Vaudeville in three acts by Aurel Baranga

Artistic direction: Mihai Raicu
Scenography: Maria Haţeganu
Premiere date: December 13, 1969

„"Be good, Cristofor!" addresses the perennial theme of family and the trials this nucleus goes through when the harmony of the beginning is eroded by the passing of the years. Composer Cristofor Bellea is married to Ema, but routine is strongly felt in their marriage. Each one seems to be not living, that he is "vegetating", that "this week is similar to the last", that he "feels tired", that he "has aged prematurely", that "everything is bleak", that the other is "absent", "indifferent", "absorbed exclusively by his own concerns". True to his artist nature, Cristofor treats his wife with superiority, crushes her personality and even allows himself to have secret meetings with Anca, the family's best friend. The earthquake occurs when the submissive wife, who has left the town to see to her father's health, sends her husband a note from the train station announcing that she is leaving him for another man. The drama takes on a bovine tone: the husband suffers, but more out of pride than out of love: he rebels at the thought that his wife could fall in love with someone else. Everything seems to end well when, near the end, the incident turns out to be a farce. The ending is actually quite bitter, because the wife really leaves Cristofor, not for another man, but for her own happiness. Through a game of alternations, the playwright suggests that perhaps if Cristofor had been married to Anca, his attention would have turned to Ema, because he is and remains an adventurer in love.

Distribution:

Valeriu Stambuliu:  Jean Sandulescu
Victoria Sava:  Doina Ioja
Christopher Bellea:  Nicholas Thomas
Ema Bellea and Anca Stambuliu:  Simona Constantinescu

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala
Musical illustration and sound design: Dorel Olea

Comedy with songs, in two acts by Vasile Alecsandri

Artistic director: Dorel Urlăţeanu emeritus artist
Scenography: Eliza Popescu
Music: Alexandru Flechtenmacher and Carol Nosek
Musical direction: Zoltán Boros
Co-repeater: Mihai Vasilescu
Premiere date: November 26, 1969

„"Chirița in the Province" is perhaps the best-known component of the cycle dedicated to this character of great significance in Romanian literature. The play is built on two directions, Chirița following Grigori Bârzoi's obtaining the position of steward of the land and the marriage of his son Gulita with Luluța, an orphan in her care. Luluța, however, is in love with Leonaș who, through several disguises and ingenious stratagems, manages to marry the chosen one of his heart and take over the position of steward that Bârzoi abused.

In her small provincial town, Chirița poses as a promoter of new Western trends and manners: she receives letters only on a tray, rides horses and smokes because it is fashionable, dresses her husband "German", tries to style Ion the courtier. Next, she is determined to emigrate to Paris, which she imagines she will conquer with the title of baroness and with learned French "toute seulette" and practiced in extremely tasty conversations with "Monsieur Șarl", Gulita's tutor. The play ends with Bârzoi's forced "resignation", with Leonaș's engagement to Luluța and with Chirița's farewell party, who has obtained a passport for the "states of Europe" and starts from her perfect provincialism in the assault on the West.

Distribution:

Miss Chiriţa:  Olimpia Tomorrow, Anca Miere Chirilă
Grigori Barzoi:  Grig Schiţcu
Gulita, their child:  Ana Popa, Grig Dristaru
Luluţa:  Andra Teodorescu
Week:  Doina Urlățeanu 
Mr. Charles:  Ion Abrudan
Leonas:  Ben Dumitrescu
Ion:  John Martin
Peasants and guests:  Blaga Pascu, Călina Marcu, Edit Ghenes, Mihai Lascu, Ion Mureşan, Lucia Rois

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala

Play in two parts (seven scenes) by Al. Kiriţescu

Artistic direction:  Otto Szombati Gille
Assistant director: Alla Tăutu
Decor: Mircea Matcaboji
Costumes: Edit Schrantz Kunovits
Music illustration: Zoltán Boros
Premiere date: September 14, 1969

„"Michelangelo" is part of the "Renaissance Trilogy" (along with "The Wedding of Perugia" and "The Borgias"), inspired by the impressions accumulated by the Romanian playwright after a trip to Italy. "Michelangelo" is a period show, but above all an aesthetic debate on the condition of the artist. As the title suggests, the play is dedicated to Michelangelo, the prototype of the Renaissance man, a synthesis of the most valued artistic, civic and human qualities. Under the appearance of harshness and misanthropy, the artist portrayed by Kiriţescu hides immense resources of humanity, tenderness, and gentleness.

