the place of the action. For example, instead of showing the actors eating a meal, once they "ate" something, the dish was erased from a list on a blackboard. Or when they were drinking wine, ticks were placed next to a drawn wineglass for each glass imbibed rather than showing the actors actually drinking.

The play starred:

Walter, the Tribunal Court Advisor - SIMON ZOLTÁN

Ádám, Local Judge - GÁSPÁR TIBOR Jászai Prize winner

Sugár, Court Clerk írnok - KOKICS PÉTER

Márta - GYÖRGYI ANNA Jászai Prize Winner

Éva - CZAKÓ JULIANNA

Following the performance, we joined Artur and the actors upstairs in a small restaurant/bar set aside for the theatre's staff. On the way home we stopped off at Tesco for a single bottle of cider needed for a mushroom recipe for West Country Stroganoff with wood and field blewits. Our neighbour Sanyi had just given us a big bag of wood blewits, honey fungus, and field mushrooms (champignons) and we had to process them and use them as soon as possible because our freezer is full. Besides the St. George, Chanterelle, Truffle and Cep, the Wood Blewit is cited as one of the top 5 uniquely flavoured mushrooms. Wood blewit and garlic is supposed to go as well together, and be as inseparable as strawberries and cream. We will see. In the meantime, we made a mushroom tart with field mushrooms. These champignons are completely unlike the store bought variety! They have a wonderful aroma I can only describe as purple. I know that makes no sense, but I think purple when I smell them. The honey fungus is going to be more difficult. These mushrooms are very high in pectin and must be parboiled for 15-20 minutes and rinsed well before use.

In reference to my previous post about our ladybird invasion, I just learned that the collective noun for ladybirds is a loveliness of ladybirds.