Tragic comedy in three acts by Mihail Sorbul

Artistic director: Dr. Gróf Ladislau
Assistant director: Constantin Simionescu
Set design: Károly Kudelász 
Costumes: Eliza Popescu
Premiere date: September 15, 1957

Although it is set during the first days of the occupation of Bucharest by the German army during World War I, the action of the play "The Deserter" focuses on a family drama with minimal impact on major historical events.

Sergeant Silvestru Trandafir, mobilized at the front, can no longer bear the thought that his wife, Aretia, could be unfaithful to him during his absence. Therefore, fleeing from his military unit in retreat to Moldova, he goes to see his wife, in their small house in the slum. Indeed, here he finds an older suitor for Aretia's love, the German Gottfried Schwalbe, who was in Bucharest before the war as a representative of a German agricultural machinery company. The dispute between the two leads not only to amorous rivalry, but also to a lesser extent, political rivalry. The German officer, assured of the sentry at the gate, is in control of himself and wants to keep Aretia, his "spoils of war". Stubbornly refusing to accept Silvestru's conditions (who offers himself as a prisoner in exchange for Aretia's release), Gottfried Schwalbe is killed by him. After hoping to secure his family's safety by sending them to free territory, the "deserter" surrenders to a German military unit and dies tragically, under a hail of bullets, uttering a final curse on the German occupiers.

Distribution:

Silvestru Rose:  Zacharias Volbea
Aretia:  Cristina Tacoi
Cassiope Buzatu:  Stefania Popescu
Schwalbe:  Ion Vilcu, Nicolae Toma
Lica the guitarist:  Radu Reisel
Herman:  Grig Schiţcu

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Cornelia Brezeanu