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Liliom (1909), a play featuring several Jewish characters and themes written by Hungarian Jewish playwright Ferenc Molnár.
Ferenc Molnár
Molnár (1878-1952), born Ferenc Neumann in Budapest, was a Jewish dramatist and novelist who is remembered principally for
The Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest, a classic of youth literature beloved in Hungary and abroad for its treatment of the themes of solidarity and self-sacrifice, but he is best known to Americans and to Broadway aficionados for
Liliom.
Molnár wrote
Liliom in an attempt to publicly justify himself after his wife, suing him for divorce, alleged that he had struck their daughter. (This evokes in my mind the 15-year-old Louise characterizing Billyâs slapping her hand as âa kiss.â) When it premiered in Budapest in 1909, the audience was confused by the play, and it ran for only 30 performances before closing.