The play highlights the creator's struggle, the agonizing struggle with himself, with destiny, the drama of the isolated man. However, in addition to the attempt to decipher the mystery of creation, so impressively embodied in the Sistine Chapel, the dramatic binder remains a love intrigue.

As we can read in the Director's Note in the program booklet, the play brings to the stage "less of a historical Michelangelo and more of a human Michelangelo, a creator who fights with all his might to attribute perfection to forms." Indeed, Michelangelo did not know the serenity of creation like Raphael, for example. Artistic ideas were transposed into stone with passion, suffering and turmoil. The play's action and long tirades capture the effervescent, renewing aspects of Renaissance culture and the free spirit that could be perceived in all intellectual manifestations. As a whole, the play is a firm plea for art.

Distribution:

Michelangelo Buonarroti:  Ion Tomorrow
Rafael Sanzio:  Nicolae Barosan
Bramante:  Nicholas Thomas 
Pope Julius II:  Dorel Urlățeanu emeritus artist
Cardinal Giovanni de Medici:  Marcel Segărceanu
Prince Gaetano Colonna:  Mircea Olariu
Ser Antonello:  Ben Dumitrescu
Sir Giovanni:  George Pintilescu
Boccacino Serum:  Jean Sandulescu
Gianino:  Ana Popa
Battista della Palla:  Eugen Tugulea
Rinaldo Corsini:  Ion Abrudan
Gherado Gherardi:  Octavian Uleu
Beppo the lunatic:  John Martin
Francis of Urbino:  Grig Dristaru
Lelio:  George Stana
Chercio:  Constantin Simionescu
Bridget:  Andra Teodorescu
Empire:  Simona Constantinescu
Antennas:  Corneliu Zdrehus
A soldier:  Grig Schiţcu

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Agy Segărceanu
Sound: Dorel Olea

Café-theater show
Nicolae Labiş Recital
Screenplay: Stanca Ponta and Ion Abrudan

Artistic director: Ion Abrudan
Scenography: Eliza Popescu
Music illustration: Zoltán Boros
Premiere date: June 30, 1969

„"We live in the midst of a burning age" continued the series of small-scale performances from the café-théâtre project of the Romanian section, benefiting from a group of young performers, barely past the age at which Nicolae Labiş created. The beauty of the lyrics intertwined with the musical chords, creating a performance that attempted to go beyond the canons of a regular recital, in order to instead create a unified story, in which the protagonists express their thirst for life, the struggle with themselves at the crossroads of life. Labiş's lyrics, vibrant and charmingly candid, do not exclude confrontation with reality, however. As Gheorghe Tomozei states, "adolescent, Labiş's poetry is an invitation to mature contemplation. Simple in its representations, it calls for depth."”

Interpreters:

Ana Popa
Anca Miere Chirilă
Ben Dumitrescu
Nicolae Barosan
Ion Abrudan

Sound: Dorel Olea
Lights: Emeric Kozák, Alexandru Horváth

Café-theater show
Screenplay (based on lyrics by MRParaschivescu) and performance: Eugen Ţugulea
Musical illustration: Dorel Olea
Premiere date: May 16, 1969

The second recital presented within the café-théâtre formula was entitled « Popular Ballads and Gypsy Songs », grouping together a valuable material, both as a historical source and as an introduction to the character, customs and popular sensibility. Part I included a selection of ballads of popular inspiration: "Mioriţa" after Vasile Alecsandri, "Neguţa" after G. Teodorescu, "Fata răpită" by O. Densuşianu, "Dragnea", "Monastirea Argeş" after Vasile Alecsandri. The second part was made up of a collage of texts taken from Miron Radu Paraschivescu's debut volume, "Gypsy Songs" (1941): "Cântic de lampă", "Amar", "Cântic de dor şi of", "Cântic de nuntă", "Blestem de dragoste", "Rică", "Cântic de fată neagră", "Cântic de poteraşi".

