Release date is 2025-12-19

Albert László from page images generously made available by the Hungarian Electronic Library

Kék róka by Ferenc Herczeg is a play written in the early 20th century. A sparkling comedy of manners edged with jealousy and moral debate, it follows Pál, a scholarly husband, his dazzling wife Cecile, Pál’s loyal friend Sándor, the dashing aviator Trill, and Lencsi, a gifted young artist. Fashion, flirtation, and wounded pride collide as a rumored affair provokes a plan to expose the truth at a carefully staged dinner, with the coveted “blue fox” fur gleaming as both status symbol and sly motif.

The opening of the play sets us in an elegant Buda hillside villa where Pál fumes over a failed illustrator, then discovers Lencsi’s talent and invites her to illustrate his scientific book and live in the house. As Cecile hunts a blue fox fur in town, Sándor returns from Switzerland, grows suspicious over small clues, and concludes Cecile has been seeing Trill in Török Street; their sharp, layered exchange ends with Sándor vowing to “seat Truth at the table” and inviting Trill to a confrontational supper. The next day, Lencsi arrives cheerfully with a fish to cook while Cecile, uncharacteristically vulnerable, seeks reconciliation; Sándor remains implacable, dropping the teasing name “Xénia” as bait. Trill sweeps in with breezy charm and evasions, and the scene tightens toward the dinner where appearances and allegiances are about to be tested. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 1917