GUARDSMAN, THE (Monte)

by Monte, Bonnie J. & Molnar, Ferenc

from the unabridged English translation by Gabor Lukin

“Ms. Monte, using a literal English translation by Gabor Lukin, a great-grandson of Molnar, has fashioned a fresh version of the play to reveal a thorny edge that can prick the heart while tickling you to laughter.”
The New York Times
“Ms. Monte has a rock-solid grasp of the often twisty complexities of The Guardsman.”
The Wall Street Journal

A beautiful actress has married her handsome leading man, and their best friend is a critic. A recipe for marital bliss for denizens of the theatre world – until a dashing guardsman enters the scene and starts sending the actress roses. In this new version of The Guardsman, Molnar’s “romantic comedy” finally receives the treatment it deserves as a “comedy of agony.”
It is an anguished farce that inspired the work of Pirandello and Pinter. Even as it poses disturbing questions about identity, voyeurism, reality, perception, the masks we wear, and the pain of love, it elicits gales of laughter.

It’s outer comedic shell delights us even as its inner core unsettles our equilibrium with its unanswerable provocations.

THE GUARDSMAN (A testor) was first performed at the Vigszinhaz (Comedy Theatre) in Budapest on November 19th, 1910.