Café-theater show
Selection of lyrics and performer: Alla Tăutu
Artistic director: Szombati Gille Otto
Music: Gheorghe Villan
Premiere date: April 12, 1969

Born from the desire to find an alternative method of expression and dialogue with the public, the café-théâtre concept was inaugurated by Oradea artists through the Baudelaire recital given by actress Alla Tăutu. Spectators gathered in the foyer of the Theatre were able to enjoy, in an intimate atmosphere, seventeen poems by the French author (four of which were recited in French), enhanced by musical accompaniment, an inspired play of light and shadow and an ingenious stage movement. Beyond the elective affinities that determined the choice of the poet and the texts, the opening of the café-théâtre project with Baudelaire's poetry also had a programmatic component, his writing being at the foundation of modern lyricism.

by GBShaw
Translation: Petru Comarnescu

Artistic direction: N.Al.Toscani (National Theatre "ILCaragiale" Bucharest)
Scenography: Tatiana Manolescu Uleu
Musical illustration: engineer Lucian Ionescu (Romanian Radio and Television Bucharest)
Choreography:  Eve Ombodi
Premiere date: June 7, 1969

The historical drama "Caesar and Cleopatra" has as its starting point the events in Egypt in 47 BC, the civil war for the throne between the two brothers - Cleopatra and Ptolemy and the interference of the Roman emperor in its development. Shaw's play, however, demystifies history, emphasizing the discrepancy that exists between the legend surrounding the historical figures and the reality behind it. Cleopatra, a sixteen-year-old girl, is captured both in the guise of a teenager overflowing with eroticism and as a sovereign quickly learning the secrets of diplomacy, hiding behind her first mask. Caesar seems to give up the heroic posture, appearing tired of his historical role, cynical, but showing an inventiveness that ensures his power. In addition, Shaw demonstrates that it was not love that played the main role in the story of the two ancient rulers, but politics, showing the connections between the Roman and Egyptian conquerors. The play abounds in anachronisms and time jumps, even alluding to the policy of conquest pursued by England in the author's contemporary period. He suggests (directly in the prologue spoken by the god Ra) that the two millennia of civilization and technological evolution have not improved the way of life of humans and have not changed them significantly.

Distribution:

The God Ra:  Ben Dumitrescu
Caesar:  Mircea Olariu
Cleopatra:  Elizabeth Jar
Girl:  Alla Tautu
Rufio:  Octavian Uleu
Ptolemy:  Ana Popa
Pothinosus:  Jean Sandulescu 
Achilles:  Marcel Segărceanu
Britannus:   Ion Tomorrow
Lucius Septimius:   Carol Lavott
The wounded soldier:  Ben Dumitrescu
Roman Sentinel:  Grig Schiţcu
Apollodorus the Sicilian:  Nicolae Barosan
The Centurion:  Ion Abrudan
Charmian:  Doina Ioja
Iras:  Anca Miere Chirilă

Comedy by Mircea Ştefănescu

Artistic direction: Sică Alexandrescu, People's Artist (National Theatre "ILCaragiale" Bucharest)
Assistant director: Valentin Avrigeanu
Musical illustration: Oradea Garrison Fanfare, conductor: Corneliu Săndulescu
Decor: Maria Hateganu
Costumes: Gabriela Nazarie
Premiere date: May 4, 1969

„"The Little Inferno" was considered a "dramatic novel" because its action takes place over forty years; each of the three acts corresponds to a stage in human life, from youth to old age. The play depicts the "little inferno" of a marriage that, knowing how to defend itself from temptations, always saves the marital edifice. The first two acts abound in situations that are not devoid of humor, which stem from the tricks invented by both husband and wife to ensure their marital fidelity endangered by the seductions specific to each age. The third act recapitulates the truths related to a lasting marriage, a mixture of love, hate and violent sensuality. However, without being a thesis play, "The Little Inferno" is a work dedicated to consecrated love and lasting marriage. "The little inferno... a story about the ages, miseries and happiness of man in the domestic environment, has the scent of lavender and the durable stitching of the whites kept in the old chest" (Valentin Silvestru, "Contemporanul", November 22, 1968).

