Radio Romania’s Radio Drama Desk, nominated for a Theater Union award

Director Gavriil Pinte and his most recent radio production

Corina Sabău, 18.06.2022, 14:00

Three of Radio Romania’s National Radio Drama Desk productions
have received nominations for Romanian Theaters’ Union
Awards, the Best Radio Drama Category. They are A century of Romanian theater
in Chisinau –The revenge of forbidden memory, script by Mariana Onceanu, Radio
Noir. Thrillers (Season1) adapted for the radio by Mihnea Chelaru and The
Case of Tudor Vladimirescu,
written for the radio by Gavriil Pinte.

Gavriil Pinte graduated from the Acting Faculty in
Targu Mures and the Directing Faculty of Bucharest’s School of Film And Drama.
He staged shows in theatres across Romania, in Bucharest,
Satu Mare, Ploieşti, Baia Mare, Tulcea, Miercurea-Ciuc, Giurgiu, Sibiu,
Constanţa, Oradea, Timișoara. Since 1999 Gavriil Pinte has been the artistic
director of Radio Romania’s Radio Drama Desk and in that capacity he directed
several radio drama shows. Gavriil Pinte is the recipient of many awards, among
which the Theater Union Radio Drama Award, in 2002, 2003 and 2011. Gavriil Pinte staged
shows taking up on the life and work of quite a few writers. Among them, A Streetcar
Named Popescu, after poet Cristian Popescu’s life and work (the show was on
in Bucharest and Sibiu, in a rolling streetcar), The Cioran Temptation, based on Emil Cioran’s life and work, A Guide to Retrocessed Childhood, based on the work of Andrei Codrescu, The Journey, taking up on Constantin Abaluta’s work, as well as an adaptation
for the radio of poet Ioan Es. Pop’s work, titled so the last shall be the
last as well.

Gavriil Pinte’s most recent radio drama show is The
Case of Tudor Vladimirescu. It starts off from the personality of Tudor
Vladimirescu, who was born in 1780. Tudor Vladimirescu was ruler
of Wallachia and the leader of the 1821 Revolution, one of the events that
marked the beginning of Romania’s national rebirth process. In 1821, under the
heading The Supplications of the Romanian people, Tudor Vladimirescu made
known the programme of the revolution, which first and foremost stipulated foreign
powers’ refraining from interfering with the country’s internal affairs whatsoever,
as well as the implementation of a series of reforms. It is arguably Romanian Principalities’ first document
with a constitutional status. Sometimes Vladimirescu was idealized, he was
mortified in certain stereotypes. We didn’t mean to create a pathetic show, yet the inkling of a parodical intention was also far from us, and so was any means
of ironizing and have a derogatory take on the great pandour. What we were
interested in was a hero who, before anything else, was a man. But a man who
played a first-rate historical part and went on to become a national hero. The script captures episodes of Vladimirescu’s public
life, intertwined with episodes of his private life, while jointly, they make
what could quite aptly have been himself, a living human being.

That is how,
very briefly, director Gavriil Pinte conveyed his
intentions of the radio drama show The Case of Tudor Vladimirescu.

Gavriil
Pinte.

The radio drama show was
preceded by a stage version of the show as initially, the show was staged on an
island bordered by two of river Jiu arms, at the entranceway of the town of Targu
Jiu. The show was performed on stage at night while the soundtrack was provided
by a rock group, Bucium, lead by Andi Dumitrescu. Everything occurred live, I
can call this show is a rock opera. The music of the Bucium group seemed perfect
for the show, since rock is a rebel, revolutionary kind of music, and so was Tudor
Vladimirescu as a historical character. We had many actors on the cast, there
were 60 of them, and after that show we found it suitable to create a radio show
as well. We were of course unable to have a 60-strong cast of artists for the
radio production, but the recordings were made especially for the radio version.
Likewise, the script was conceived of taking into account the specificity and
the demands of a radio production while the recordings were made on the
premises at the Theater in Targu-Jiu. I am happy the show has a radio version
as well, as it is an important show for me, but also for the troupe in Targu Jiu,
and I should like to take this opportunity and thank the artists for their extraordinary
cooperation. Let me just add that the actors’ troupe as part of the Elvira
Godeanu Drama Theater in Targu Jiu is headed by Cosmin Brehuță, a wonderful
man, a totally atypical theater manager for Romanian theater today. The radio
script as well as the stage script do not claim their origin from the stereotypes
that oftentimes make Tudor Vladimirescu’s image, unfortunately, but from the ancient
tragedy, the Shakespearean drama, with a certain surrealist touch as well.

The
show staged by Gavriil Pinte was occasioned by the Tudor Vladimirescu
Bicentennial. It was jointly created with the Elvira Godeanu Drama Theater in Targu Jiu. The cast includes, among other
actors, Mihai Rădulea, Oana Marinescu, Cosmin Brehuță, Eugen Titu,
Mădălina Ciobănuc, Monica Sfetcu, Georgiana Enache, Cornelia Diaconu, Adelina
Puzdrea, Luminița Șorop.

(EN)