Radio Drama · 2026-10-26

Love and decency in the child-parent relationship

dramasocial

Son, Mother and Father Sit at the Table and Stay Silent for a Long Time (Sin, majka i otac sjede za stolom i dugo šute) — Croatian Radio HRT, 30 April 2026

There are questions that cannot even be asked decently, and yet people get needled with them: would you pull the lever at the tram if the one rushing towards the abyss, etc. etc. Which child should stay if only one can stay is exactly this kind of question. You don't want to answer it. But still. How can anyone even expect an answer to this? Let alone give one. The radio drama is about exactly that: how it can be done.

The title may refer to the silence when the son learns which of them his dad has sentenced to death. According to the script, we are in the future, when parents have to declare which of their children may enter the nuclear-bomb-proof bunker — only one per family. In reality, however, the declaration is born in the parents' hearts, and it was born long ago.

There are two brothers — in the stage original there were more — one is the good son who always just gives to the parents, the other the bad son who always just takes. From here on it is pure psychology: you cling more to the one you have invested more in, and the one you would have poured more attention into if not into the — in your view — bad son.

During the discussion of the play at the Prix Europa festival, another interpretation of the basic situation also came up: as they grow older, parents become more and more dependent on their children. Those who controlled their children's every move gradually lose this control from adolescence onwards, until the tables finally turn. The parent who gave life becomes, through the dystopian declaration, the master of life once again. In this mad cycle, let us regard the children's lives as performances and see which one turned out well, which one we consider successful, and keep that version. The parents deliver theatre criticism and, as if at a radio drama festival, only one piece can win. After all, they are the authors, they shaped the character — or at least would have liked to.

I don't like this interpretation, probably because of its embarrassing truth. Loss of control means precisely that the child has reached adulthood and become independent, as the parents themselves once were, before they started this game with their children. The power game goes on between them for a while, but can't one come out of it with both holding each other's hands as adults? According to the play, one can't. Its strength lies precisely in asking these questions: where do we stand with love? "We don't expect decency from a child, but love" — this is roughly how one of the parents phrases their criticism of the child who supports the parents financially in everything. And perhaps this can be said in the other direction too.

Croatian Radio broadcast the play on a spring afternoon, which in itself sparked debate: shouldn't there be an age rating for a play like this, where, for example, they discuss how to kill the child who came second? According to the director, no. In the play, which unfolds from long dialogues and slowly disintegrating maternal monologues, children can see into the parents' fears of their own most locked-away thoughts, which such an utterly impossible box on a form brings out. But before our brains break over the task as parents, let us make the test mutually fair and see who comes out as the winner in the scoring, because in the other direction the conditions are more equal: there are always two parents to choose from. Perhaps this answer, too, is already in the radio drama.

Similar plays: The Turin Horse, Brazil, When the Wind Blows

🎧 HRT – Hrvatski radio, Treći program

Author: Hargitai Henrik

Translation: machine

AI involvement — Research: no · Writing: no · Verification: no.

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