Distribution:

Husband:  Nicholas Thomas
The doctor:  Marcel Anghelescu people's artist (National Theatre "ILCaragiale" Bucharest), Radu Voicescu
The courtier:  George Pintilescu
Orderly:  Ion Martin, Radu Voicescu
Wife:  Simona Constantinescu
Mother-in-law:  Lili Mihailescu Vladimir
Secretary:  Gina Nicolae

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala
Lighting: Vasile Blejan
Sound: Dorel Olea

Comedy by Radu Stanca
Absolute premiere

Artistic director: Miron Niculescu (National Theatre "ILCaragiale" Bucharest)
Assistant director: Nicolae Toma
Scenography: Elena Ionescu
Music: Zoltán Boros
Choreography: Eva Ombódi
Premiere date: February 16, 1969

Part of a long line of writings inspired by ancient culture, the play "Critis" or "The Quarrel of the Gods" has been considered by critics as an exercise in irony on mythological themes. Phoebus, Hera, Zeus, Athena are satirically characterized in scenes of slapstick comedy, but which retain an undoubted freshness and common sense. The pretext for the quarrel of the gods is a young and beautiful mortal - the Athenian Critis, who wins a beauty contest held in Thessaly, while Aphrodite, participating incognito in the contest, comes in second place. The insult to beauty cannot go unpunished, so Aphrodite and her husband, Hephaistos, ask Zeus for permission to "scold" Critis. Pallas Athena, the virgin goddess, who has maintained a manifest antipathy towards Aphrodite ever since the incident with Paris' apple, takes Critis under her double protection – as an inhabitant of Athens and as a virgin. From this moment on, the entanglements and quarrels on Olympus are continuous, involving more and more gods, all subject to the same passions, envy, jealousy, resentment as humans, biased and arbitrary in judgments and actions. Only Phoebus enjoys the scandal, as a diversion that will further dissipate the languor that reigns on Olympus. He too, inspired by Platonic philosophical theories, finds the explanation for the phenomenon by which Aphrodite could be defeated precisely in a beauty contest: "Aphrodite is beauty itself. Critis is just a beautiful girl. It is natural that people only recognize imitations, not the supreme model."„

Started on Olympus, the quarrel descends to earth, where the gods try to organize a second edition of the beauty contest, in which Zeus, disguised as the king of the city, will choose Aphrodite as the winner, restoring her to her natural rights and erasing the initial insult. However, struck by Eros' arrow, Zeus also falls in love with Critis, while Hera makes bold plans to cheat on him with Phoebus. In the end, everything returns to its original state, although the old antipathies and wars do not die out, and Critis, the mortal gifted with an incredible chance, will marry the true king of the city, young, handsome, to her measure, thus ending with a happy ending this farce with meaning, this contemporary joke on a classic canvas that reveals the patterns of truth and human beauty.

Distribution:

Zeus:  Nicholas Thomas
The King:  Ben Dumitrescu
Hera:  Doina Ioja
Pallas Athena:  Alla Tautu
Aphrodite:  Simona Constantinescu
Phoebus:  Nicolae Barosan
Hermes:  Jean Sandulescu
Hephaestus:  Ion Tomorrow
Eros:  Ana Popa
Criticism:  Gina Nicolae
Coryphaeus I:  Octavian Uleu
Coryphaeus II:  John the Baptist

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala

Play in five acts by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster
Translation: Ovid Densuşianu

Directed by: Otto Szombati Gille
Scenography: Eliza Popescu
Arrangement and musical direction: Zoltán Boros
Premiere date: January 18, 1969

„"Old Heidelberg" is W. Meyer Forster's dramatization of his own novel, "Karl Heinrich"; the play achieved astonishing fame immediately after its publication in 1900.

