Playing God

The issue of euthanasia has been a matter of public concern since ancient times. Socrates, Plato and Seneca supported it, but the founder of medicine, Hippocrates, for example, was against it. The question of whether people have the right to intervene in the process of their own death is still a subject of heated debate in many quarters.

In Hungary, all forms of active euthanasia are prohibited and punishable by law: a doctor may not actively assist a patient to end his or her life. However, the ethical question remains open: can a doctor help someone to end their life with dignity?

In Ferdinand von Schirach's play, a seventy-five-year-old man, who has lost his wife after fifty years of marriage, but is physically and mentally perfectly healthy, asks his family doctor for help to end his life in an orderly and legal way. The doctor is reluctant, so the man - with the help of his lawyer - organises a public debate to decide, on the basis of the opinions of medical experts, lawyers and church representatives, whether his GP can or should grant his last wishes.

The show will also include the views of the audience. Playing God, a new play by the author of Terror, is applied to the Hungarian legal system and touches on the domestic practice of the problem of the passing of the dead, which affects everyone.

The production has been produced with the permission of GUSTAV KIEPEHNHEUER Bühnenvertrieb, Berlin and MAYER-SZILÁGYI Színházi Agentur, Budapest.