Sketch show on surrogacy at our Studio Stage

2022. 11. 24.

Balázs Czukor's performance "Surrogate Mothers" presents different aspects of surrogacy through a series of scenes. The sketch performance, which poses a number of ethical questions and sketches individual tragedies, hope and hopelessness, will be presented on 26 November at the House Stage of the Vígszínház with Barbara Hegyi, Andrea Petrik, Andrea Waskovics, Renáta Tar, Péter Telekes and Balázs Medveczky.

Although the concept of surrogacy is becoming more and more widely known around the world, it is still a phenomenon that has been rarely and artistically thematised. It raises many ethical questions, while at the level of the individual it is intertwined with many struggles, hopes, despairs and disappointments, making it an extremely powerful, burning and divisive issue. Surrogacy is a report that follows the process of surrogacy chronologically: first, the necessity and hopelessness that leads people to become surrogates, then the journey to implantation, pregnancy, and finally birth and its aftermath.

"It is a very diverse phenomenon, and we try to illuminate different perspectives on stage. The genre of sketch performance gives us the opportunity to deal with different aspects of surrogacy through a filter of scenes with very different styles. When I approached the subject during the preparation period, it was obvious that each aspect of the surrogacy phenomenon has the potential to unfold into a full play, but I am confident that the alternation of absurd, grotesque and realistic scenes will provide a kind of overall picture of the many problems surrounding the phenomenon of surrogacy", emphasises Balázs Czukor, the writer and director of the production.

It is currently illegal to take in surrogate mothers in most countries in Europe, including Hungary. But not in Ukraine, for example, so dozens of clinics, commissioning couples, thousands of babies and surrogates are interacting, influencing and changing each other's lives through the institution of surrogacy. As with all similar social issues, the moral front is almost immediately drawn on surrogacy: the opponents and the supporters. Some compare it to prostitution and see it as a simple way to make money. Some would ban it and some would allow it. Far from taking a stance of any gender, the message of the lecture tries to focus on this immensely complex issue and the intense, extreme human situations and conditions associated with it. 

"I was separated immediately after giving birth, I couldn't even touch her. They bundled her up and put her in a cot not far from me. No one hugged her, even though she was crying so much. Then one of the nurses called the baby's parents on video chat. She filmed the baby and me to make sure I was okay. She congratulated the parents. Who knows when they'll come for her. I thought I was getting stronger. I thought it would be easier to break away. I can still hear her crying a lot of the time" - excerpt from the presentation.

The show is recommended for audiences over 16 years old

Tickets and cast: www.vigszinhaz.hu/Beranyak