ArtsEmerson Presents "Our Secrets" With Béla Pintér And Company - One Last Performance On Sunday

If your Sunday schedule allows you to make your way to Downtown Crossing and the Emerson/Paramount Center, you will not regret it. The widely acclaimed Hungarian playwright and director, Béla Pintér, has brought his company to Boston for an all-too-brief stay to present the timely and poignant play "Our Secrets." The play is performed in Hungarian with English supertitles that are easily read above the stage.

The concept of the show is that a well know Budapest artist has been plagued with difficulties in his marriage, and is haunted by inappropriate attraction to his young step-daughter. He pours out his heart to his therapist, not aware that her office has been bugged, and his secrets are being recorded for political purposes. A Party official eventually confronts him with the information, and presents him with a Godfather offer: in exchange for not sending him to prison and exposing his crime, he must agree to inform on his friends who are publishing an underground newspaper.

The set contains a giant ancient reel-to-reel tape recorder that turns periodically - either to play music, or to indicate that the proceedings are being recorded. The play is timely as it comes to Boston during a tumultuous Inauguration weekend. Mr. Pintér is asking the poignant question: "In a culture of mass surveillance, will our deepest secrets be turned against us?"

In this play, the Party is intent on squelching any news media that will criticize the regime. In light of yesterdays' troubling press briefing by President Trump's Press Secretary, these are not hypothetical issues for America. Our brothers and sisters from Hungary are giving us the gift of decades of reflection on how to survive a totalitarian regime. We are blessed to have them here - albeit briefly - to guide our thinking and questioning along these lines. Implicit in their visit is the message that the arts are crucial in helping us to maintain hope, perspective and focus in the face of growing oppression.

"Our Secrets" by Béla Pintér
ArtsEmerson - The World On Stage
Emerson/Paramount Center
Through January 22nd

Come to see "Our Secrets" on Sunday afternoon to be disturbed, provoked, and encouraged by these gifted guest artists. ArtsEmerson - The World On Stage - continues to contribute to important conversations in our community.

"Our Secrets" by Béla Pintér
ArtsEmerson - The World On Stage
Emerson/Paramount Center
Through January 22nd

ArtsEmerson Website

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