Village Sparrows play

Géza Gárdonyi: Village Sparrows. An everyday story in three acts. (National Theatre: 1909.) ; The half-joke, half-serious play features a mix of peasants and gentlemen. Erzsi, the judge's sister, runs away to Budapest, works as a maid, just so she can be near her soldier lover, the family finally finds her, and after resolving the new complications, they agree to the marriage. The story lines and characters of the play lean back towards the old folk theatre, here and there quite tasteless details creep into the atmospheric scenes, the liveliness of the dramatic momentum is compensated by the lifelikeness of the figure drawing. The characterisation is apt even where the writer needs some grotesque nuances to enhance the humorous effect.