Orphans – A Play That Pulls You to the Bottom of Your Soul
A tense chamber drama about the tug-of-war between family loyalty and moral responsibility.
Date: May 2, 2025
Production: Orphans – A Play That Pulls You to the Bottom of Your Soul
I wanted the words to pour out of me, but they would not come. It is hard to capture what Orphans stirred up inside me—because this is not simply a “good play.” It is something much more: a mirror held up to our faces, and we may not like what we see in it.
The story hooks you from the first moment: Helen’s brother, Liam, bursts into the middle of a peaceful holiday dinner—covered in blood, agitated, trembling. From there the tension never lets up. Helen (Rozi Lovas) and Danny (Tamás Lengyel) try to pry the truth out of Liam (Áron Molnár), but contradictions, gaps, and old secrets keep clouding the picture.
Áron Molnár brings Liam’s confused, unstable figure to life with dizzying energy and a vibrating tension. He is not evil, yet he is dangerous, because his worldview is scrambled. Tamás Lengyel’s Danny is calm, logical, and still wound to the breaking point—perhaps the most tragic figure of all: the “good man” who slowly realises there is no right solution. Rozi Lovas as Helen is tough and steadfast, yet increasingly desperate. She stands by her brother at any cost, even when it stains her own soul.
Watching them, I had to ask myself again and again: what would I do? Would I protect my sibling if they had committed a crime? Where is the line between family loyalty and moral responsibility? When does someone become indefensible, no matter how much I love them?
Dig deeper and the play poses broader societal questions: what roots can push someone toward brutality or even murder? In the background we glimpse the pull of extremist ideologies and social tensions—how they poison minds and drive people into situations where there are no clean choices, only bad and worse.
That is where the real weight of the play lies. It is not just about a painful past or unforgivable acts. It keeps spotlighting the extremes, the inhuman ideologies that spread through a society like propaganda. Day after day we attack each other, trample minorities, crush anyone who does not fit our taste—and then we wonder why despair, hatred, and conflict keep growing. In an age when propaganda and media shout this at us constantly, the psychology of this story has never felt more relevant—or more necessary to learn from.
What the play left me with
- Asking for help is not a weakness.
- Silence only widens the chasm between us.
- Emotions are real; we have to live through them.
- Handing control of your life to someone else means giving up on yourself.
This performance did not take anything from me—it gave. It shook me, unsettled me, but it also showed how fragile we are, and how our decisions are rarely black and white, even though we still have to make them.
If you crave a truly high-quality theatre experience, do not skip this. Just prepare yourself: you will not leave the theatre the same person you were when you sat down.