The Dramas of Lajos Walder, Sidney Theatre, July 2007

Evening reading the poetry of the Jewish Hungarian poet and playwright Lajos Walder (1913-1945), in the Sidney Theatre, July 2007. He was first published in 1932 after turning to the editor of the Hungarian literary magazine 'Anonymous': "My name is Lajos Walder, poet, law student and weaving apprentice. For the proletarian I am a rotten bourgeois; for the bourgeoisie I am a stinking labourer; for the anarchist I am a cowardly bourgeois. And they are all right but I have written several wonderful pieces ... take them, eat them, read them and publish them; but first give me a cigarette ... I am broke." Walder's poems are a reflection of his time; political tension and black humour similar to Dada. His first book 'Heads or Tails' was published in 1933 when he was 20. In 1938 his second book of poetry 'Group Portrait' was published. All of his other writings were published after his death. During the war Walder was imprisoned in Mathausen and Gunskirchen camps. He died at Gunskirchen aged 32.