Romani amateur theater group from Slovakia pokes fun at the cult of youth

A theater production entitled “Kamav aver muršes” (I Want Another Man) was performed at Prague’s Rock Café as part of the KHAMORO World Roma Festival 2017 last week. The production was performed by an amateur Romani theater group from Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.

The group was created in 2014 as an initiative of the Romani Literary Club association, ROLIK. Director Marian Balog chose to stage a piece of prose by author Eva Gašparová Plešková, a member of the amateur group who also performed the main role of the dissatisfied wife, “Boženka”.

The story of the play, the plot of which takes place in the family of an older Romani couple, is based on the wife’s judgment that her husband urgently needs to rejuvenate, and that it would be best if he did so with the aid of plastic surgery. This kind of restoration of youthfulness brings about not just positive effects, but also unanticipated changes.

The actors managed to create an atmosphere that authentically led the audience into the life of a Romani family, where a sense of humor (and sometimes also the wife) rules the roost. As is customary in Romani families, live music and singing were also part of the show, spontaneously enlivening the plot of the comedy with the aid of the audience members as well.

The engaging, sensitive voice of a saxophone and that of the main male performer left nobody in doubt about his character’s misfortunes. Fortunately for him, his wife ultimately gets the wisdom to see – and the audience to acknowledge – that love blooms at all ages, even when there are wrinkles.