Woke Censorship Arrives in Budapest Theater

A revival of an already divisive black comedy has been staged at the Thália Theater in Budapest, but the agency representing the author has indicated that it will not agree to the play as planned. The problem is that the African-American protagonist would be played by a white actor who paints his face black for the role, which does not fit in today’s progressive world full of woke ideology and Black Lives Matter movement. The agency did not advise though about where the theater should find a suitable Hungarian-speaking black actor.

The play in question is Martin McDonagh’s A Behanding in Spokane. The playwright is a British-Irish playwright who is known for his absurdist black humor, often challenging the modern theater aesthetic.

The story follows a mysterious man named Carmichael, who has been searching for his missing left hand for 27 years. Two bickering lovebirds, Toby (the African-American protagonist) and Marilyn, claim to be in possession of his long-ago severed appendage, and look to collect the reward that Carmichael is offering for its return. An eccentric hotel clerk, Mervyn, gets in the middle of the transaction, and his presence threatens to spoil the proceedings.

The play premiered on Broadway in 2010, and even then McDonagh’s portrayal of the black protagonist received heavy criticism from the mainstream media. In the New Yorker Magazine, Hilton Als wrote that “McDonagh adds gag after gag to the show, as if he believed that comedy could cover up the real horror at its core: the fact that blackness is, for him, a Broadway prop, an easy way of establishing a hierarchy.”

This play was performed at the Thália Theater seven years ago, and back then, the African-American character was played by a white Hungarian actor wearing blackface for the role.

The theater management has now decided to revive the production, replacing some of the actors. However, the agency representing the author has now intervened and sent a message to Thália Theater to block the play because of the casting.

The agency’s problem is that the main character of Toby is played by a masked white actor, and they have told the Hungarian theater that they will not allow the play to be performed with this cast.

Martin McDonagh is represented by Knight Hall Agency Ltd., according to available information.

It is interesting that seven years ago neither the agency nor the author found anything wrong with the Hungarian play and the casting, but the world has changed a lot since then, with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, and then the emergence of woke ideology.

Gábor Kálomista, the managing director of the Thália Theater, said that they had indeed received written notification from the agency representing the author that they would not allow the production to be performed if it featured a white actor with a colored face masquerading as Toby, the African-American protagonist. The director told Hungarian news portal Magyar Nemzet, however, that he was not concerned with the agency’s position for the time being, and that if legal proceedings were to be brought, he would be curious to see how the court would rule on the situation. The play was put on at the theater on May 6.

The woke police also struck in the Czech Republic in 2021, where a theater in Prague was also banned from running the same play with a white actor masked in blackface – a line-up that had previously been used for ten years. The Czech portal Expats reported at the time that it was said that due to a new clause by playwright McDonagh, the role of Toby must go to an actor of Black heritage.

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-black people to portray a caricature of a black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century, and by the middle of the century, blackface minstrel shows had become a distinctive American art form.

When the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s appeared, blackface started to decline in popularity, and by the turn of the 21st century, it has become considered highly offensive. Still, the practice continues in some countries.

To try to wash this theatrical practice off the face of the Earth is entirely uncalled for, and to deny that this phenomenon existed throughout history in the previous century would be a shame, because it is like trying to erase history. It has to be accepted that blackface was a common practice in the theater world, just like the fact that for centuries men played female roles in plays.

Of course, with the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, everything became illegal, children and adults alike are now  strongly recommended to take anti-racism classes to overcome prejudices, and suddenly everyone noticed that there were plays in which blackface was still present. Even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, had images of his young self published, where he was wearing blackface or brownface make-up before the 2019 election, while he constantly fights for social justice, inclusivity, and diversity.

Featured photo via Facebook/Thália Színház