Shadow of Heroes | |
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Written by | Robert Ardrey |
Date premiered | 7 October 1958 |
Place premiered | Piccadilly Theatre, London |
Original language | English |
Subject | Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Post-war Communist Hungary |
Genre | Drama |
Setting | Hungary |
Shadow of Heroes, a play in five acts from the Hungarian Passion is a 1958 documentary drama by Robert Ardrey. It concerns the lead-up to the Hungarian Uprising and its aftermath. Its premiere resulted in the release from Soviet custody of two political prisoners, Julia Rajk and her son. [1]
Shadow of Heroes was first produced at the Piccadilly Theatre in London on 7 October 1958. It starred Dame Peggy Ashcroft, and was notable in giving a non-romantic leading role to a woman. The play was subsequently produced in New York and Germany. [1]
Shadow of Heroes was broadcast to acclaim on television by the BBC program Sunday Night Theatre on 19 July 1959. [2] The BBC production starred Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Eric Porter, with production by Michael Barry. [3] A television adaptation was made in Australia in 1961. [4]
The first act opens in 1944 and follows two members of the anti-Nazi Hungarian Resistance, László Rajk and his wife Julia. They are captured and tortured. At the end of the act, as World War II draws to a close, they are sent on a death march to Belsen concentration camp.
In the second act it is 1949 and Rajk has become minister of the interior in the post-war Communist Hungarian government. He enters into a conflict with his colleagues over his refusal to accept the luxurious living quarters afforded to other high-ranking government officials; they feel his refusal makes them look bad. Rajk ends up consenting to the living quarters (after his wife gives birth), but is arrested anyway. Three days later his wife is also arrested.
The third act takes place six weeks later. Rajk has resisted all attempts to get him to sign a false confession. He is visited by his close friend, János Kádár, who has succeeded him as Minister of Information. Kádár convinces Rajk that if he assents he will be able to live with his wife and child in the Soviet Union. Rajk signs the false confession and is hanged.
In the fourth act Kádár confesses to Julia, recently released from prison, that he betrayed Rajk, "for the good of the party." Following Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress Hungary decides to rehabilitate Rajk. Julia insists he have a public state funeral, which the Hungarian government assents to, though they decide not to publicize the event. Nonetheless over 250,000 people attend, triggering the events that lead to the uprising.
Though under the newly installed government of Imre Nagy Julia is safe, friends warn her that she will be targeted by the Soviet response. Kádár, installed by the Soviets, succeeds Nagy, and Julia takes refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. Kádár promises the refugees amnesty. They are convinced, and leave the embassy, whereupon they are all arrested. The play closes with the announcement that Julia is still a prisoner of the Russians. [1]
The play received widespread critical praise, but failed to find success with audiences. However it had a significant political impact, resulting in the release from prison of Julia Rajk and her son, only 11 days after the London premiere. [5]
The reviewer for The Age wrote "This is one of those rare pieces of theatre which commends itself ... for what it has to say and teach, and for the honesty which it says it ... [It] is a bold, challenging and moving drama which strikes hard at the human conscience." [6]
Howard Taubman of The New York Times wrote "In Shadow of Heroes Robert Ardrey has recalled one of the shameful horror stories of our time. Because he has done so with control, his anger burns all the more compellingly. Because he has made an intensive study of the history of self-serving men who dominated Hungary and abused its people after the war, he has composed a work that is more like a sworn affidavit than a conventional play." [7]
The play is often cited as an early example of Verbatim theatre. [8] Writing about the style, Kenneth Tynan, reviewing for The Observer, wrote "What gives the play its power is its use of drama as a living newspaper; the idea is old and neglected, and it was thrilling to see it revived.... Mr. Ardrey, though he never entered Hungary, conducts us through the shifting sands of this desperate epoch with the assurance of a native guide." [9]
Shadow of Heroes | |
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Written by | William Sterling |
Directed by | William Sterling |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Running time | 90 mins |
Production company | ABC |
Release | |
Original release | 15 June 1960 (Melbourne, live) [10] |
Shadow of Heroes was adapted for Australian TV in 1960.
It was made at a time when Australian TV drama was rare. [11]
Don Crosby appeared with his son Michael. [12]
The TV critic from The Sydney Morning Herald thought that producer William Sterling "managed to give the action (much of it dialogue) gripping provision; yet his insertion of newsreel film clips jarred slightly against the fine acting." [13]
The Age said it was "outstanding". [14]
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 Nagy became leader of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against the Soviet-backed government, for which he was sentenced to death and executed two years later.
The State Protection Authority was the secret police of the People's Republic of Hungary from 1945 to 1956. The ÁVH was conceived as an external appendage of the Soviet Union's KGB in Hungary responsible for supporting the ruling Hungarian Working People's Party and persecuting political criminals. The ÁVH gained a reputation for brutality during a series of purges but was gradually reined under the government of Imre Nagy, a moderate reformer, after he was appointed Prime Minister of Hungary in 1953. The ÁVH was dissolved by Nagy's revolutionary government during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and succeeded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs III.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on November 4, 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country.
János József Kádár, born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health led to his retirement in 1988, and he died in 1989 after being hospitalized for pneumonia.
László Rajk was a Hungarian Communist politician, who served as Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was an important organizer of the Hungarian Communists' power, but he eventually fell victim to Mátyás Rákosi's show trials.
Károly Grósz[ˈkaːroj ˈɡroːs] was a Hungarian communist politician, who served as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1988 to 1989.
The Hungarian Communist Party, known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary, was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar period and briefly after World War II.
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Goulash Communism, also commonly called Kádárism or the Hungarian Thaw, is the variety of socialism in Hungary following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. János Kádár and the Hungarian People's Republic imposed policies with the goal to create high-quality living standards for the people of Hungary coupled with economic reforms. These reforms fostered a sense of well-being and relative cultural freedom in Hungary with the reputation of being "the happiest barracks" of the Eastern Bloc during the 1960s to the 1970s. With elements of regulated market economics as well as an improved human rights record, it represented a quiet reform and deviation from the Stalinist principles applied to Hungary in the previous decade.
Hungarian–Soviet relations were characterized by political, economic, and cultural interventions by the Soviet Union in internal Hungarian politics for 45 years, the length of the Cold War. Hungary became a member of the Warsaw Pact in 1955; since the end of World War II, Soviet troops were stationed in the country, intervening at the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Starting in March 1990, the Soviet Army began leaving Hungary, with the last troops being withdrawn on June 19, 1991.
Zoltán Latinovits was a Hungarian actor.
György Aczél was a Hungarian communist politician. He became a member of the then illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of the Political Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1956. He was a deputy minister from 1958 to 1967, later, as one of the leaders of the Party's Central Committee the most influential figure in socialist culture politics.
András Visky is a Hungarian-Romanian poet, playwright and essayist and the resident dramaturg at Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Theatre, Romania, where he also holds the position of associate artistic director. His plays have been staged in several countries including Romania, Hungary, France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, England, Scotland and the United States. He has a DLA from the University of Theatre and Film, Budapest and since 1994 he has lectured at the Babeş-Bolyai University in the Department of Theatre and Television. He is one of the co-founders and the former executive director of Koinónia Publishing.
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Plays of Three Decades is a collection of three plays by the prolific playwright, screenwriter, and science writer Robert Ardrey. The three plays included are Thunder Rock, Ardrey's international classic about hope and human progress; Jeb, Ardrey's post-World War II civil rights play about a black soldier returning from the Pacific; and Shadow of Heroes, a documentary drama about the prelude to and aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The last play resulted in the release of two political prisoners from Soviet custody.
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