Artistic Discoveries in European Schoolyards

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a play by Aare Toikka (Estonia) and Peter Horvath (Hungary)

A fourteen years old (Estonian) boy and a twelve year old (Hungarian) girl (the home countries can be changed to any country) spend their holiday in an International Youth Camp in Finland in winter time. Together with some other boys and girls they steal some snowmobiles to take part in an illegal race in the dark evening. The girl and the boy are together on the same toboggan. They lose their way, the snowmobile breaks down in the forest, a long way from the camp. It’s a dark and cold night. What can they do? Finding a cottage for shelter, they decide to wait there until somebody finds them and helps them to get back to the camp. Nobody comes to their rescue. There’s a big snowstorm. The boy and girl spend a number of days and nights together, eventually they run out of firewood, food and drink. They have to come to grips with the fact that they may die. The boy can’t speak Hungarian and the girl can’t speak Estonian. Both can speak English a little bit, so they have to communicate in their English, this is a difficult process. They neither understand each other very well, nor do they trust each other very much. The games and the tales help them to get to know each other better and to try and find a way to stay alive and to protect each other.

Two actors, one spotlight: the duration of the play is approximately one hour.

Please note: primitive English will be spoken in parts of this production!