English

Benched (Kispad in Hungarian) is a monodrama written by Chris Cooper that is performed in the
classroom accompanied by an interactive program. It addresses the issues of radicalisation directly by placing a marginalised young person on ‘stage’ and focusing on the narratives that have come to occupy so much of our public spaces. The two hour program offers a common thinking space with the interactive workshop that precedes and follows the performance. The primary objective of the Benched project is to make participants aware of how social narratives influence people’s thoughts and actions.

The performance of the play lasts 40 minutes. It is performed by Adam Bethlenfalvy, and actor-teacher who has worked with major TIE companies in Hungary and the UK.
InSite can offer a Hungarian or an English language performance, accompanied by workshops in either languages.

The programme was created by InSite because Hungary is clearly struggling with a social, cultural and political crisis today. Radicalism and extremes are gaining more and more attention, space and followers especially among the youth. Radicalism and populism affect marginalised young people greatly, as they seem to give answers to their problems, but actually they are stopping them asking basic questions related to social issues. The problem is aggravated by schools not offering any forums for engaging with these problems, nor the possibilities for students to learn how to discuss them.