Among the songs, farces and fragments of student life, the play depicts a love story that takes place in the old German university city. The young Karl Heinz, Crown Prince of Saxony, arrives to study in Heidelberg, where he discovers a warm, cheerful, lively world, so different from the one at the German court, with its rigid and protocolic regime. Meeting Kathie, the niece of an innkeeper in the city, he has the revelation of true life and falls madly in love with the girl, for her optimism, purity and simplicity. Their idyll is brutally shattered, however, by the differences in social rank.

Beyond the slightly melodramatic plot, the play shines through its humanism, in which the joy of knowing friendship and love are highly valued. Seductive and luminous, the play retains, over the years, a special fragrance, from which nostalgia shines through, unaltered.

Distribution:

Karl Heinrich:  Nicolae Barosan, Florin Piersic (guest in several shows)
Kathy:  Gina Nicolae
Marshal:  Ion Tomorrow
Dr. Jüttner:  Dorel Urlăţeanu, emeritus artist
Lutz:  Radu Voicescu
Von Haugk:  Mircea Olaru
Ruder:  John the Baptist
Kellermann:  Grig Schiţcu 
From Metzing:  Jean Sandulescu
Detlew:  George Pintilescu
Engelbrecht:  Octavian Uleu 
Karl Biltz:  John Martin
From Wedell:  Eugen Tugulea 
Mrs. Dorffel:  Olympia Tomorrow
Mrs. Rüder:  Doina Urlățeanu
From Breitenberg:   Ion Abrudan
Gloss:  Ben Dumitrescu
Schollermann:  Marcel Segărceanu
A Swabian student:  László Tolnai Tank
Reuters:  Dorel Olea
Students:  Stefan Blaga, Viorel Cura, Calina Marcu, Iuliu Mathe, Ion Mociar, Ion Mureşan, Alexandru Nagy, Stefan Olah, Sandor Tatai, Mihai Tomulescu, Nicolae Vidican, Abelino Zsok

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Agy Segărceanu
Lighting: Vasile Blejan
Sound: Dorel Olea

Collective direction: Dorel Urlăţeanu emeritus artist, Alla Tautu, Ion Mainea, George Pintilescu
Scenography: Maria Haţeganu

„"Kaleidoscop Caragiale" groups five writings by the well-known Romanian author, with the theme of education and justice of the past: "Visit", "Mr. Goe", "Chain of Weaknesses", "A New School Teacher", "Article 214". This show supported the understanding of IL Caragiale's work by students and was presented in schools in Oradea and in the communes of Bihor County.

In distribution:

Doina Urlățeanu
George Pintilescu
Matilda Vitcu
Doina Ioja
Ana Popa
Alla Tautu
Anca Miere Chirilă
Eugen Tugulea
Ion Tomorrow
Marcel Segărceanu
Olympia Tomorrow

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Agy Segărceanu

Comedy in two parts by Anca Bursan and Gheorghe Panco

Artistic director: Ariana Stoica
Scenography: Nagy Alexandru
Premiere date: November 24, 1968

The lyrical comedy "Nicnic" can be considered a current parable, authentic in its relationship with immediate reality. Although it takes place on a construction site, "Nicnic" is not a production piece, but an ethical one, populated by hypostases-characters: Dan - the petty official, formalist and a little obtuse, otherwise conscientious and hardworking; Sorin - the capable, likeable, humorous, frank engineer, the embodiment of youth; Mărău - the boss who masks his sensitivity through sarcasm; Liana - the woman desired by everyone, a capable and competent technician. When Nicnic bursts into their peaceful life, all values are overturned. Nicnic is the adolescent male who can sacrifice himself with the same candor for a sublime idea, as for a ridiculous one; he symbolizes the spirit of adventure, the inexhaustible capacity for dedication, fantasy, unbridled enthusiasm. As Şerban Cioculescu states, the entire play is built on the confrontation between the spirit of fronde and common sense, between enthusiasm and prudence, between generosity spent rashly and rational initiative. Nicnic sees poetry in a construction sketch and above all wants to make people smile and listen to the rain. Through him, the existences of the others, who had functioned separately until then, intertwine and once his role is finished, Nicnic disappears, leaving for another chimera.

