On Dragobete, the Regina Maria Theatre has two reasons to celebrate! Today the nominations for a new edition – the XXVIIIth – of the UNITER Awards were announced, and in the Best Supporting Actor category we find our colleague Răzvan Vicoveanu, with the role of Joshua in the show CHRISTIANS by Lucas Hnath, directed by Radu Iacoban. 

The show Christians had its first performance in November and was staged at the Regina Maria Theater in its national premiere. The main role, that of Pastor Paul, is played by Richard Balint, last year’s winner of the UNITER award for “Best Supporting Actor”, with the role of Mr. Lockhart in the play “The Navigator” by Conor McPherson (directed by Cristian Juncu, a show by the National Theater Târgu Mureș – “Liviu Rebreanu” Company). Pastor Paul confesses to the parishioners who attend the church he leads that he has insecurities about several “truths of faith” and this confession arouses contradictory reactions among the listeners. The first to dare to confront him is Associate Pastor Joshua, played by Răzvan Vicoveanu, a young man beloved by both the church council and many of those present at the sermon that Sunday. Although in some aspects he denotes behavior that leads to extremes, Joshua made his way into people's hearts through the efforts he dedicated himself to the sick, the poor, and generally to all those who needed to be listened to or guided.

When, following a vote by those present, Joshua leaves the church, one of the council members, old Jay (played by Petre Ghimbășan), campaigns for his return, trying to remind Pastor Paul of the value of the young man he expelled:

"Joshua is, in a way, your spiritual son. You're the one who saved him. He came to this church alone and sought support, friends. If I remember correctly, he had been kicked out of his own home because of some... very serious problems. And I remember this boy coming here, approaching the altar and saying to us: I need something, I don't know exactly why, but I need that thing to help me move on. And that man came to every service. Every Sunday and then Sunday and Wednesday and then Friday and little by little, you gave him more and more responsibility in our church, a prayer at the Sunday service, a seat on the board, you let him read from the Bible, even a sermon, and then you named him associate pastor. And we all agree that he worked hard and deserved this place.”

Răzvan Vicoveanu's role is a complex one, with associate pastor Joshua gradually becoming known to the audience, and Răzvan manages to convey the character's emotions each time, in a natural way, and with each entry into the scene we see him transformed. At first he rebels, apparently exaggeratedly, causing a schism in the church that adopted him, turning against the very one who gave him the most credit: pastor Paul. However, we will later find out that the reasons why Joshua reacts this way are other than those we imagine. His life until entering pastor Paul's church led him to create barriers and strongly rooted beliefs, which serve to support him, and he has a visceral need for them. For him, questioning one of his fundamental beliefs is not at the level of philosophical curiosity, but strikes at the very foundation of his existence. At the end of the show, Joshua returns to Pastor Paul, trying to find a solution to the situation in the church and offers viewers some enlightening information:

“Your parents were Christians, and so were their parents. Your grandmother brought you to church for the first time, everyone wanted you to get saved, and you had nothing to lose by believing what you believed. But me. I lost everything. My parents didn’t believe what I believed. And I tried. I tried over and over to show them the way, to guide them toward God. That’s all I wanted, until the end. That’s what I tried.”

The fact that he failed to convert his parents and that his mother, on her deathbed, preferred to banish him rather than make a confession of faith, left an irreparable mark on Joshua. The memory of the moment when his mother died and seeing in her eyes the fear, horror and pain does not allow him to easily deal with the questioning of the existence of the afterlife as it has been preached until now. 

Throughout the show, Associate Pastor Joshua manages to attract disapproval, revolt, sympathy, compassion and ultimately, even support from the audience at the expense of Pastor Paul. The effort made by Răzvan Vicoveanu to create a role with so many substrata is well distributed and rightly appreciated. 

Congratulations Răzvan, congratulations to the entire team of the show "Creștini" and much success in the future!