You won’t stay silent, will you?

You’ll make sure that on the 60th anniversary of the 1956 revolution you will contemplate how many people emigrated from our homeland to other countries, where they found welcome and acceptance, won’t you? You won’t let the audience that is society itself evade the terribly complicated and painful question of why we need to help so many people in trouble at all, will you?

You won’t let us not respect people fleeing from war, civil war, and oppressive dictatorships, just because they belong to a different religion or ethnicity, and because they don’t have enough money to buy themselves Hungarian nationality, will you?

You won’t let public discourse and public morals in Hungary sink so low that misery and vulnerability elicit no empathy whatsoever, will you?

You won’t pass by inhumanity with eyes lowered, will you?

You will keep alive the flame of humanity to the best of your ability, won’t you? (However pitiable it be.)

Idiocy, hate, and disrespect don’t leave you cold, do they?

You know that the European Union does not compel the Hungarian state to take in migrants, that the campaign against migrants is incitement, and that at present the Hungarian state shows absolutely no solidarity with the countries from whose taxes it maintains its own existence, don’t you?

State-subsidised theatre is a cultural institution: it helps its audience experience universal human values.

There are times and situations when mere art is not enough. We must stand up, and speak!

State-sponsored theatre is a public institution. The pubic interest now is bravery in institutions: it matters what you think, it matters what you embody. Be an example!

And I ask also that you be not only wise, but humane too!

Thank you.

Árpád Schilling