February brought two new premieres at the “Lucian Blaga” National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca.
On 9 February, the theatre welcomed into their repertoire 20 Years in Siberia, a performance based on the memoirs of one of the many victims of Soviet occupation in (then) Romania’s Northern Bukovina during World War II, Anița Nandriș-Cudla. Directed by Sorin Misirianțu, the performance chronicles the fight for survival of a mother dealing with deportation trauma and forced to raise her sons in the direst of circumstances.
With a compelling performance by actress Elena Ivanca and a symbolic scenography created by Cristian Rusu, this intense portrayal of the life of this emblematic female figure becomes an artistic bastion against oblivion. In a world increasingly liable to radicalisation, this performance is a manifest for constancy and moral firmness in the face of discretionary ideologies.
You can read more about the performance here.
Schindler, the second premiere of the year, debuting on 23 February, is an ingenious comedy, written and directed by actor and stand-up comedian Dragoș Pop.
After getting stuck together in an elevator, two strangers enter a game of appearances, with multiple unexpected twists. Alex Rădescu (played by Ovidiu Crișan) is an elderly university professor and literary critic who uses his intellectual charm to seduce a young band manager, Ramona Berciu (played by Romina Merei), a typical digital native. The verbal duel they engage in, cleverly exploiting the ambiguities of language, reveals the rift between generations, but also the frailty of the concepts of “truth” and “reality” in a world marked by the expansion of the virtual.
You can read more about the performance here.
Cover photo: © Nicu Cherciu
