A HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY

I think of György, Ágnes and their two daughters as family. This mildly incoherent, wildly subjective archival project burst out of one of Ági’s rather wonderful dinners when she and George started telling me about how they met in the 1960’s. Sometimes, these conversations crackle with fun and whimsy and then George, with a Hungarian accent dripping with gravitas and a lifetime in the theatre, lobs in a comment, utterly hamming it up which sets Ági off in peels of laughter and so it continues. What’s not to love?

George and Ági’s story starts in 1960s communist Budapest in the foreign-language bookshop, a sop to the outside world. Foreign visitors would be carefully guided to the bookshop, as if to say ‘look at us, aren’t we international, aren’t we outward looking?’ But it was the only place in the country where you could buy foreign-language books. And it was here that the young theatre director George first saw Ági, a linguistically-gifted bookshop assistant. And so he asked her if she would like to accompany him to an opening night and she of course, took 6 years to properly say yes.

What follows, over fifty years are two lives that sparkle with curiosity, enquiry and integrity in a political context that has shifted from one system to the next. From the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian fascists in World War II, to communist occupation and the 1956 uprising, to the present day populist capitalist government. Politics touches all areas of life in Hungary but what all these regimes share, is the demand on their citizens to conform and toe the party-line. Original thought, creativity and outward-looking curiosity can have real consequences for people like George and Ági who cannot but help peep under and over the iron, fascist and capitalist curtains that Hungary seems to place around its citizens.

Ági and Ildikó

The little girl sitting on the swing with the funny little cockscomb on the top of her head, very trendy for little girls in 1948, well this little girl is me aged 7. I have my beloved sister with me and we are talking and laughing as usual. I loved that huge ancient swing. I used to ask people to push me really high.

We are in what was to be one of the most important places of our life for the following fourteen years - our garden in the Pasarét neighbourhood of Budapest. My father made that beautiful garden and built the house out of wood - it was too cold to stay there in the winter. That way, the authorities would not take the house from us as it was only used from April to October.

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Dear Ági,
I hope you don’t mind that I address you like this but somehow, as I began writing this letter, I feel that we know each other much better than time and space has made possible. I feel as if I have known you more deeply and for a much longer time than I had a chance to before I came to Debrecen. Of course I cannot know whether it is only me who has this feeling or, perhaps, it is mutual….

I hope you are doing well and do not work or worry about things too much. As for me, I work quite a lot these days. I started rehearsals two weeks ago….architecturally the main building of the University looks very similar to the Schönbrunn Castle in Vienna. It is a really beautiful building with a very special atmosphere. I wish I could be a student at this University, or at least it would be great to know that you are going to be one!

Believe me, I think it would be a much better choice for you to come here than apply to ELTE in Budapest. Best quality teaching and a very special milieu – that’s what you would get here.
Think about it again before you come to a final decision. I wonder if I could ask you to write to me when you have a little time? And now a very mundane question: has the bookshop got any new English books lately? If yes, do you think there would be anything interesting for me? You are often in my thoughts and I send my warmest regards to you,

Lengyel György

Debrecen, February 27, 1961