Distribution:

Nicolae Udrea:  Radu Voicescu
Tudor Marau:  Mircea Olariu
Sorin Valsan:  Ben Dumitrescu
Dan Briaru:  Nicolae Barosan
Liana Stilea:  Ana Popa, Gina Nicolae

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala
Musical illustration and sound design: Dorel Olea

Comedy by DRPopescu
National premiere

Artistic director: Ion Deloreanu
Scenography: Tatiana Manolescu Uleu
Choreography: Gabriela Taub
Incidental music: Mihai Vasilescu
Premiere date: November 1, 1968

In "Parallel Lives", Plutarch records the historical event of Caesar's kidnapping by a group of pirates and describes how the Roman leader amused his captors, writing poems and speeches that he then recited: "those he disliked he called downright rude and barbaric and often threatened them, laughing, with hanging. The pirates were delighted with Caesar's behavior, considering his audacity as simplicity and a joke."„

This historical event is taken up by DR Popescu as a pretext to create a play that questions the idea of tyranny, force, dictatorship. Prisoner, Caesar sees his entire future: the victories he has won, the power he will hold in the Roman Empire, his love for Cleopatra, even his assassination in the Senate. Contrary to the known historical course of events, Caesar is assassinated by the Pirate Captain, who decides to take his place and play out the scenario advanced by Caesar. But the Captain will, in turn, be suppressed by the Weak One, so that the series of usurpers could continue, endlessly, from one era to another. The identity of the possible/future Roman emperor is lost; a dictator bearing the name of Caesar will still exist, but it will no longer be known exactly who he was.

The composite style, sprinkled with parodic or historical anticipation elements, absurd and grotesque humor, work together to outline a theme with resonance in Romanian society at that time: the mechanism of formation of the dictator. Ultimately, the play suggests that the masks, the costumes, the times change, but the essence – the necessity of dictatorship – remains the same.

Distribution:

Caesar:  Jean Sandulescu
Captain:  Octavian Uleu
Skin:  Ion Abrudan
Fat:  John the Baptist
The weak:  Marcel Segărceanu
Dance:  Ligia Moga (National Theatre Cluj-Napoca)
The one-eyed pirate:  Grig Schiţcu
The drunk pirate:  John Martin

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Jeny Jurcă
Sound: Dorel Olea

by George Farquhar
Translation: Victoria Gheorghiu and Lucia Pascal

Artistic director: Farkas Ştefan
Decor: Stefan Hablinschi
Costumes: Mioara Buescu
Music: Adam Czakó
Premiere date: July 18, 1968

Inspired by the Irish playwright's personal experience, "The Recruiting Officer" depicts the adventures of officers Plume and Brazen, who are in Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers. The comedy satirizes the masquerade of enlisting soldiers destined to serve the Queen of England and the mirage of money earned in the army that would save simple peasants from everyday poverty. The rich and colorful action mixes the noisy life of arms with sentimental intrigue, including disguises and confusions, double-edged lines and a lot of healthy humor that ensures the success of the play with the audience.

Distribution:

Mr. Balance:  Gheorghe Musceleanu, Eugen Tugulea 
Mr. Scale:  Valentin Avrigeanu
Mr. Scruple:  Marcel Segărceanu
Mr. Worthy:  Vladimir Jurascu
Capt. Feathers:  George Pintilescu
Captain Brazen:  Jean Sandulescu
Sergeant Kite:  Ion Tomorrow
Bullock:  John the Baptist
Koster Pearmain:  Nicolae Barosan
Thomas Appletree:  Ben Dumitrescu
Pluck:  Octavian Uleu
Necklace:  John Martin
Bridwell:  Ion Abrudan
The Intendant:  Grig Schiţcu
Silvia:  Gina Nicolae
Melinda:  Viorica Cernucan
Lucy:  Anca Miere Chirilă
Rose:  Doina Ioja
Wife I:  Alla Tautu
Wife II:  Doina Urlățeanu

Comedy in five acts by Molière
Translation: Alexandru Toma

Artistic director: Marietta Sadova
Assistant artistic director: Valeriu Grama
Scenography: Tatiana Manolescu Uleu
Premiere date: May 12, 1968

Definitively departing from the aesthetics of farce, this character comedy by Molière constitutes itself both as a painting of morals and as a satire of human flaws, announcing the liberal tendencies that would characterize the Enlightenment art of the following century.

