Grivița 53 hosts the “Eugenio Barba 90” micro-season

On his 90th birthday, the founder of Odin Teatret (Odin Theater) chose this independent space in Bucharest for a special meeting with the audience.

Ion Puican, 14.03.2026, 14:00

The Grivița 53 Theater hosts, between March 7 and 22, 2026, the micro-season ‘Eugenio Barba 90’, an event dedicated to Eugenio Barba, one of the essential figures of world theater. On his 90th birthday, the founder of Odin Teatret (Odin Theater) chose this independent space in Bucharest for a special meeting with the audience, transforming the stage into a place of dialogue, reflection and artistic exploration. The program brings together four performances by Barba – three for the adult audience and one dedicated to children and families. Along with the performances, the micro-season includes masterclasses, workshops and a community performance, offering artists and spectators the opportunity to come into direct contact with the practice of anthropological theater and Eugenio Barba’s working philosophy. Director Chris Simion-Mercurian, the artistic director of the Grivița 53 Theater, gave us more details about this event: “The international program “Iconic Personalities” is for the Grivița 53 Theater, through the participation of the renowned director Eugenio Barba and the inauguration of this program with the micro Season “Barba 90”, the inclusion of the Grivița 53 Theater on the international map of theaters. Eugenio Barba has become an ambassador of the Grivița 53 Theater. And through his presence with this micro season, he opens cultural bridges with the most relevant theater spaces in the world.”

Why did theater creator Eugenio Barba choose to mark this anniversary moment at the Grivița 53 Theater, a new, independent theater at the beginning of its artistic journey? Chris Simion-Mercurian: “Eugenio Barba’s choice to celebrate his 90 years of life and 60 years of career at the Grivița 53 Theater is, for us, first and foremost, a validation that what we are doing is necessary. Then, the fact that he chose us from many other theaters around the world, which extended him this invitation to celebrate this unique, anniversary moment of 90 years of life and 60 years of career, is both a concrete choice and a symbolic one. Because he says he likes beginnings, he wants to be part of this beginning of the Grivița 53 Theater and believes in the artistic endeavor that we are undertaking. It is a great honor, a great privilege that we have, but also a great responsibility.”

What does the “Barba 90” micro-season program offer for professionals in the world of Romanian theater: “The ‘Eugenio Barba 90’ Micro Season also contains an educational side. Both the actors from Odin Teatret and the director Eugenio Barba will hold three workshops and three masterclasses. The masterclass held by Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley is focused on fundamental directions and aspects of theatrical anthropology. And this meeting within the masterclass will propose a deepening of the principles underlying Eugenio Barba’s method. And essential themes such as the movement and action techniques of the Barba Method, static and dynamic immobility, the director’s dramaturgy, the actor’s dramaturgy, the director’s perception, the viewer’s perception will be addressed. It is a masterclass dedicated exclusively to professionals. It is a space for work and reflection for professionals, regardless of their experience, whether they are students, graduates or experienced actors, professionals who are interested in deepening this theatrical practice created by Eugenio Barba 60 years ago, which has become a theatrical method that we learned about in the history of theater. The workshops within the ‘Eugenio Barba’ microseason are training workshops and their practice is based on the use of imagination as an essential working tool and an introduction to Eugenio Barba’s theatrical technique.”

The microseason program can be found on the theater’s website, grivița53.ro. Chris Simion-Mercurian shared with us how the microseason is built and gave us more details about the opening show:  “The ‘Eugenio Barba’ micro-season will be built on four productions of the Odin Theater, which the Grivița 53 Theater hosts. We open the micro-season with the show “The Enchanted Violins”, a show dedicated to children and families. A show starring Antonia Cioază and Jakob Nielsen. Antonia is an actress of Romanian origin. She is the only actress from Romania who was accepted into Eugenio Barba’s troupe. And we decided to open this season with this show, because in this formula of naive theater dedicated to children, a large part of the theatrical technique that Eugenio Barba transformed into a method can be found. The other three shows dedicated to adults start on March 10. This micro-season and this unique, historical event could not have become a reality if we had not had the support of the Sector 1 City Hall and Raiffeisen Bank as main partners. It would have remained just an idea on paper and would not have become a cultural program so necessary for young people and for all theater lovers.” (EE)