\n
<\/p>\n
This year’s theme was Involution, Revolution, Evolution, three words
\nthat mark the way society and theatre help shape reality and build a future. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Theatre critic Oana Bors helped select the plays that were included
\nin the festival. Drawing on her experience, she believes Romanian theatre is
\nevolving:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Oana Bors: Romanian theatre is moving
\nforward, albeit taking small steps. First of all, we can notice a
\ndiversification of topics – we no longer have a social and documentary focus
\nwhich dominated Romanian contemporary theatre at one point. Rather, Romanian
\nplays now approach various topics leading to introspection, such as human
\nrelationships. There is also an evolution in terms of playwriting. We already
\nhave accomplished playwrights, such as Csaba Szekely, Mihaela Michailov and
\nRadu Apostol, who have been working together for some time now… Also Alex Popa
\nhas been steadily making a name for himself. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Acknowledgement and prejudice, identity and cohabitation, and above
\nall, love… These are the themes of George Stefan’s Story from Transylvania,
\nstage-directed by Andi Gheorghe at the Studio Act Multimedia Centre in Oradea.
\nThe text tells the true story of a mixed Romanian-Hungarian family from Targu
\nMures, spanning several generations. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The play is about Romanians and Hungarians living together and the
\nclashes of March 19-21, 1990 in Targu Mures. The play is bilingual and its cast
\nfeatures both Romanian and Hungarian actors. Richard Balint plays Securitate
\nofficer Stefan Remes, who investigates and eventually imprisons Szabados
\nIstvan, played by Kocis Gyula. The interesting thing about the play is that it
\nvery much resembles the personal experience of the two actors. Richard Balint
\nwith the details:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Balint: At any rate, I’m both
\nRomanian and Hungarian. My father was Hungarian, my mother was Romanian, and I
\nmyself have experienced the kind of situation where I got beat up for being
\nHungarian. It was just the state of things back then. In 1990, during the March
\nevents, I noticed a change in people’s attitude towards us. People who were
\nyour friends, your neighbors, ended up fearing us. Tension was piling up in
\nCugir. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In his turn, Kocis Gyula says:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Kocis Gyula: What personally affected me was that my father was imprisoned for
\n11 months in Oradea because he wanted to cross the border. The communists
\nlocked him up because he wanted to be free. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The program for this year’s edition of the festival also included
\nthe production Shakespeare for Ana, brought to Bucharest by the Coliseum Arts
\nCentre in Chisinau. It is a documentary show, exploring truth and love, drawing
\non a series of interviews conducted in penitentiaries for juveniles, women and
\nmen in Goian, Rusca and Soroca villages. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The play was written and staged by Luminita Tacu, who is well known
\nfor her interest in documentary theatre. This was not the first show based on
\ntestimonials for actress and director Luminita Tacu. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Luminita Tacu: In 2008 I directed the play ‘The House of M’, which included a
\nmonologue of a woman who had killed her husband. So years later I started
\nwondering what the women I spoke to in Rusca prison were doing. We had worked
\ntogether for ‘The House of M’, which deals with domestic violence, and I
\nwondered what it’s like to live without love. What is the life of these women
\nin Rusca? I knew they have children waiting for them back home, some of them
\nhusbands, others looking for love. I also knew some of them were looking for
\nlove in prison. That’s how I got the idea about making a show about love, a
\nshow about this kind of virtually impossible love. We decided to go to three
\nvulnerable penitentiaries. We talked to the inmates, but also to the employees
\nin the system. It’s a bloodcurdling play, even for us, because every time we
\nget transported back to that world, it reminds us of all those people. Every
\ntime it fills us with regret and remorse for living in freedom, forgetting that
\nsomewhere out there, in a world behind bars, there is someone you know, someone
\nyou talked to about love…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nEuropean Theatre section of the FEST-FDR Festival was represented by important
\ntheatre companies from Europe. Oana Bors with the details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Oana Bors: I am glad the festival has
\nbeen gaining international recognition. There are big theatre companies coming
\nto Timisoara. We were honored to have director Milo Rau as a guest, who staged
\na play jointly with the famous Schaubuhne Theatre in Berlin. In turn, Luk
\nPerceval’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was staged as part of the festival in a modern
\nreinterpretation produced by Thalia Theatre. Whereas Milo Rau’s play is a
\ndocu-drama analysis on migration, Luk Perceval’s’Grapes of Wrath’ picks up on
\nSteinbeck’s focus on economic hardship and examines the issues of exile and
\nidentity. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over May 5 and 13, the National Theatre in Timisoara played host to the 23rd edition of the European and Romanian Theatre, known as FEST-FDR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":162085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[44927,44928,43432],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-act-multimedia","tag-csaba-szekely","tag-targu-mures"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n