The aristocrat Orgon welcomes Tartuffe into his home, taking him as an exemplary Christian, an adherent of moral austerity (for others, not for himself, as will be demonstrated throughout the play). While Orgon and his mother appreciate Tartuffe, the other members of the family see him for what he really is – a hypocritical adventurer enslaved to the sensual pleasures of life, who takes advantage of the naivety of his wealthy protector. He offers him his daughter, Mariane, as his wife, not seeing how Tartuffe is actually trying to seduce his wife. Elmira devises a plan by which the duplicitous Tartuffe's intentions are thwarted and his true nature is revealed right before Orgon's astonished eyes. The false bigot, however, has another card to play: using some compromising documents that Orgon had entrusted to him without fear of anything, Tartuffe denounces him to the royal court. Fatal imprudence: retaining great affection for Orgon, who had once served him faithfully, the king forgives him, and the one arrested will be the traitor Tartuffe himself.

Distribution:

Mrs. Pernelle:  Maud Mary
Orgone:  Nicholas Thomas
Elmira:  Simona Constantinescu
Damis:  Ben Dumitrescu
Marianne:  Gina Nicolae
Value:  Nicolae Barosan 
Clean:  Eugen Tugulea
Tartuffe:  Vladimir Jurascu 
Wishes:  Viorica Cernucan
Mr. Loyal:  Octavian Uleu
A captain of the guard:  Ion Tomorrow
Flipota:  Anca Miere Chirilă

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala
Sound: Dorel Olea

Artistic director: Gheorghe Musceleanu
Scenography: Eliza Popescu
Premiere date: April 21, 1968

„"Satiric Kaleidoscope" started from the premise that the stage, through its audio-visual qualities, can make the literary text much more accessible; thus, the purpose of the show was the scenic promotion of prestigious literature. The literature recital included two parts: a collage of poetry and satirical prose from ancient times to contemporary times (Fedru, La Fontaine, François Villon, Topârceanu, Grigore Alexandrescu, IA Krîlov, IL Caragiale, Tudor Muşatescu, Tudor Arghezi) and 3 apparently unrelated works in the second part: the dramatic monologue "Telegram" by Aldo Nicolaj, the sketch "The Uninvited Guest" by Petre Locusteanu and the one-act television play "The New Tenant" by Eugen Ionescu.

Part I: texts by ILCaragiale, George Topîrceanu, Grigore Alexandrescu, Tudor Muşatescu, Aurel Baranga
Interpreters:  Gheorghe Musceleanu, Anca Miere Chirilă, Ben Dumitrescu, Ana Popa, Alla Tăutu, George Pintilescu, Vladimir Jurăscu, Ioan Pater, Olimpia Mâinea, Doina Ioja, Ion Abrudan, Jean Sândulescu

Part II:  Telegram by Aldo Nicolaj
Translation: Florian Potra
Interpreter:  Ion Tomorrow

Part III:  The uninvited guest by Petre Locusteanu
In distribution:  Octavian Uleu, Marcel Segărceanu, Grig Schiţcu

Part IV:  The new tenant by Eugen Ionescu
In distribution:  Nicolae Toma, Ulpia Hirjeu Musceleanu, Ion Martin, Grig Schitcu

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Musical illustration and sound design: Olea Dorel

Satire in two parts by Aurel Baranga

Artistic director: Ion Deloreanu
Scenography: Tatiana Manolescu Uleu
Premiere date: March 16, 1968

„"Public Opinion" is one of the most performed plays from the communist period in Romanian theaters. The title of the play is justified by the author as follows: "... I believe with boundless power in the strength of this collective character who cannot be misled and whose judgments are always without error. The people - that is, Public Opinion - sanction with a sense of justice that excludes any error.".

