Artistic Discoveries in European Schoolyards

National Productions | 2010, November 5

Cyber Cyrano

by István Tasnádi

Based on a true story, with devastating consequences. An isolated schoolgirl (Zsuzsi) is secretly in love with one of her classmates (Máté), who
treats her quite badly. When a new girl (Heni) joins the class, Máté soon falls for her, making Zsuzsi’s case even more hopeless. In response,
Zsuzsi creates some characters on a social networking site, which her classmates believe to be real. First she creates a boy, ‘Viktor’, the son of a
diplomat, who lives abroad, spending his time sailing and horse-riding. She introduces Heni to Viktor (virtually, of course) and Heni falls in love
with this glamorous boy who always tells Heni what Heni wants to hear.
Instead of Máté losing interest in Heni (as Zsuzsi had intended), he becomes very jealous of Viktor. So Zsuzsi creates another character, this
time an exotic girl – Viktor’s ‘sister’, Moira. Máté immediately shifts his attentions to Moira. From that moment on, Zsuzsi is in control of both
Máté and Heni’s love relationships, a puppeteer pulling the strings, influencing their feelings.
Months pass, and it is no longer possible to avoid a real meeting between the lovers. Operating behind her two characters, Zsuzsi creates the
illusion of a grand ball – Viktor’s 18th birthday party – for which Heni and Máté will have to learn to waltz and wear fine clothes. The evening
of the party finally arrives. The three – Zsuzsi, Heni and Máté – wait outside for the limousine which will take them to the castle. Of course, the
limousine never comes.
Trapped now in a fiction of her own creation, Zsuzsi tries to finish it by ‘killing off’ Viktor in a tragic horse-riding accident. Máté begins to
suspect something, and confronts Zsuzsi. The realization that it was Zsuzsi all along devastates Heni, who cannot come to terms with the fact
that the boy she was so in love with never existed. She has a nervous breakdown and tries to commit suicide. Zsuzsi is expelled and starts in a
new school where she observes her new classmates. The play finishes with Zsuzsi thinking about which new characters she might now create…

Partner