After Ukrainians, Lithuanians try to school Hungary on 1956

“Neither the Ukrainians or the Lithuanians have any right to school us,” announced Zsolt Jeszenszky in the Pesti TV Politikai Hobbista (Political Hobbyist) television show. The host was reacting to the messages that Lithuanian actors addressed to audiences in Hungarian during their performances in the MITEM International Theater Festival. Attila Vidnyánszky, the director of the National Theater commented on the matter: “despite this, we still maintain our own opinions and will continue to.”

“What they failed to achieve with the Free SZFE struggle last year, the deservedly world-famous Lithuanian actors now managed: the Orbán system has cracked,” Zsolt Jeszenszky, television personality in the Pesti TV channel, commented with irony on the Lithuanian actor’s messaging in Hungarian in the National Theater where they are performing as part of the MITEM international theater festival.

The Lithuanian company, Dramatic Theater of Klaipeda, inserted two Ukrainian flags between the legs of Lena during their show on Carvaggio’s life. These flags were accompanied by a banner with the words (in Hungarian), “Hungarians, do not be indifferent!”

Another Lithuanian company, the Vilnius City Theater, held up a picture at the end of their performance of Ivan Viripajev’s Delhi Dance with the words (in English): “Are you sure Orbán? Hungary 1956 – Ukraine 2022”

Zolt Jeszenszky, host of the Pesti TV Political Hobbyist show, stated:

After the Ukrainians, now the Lithuanians want to school us on 1956 as well. So, the very same countries whose soldiers in ‘56, as part of the Soviet Union, took part in crushing the Hungarian freedom fight. Neither the Ukrainians nor the Lithuanians have any right to school us!

See the episode on this here. 

As Magyar Nemzet wrote, following the events, the National Theater published both English and Hungarian statements on the affair. In this they said that “the National Theater has taken note of the provocative political messages following the two Lithuanian performances (Between Lena’s legs… and Delhi Dance) on April 26, 2022, during the MITEM (Madách International Theater Meeting) festival.” They pointed out that, though the organizers of MITEM and directors of the National Theater were aware of these forthcoming actions, they did not stand in the way of the artists’ freedom of expression. They emphasized that Hungary’s government and the Hungarian people are supporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees with significant financial, logistic, and humanitarian aid. Aside from this, the National Theater and MITEM organized a separate day of solidarity for Ukrainian artists.

We regret that the Lithuanian companies ignored this fact and presented a one-sided view of Hungarians on this matter,

– they wrote in the statement.

Attila Vidnyánszky, director of the National Theater and host of the MITEM festival reacted to the Lithuanian political messages at his audience conference. The director said:

“Everyone is trying to tell us how to do things, one after the other. We’ve been living like this for a thousand years: the Tatars, the Turkish, the Austrians, the Germans all tried to tell us how to live because they know better; the communists forced us to do as they please for 40 years. The

Americans also seem to know very well how exactly to live, and now they’re telling everyone how to – just as they them in Iraq, in Syria. Now we see that there is another people, the Lithuanian people, that want to tell us how to live.”

Despite this, we still maintain our own opinions and will continue to

– affirmed Vidnyánszky.

Borítókép: The National Theater organized a special Ukrainian Solidarity Day within the framework of MITEM with the participation of Ukrainian artists (Photo: National Theater)