In recent years Romanian stage directors’ growing concern for issues and
\nchallenges of contemporary society has become ever more obvious. Proof of that
\nis a new section inaugurated at the National Theatre Festival under a
\nsuggestive title, Theatre and Society Today. The present edition of this
\nsection included six plays, most of them coming from the area of independent
\ntheatre production. <\/p>\n
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A production of the Educational Theatre Center Replika, the interactive
\nshow, Everything is Quite Normal
\ncreated by playwright Alexa Bacanu and director Leta Popescu invites parents
\nand teenagers to engage in an open dialogue about the physical, emotional and
\nintellectual changes in pre-adolescence. In an attempt to bridge the
\ncommunication gap between generations, the show is also tackling public
\ninterest issues: how important sex education is in schools, sources of
\ninformation available for the young ones, how much understanding they get from grown-ups
\nand their need for communication on the issue. Here is Leta Popescu with more about
\nthe aforementioned theatre performance.<\/p>\n
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It all happened at the time when a draft law on sex education in
\nschools was being debated in Parliament, a draft that was met with opposition
\nfrom some individuals. Alexa Bacanu and I paid heed to the latest developments
\nand thought how we could support a certain type of debates on that issue by
\nmeans of what we do. I mean, when I mount a play I design it to be relevant to someone
\nand that’s why I included a moment when lots of opinions are being put up for
\ndebate. And everybody’s opinion is right for me, you know. Of course, since it
\nis a delicate matter, we all should have the guts to speak out, to understand
\nall the issues and don’t take sides so vehemently.<\/p>\n
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Everything is Quite Normal has been structured as a dialogue
\nbetween actors Viorel Cojanu, Silvana Negrutiu and the audience. According to
\ndirector Leta Popescu, the idea came from architect Gabi Albu, who did the stage
\ndesign:<\/p>\n
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The architect divided the space in the theatre hall…and I took it over
\nfrom there of course. So I came up with this formula inviting children and
\nparents alike to come see the performance. The audience is divided in two,
\nchildren on one side, parents on the other. I designed it as an intimate, very
\nfriendly performance and nobody is forced to participate if they don’t want to.
\nBut in spite of being well-conceived and done, it is prone
\nto sparking heated debates in the end. And it’s impossible to get into the car
\nand on your way back home not talk to your child about the human body. <\/p>\n
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Produced by the Bucharest-based Art No More Association, In the Name of the Father deals with
\npeople and their stories about how religion bears on people’s private,
\nprofessional and social life, about changes, acceptance and pain, about
\ndevelopment and cultural heritage. Here is writer and journalist Elena
\nVladareanu, author of the script the performance is based upon:<\/p>\n
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My intention was to listen to as many stories as possible and learn from
\npeople with religious backgrounds, who broke away or didn’t break away from
\nthese environments; who rediscovered religion as adults maybe in a more radical
\nway. I did some research, talked to people and read a lot. Also did a lot on-line
\nreading, hit forums where people are talking about religion and all.<\/p>\n
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The feedback she got from those who came to see the performance
\nconvinced Elena Vladareanu the theme was important to them:<\/p>\n
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I was pleasantly surprised that people came to talk about the show.
\nAfter every performance groups of spectators gathered in the lobby and shared
\ntheir experiences. And it seems that this issue of religion, religious life,
\ncontinues to be of great consequence. And it is indeed a serious issue that
\nshould be dealt with seriously and properly. Things are different and more
\nintense for us, religion is part of this social construct called identity.<\/p>\n
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Director Robert Balan’s intention was that In the Name of the Father should remain unprejudiced:<\/p>\n
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What
\nI wanted was to avoid giving the impression we have something against religion,
\nagainst religious life in general. That is why I opted for placing a monologue
\nat the beginning, advocating religious tolerance, while at the end, I concluded
\nwith a text focusing on the idea that God is love. And in between there are a few
\nmonologues broaching rather serious, quite inconvenient topics, and we didn’t
\nwant to give the impression we fight the idea of religion as such. But rather,
\nwe’re all for accepting all forms of religion and yes, we need to say there are
\nalso lots of abusive deeds in religious life. The thing is for us to be able to
\nsee how religious life during childhood also generated good things for the
\nyears to come. I believe the most successful thing about my show is that we
\nmanaged to be unbiased altogether.<\/p>\n
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The
\nshow is part of a more comprehensive project, titled Intimate Theatre, where
\nthe stage directors’ intention was to bridge any gap between the audience and
\nthe actors, as in the production we’ve mentioned, featuring were Virgil
\nAioanei, Carmen Florescu and Ozana Oancea. Stage director Robert B\u0103lanonce
\nagain:<\/p>\n
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My
\nidea was to give up on classical theatre means as much as I can, I wanted to do
\naway with that area where the actor is patronisingly uttering truths while on
\nstage. Instead I wanted to get the audience closer to the stage, to integrate
\nthem in the show, yet without bothering them too much. I wanted that type of
\ninteractivity to be integrated in the show as little as possible, but at the
\nsame time, I wanted the audience to be a participant in the show, and not just
\na passive viewer. <\/p>\n
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Theatre
\nfocusing on social issues is also staged in state institutions. The guest
\nperformance for the 2018 edition of the national theatre festival was Of Men and Potatoes a production of the Andrei
\nMuresanu Theatre in Sfantu Gheorghe. Stage director Radu Afrim created
\ndocumentary show, by means of which he once again brought to the attention of
\nthe public opinion a tragedy that occurred in 2012, when nine people lost their
\nlives. The trailer that was taking them back from a potato harvesting outing was
\nshattered by a train. They were daily labourers, people of Rroma origin. The
\ncatastrophe had very little coverage in mass media. The show is about loss and
\nsurvival. While after the show – it is about solidarity, stage director Radu Afrim
\nsaid. Around Christmas, a charity event was staged in Sfantu Gheorghe, with
\nactress Rodica Mandache taking part in it. The eventual aim of the event was
\nproviding help in three social cases, taken over from Radu Afrim’s performance. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent years Romanian stage directors growing concern for issues and challenges of contemporary society has become ever more obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":50395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n