The author emphasizes the unbearable and dangerous presence of non-values (cowardice, irresponsibility, hypocrisy, demagogy, obtuseness, favoritism) and the need for a lucid and uncompromising attitude to eliminate them. Indeed, such negative values are one after another compromised, treated ironically or caricatured, and charged with polemics.

The unique element of the play is the encouragement of at least tacit participation by the audience: a character steps out of the conventional time and space of the show and addresses the audience directly, urging them to take part in the "debate" and find a solution to the conflict.

In the article "La o nouă lectură", from România Literară, no. 14/2003, the critic Alex Ştefănescu considers Aurel Baranga "an IL Caragiale product of communist culture (…). Both playwrights bring everyday life to the stage, with its agitated insignificance, cultivate the comic of language, exploiting the resources of orality, imagine qui-pro-quos, establish a complicity with the audience, above the characters. And yet, Aurel Baranga fails to reconstruct the brilliance of IL Caragiale's plays, being moralizing, not cynical, explicit, not equivocal, prosaic, not poetic."„

Distribution:

Chitlaru:  George Pintilescu, Eugen Tugulea
Gina:  Viorica Cernucan
Backstage director:  Grig Schiţcu
The director:  Ion Abrudan
Director Cristinoiu:   Vladimir Jurascu 
Pascalides:  Jean Sandulescu
Little Turkey:  Nicholas Thomas
Bajenaru:  John the Baptist
Ionita:  John Martin
Dumitras:  Nicolae Barosan
Manolescu:  Ion Tomorrow
Braharu:  Octavian Uleu 
Squid:  Ben Dumitrescu
A secretary:  Doina Ioja
George Ciorei:  Marcel Segărceanu
Spectator Ion Ion:  Valentin Avrigeanu
His wife:  Anca Miere Chirilă
Minister Brana:  George Musceleanu

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Irina Rézműves
Sound: Dorel Olea

Comedy in three acts by Alejandro Cassona
Translation: Cornelia Petreanu and Val Săndulescu
National premiere

Artistic direction: Valeriu Grama
Scenography: Maria Haţeganu
Premiere date: February 17, 1968

„"Spring - Forbidden Suicide" is a play built on a dramatic trick. Doctor Roda, who has studied the psychology of those who end their lives for many years, has the original idea of establishing a sanatorium for the cure of mental illnesses that lead to this extreme act. The therapy takes place under the camouflage of a structure that supposedly facilitates mutual aid and solidarity on the road to death; patients are provided with modern means of suicide, as well as Socratic hemlock, viper venom, and the lukewarm bath of the Seneca system. The sanatorium is home to the Imaginary Lover and the Sad Lady, who egotistically exaggerates her pain, sustaining it and even admiring it, Alicia, overwhelmed by loneliness, and Juan, suffering from a pronounced inferiority complex towards his brother, who succeeds in everything in life. But, of course, everything that happens in the magnificent setting of the sanatorium (an isolated castle, surrounded by a magnificent garden) is a regeneration, a rediscovery of the beauty of life. No one commits suicide, and what's more, the patients reintegrate into life with increased hopes. The only attempt is made by Chole, the healthy young woman who ended up in the sanatorium through a tourist accident and who is seduced by the lightness with which the idea of death is approached in the sanatorium. An original lyrical comedy, which demonstrates that there is always a way to solve problems, which are usually less serious, less dramatic than they seem at first glance. The universal remedy seems to be social life, real communication with one's neighbor.

Distribution:

Doctor Roda:  George Musceleanu
Hans:  Marcel Segărceanu
Sad lady:  Doina Urlățeanu
The imaginary lover:  Ion Abrudan, Ben Dumitrescu
Alice:  Ana Popa
Chole:  Gina Nicolae
Fernando:  Nicolae Barosan
John:  John Martin
The other Alicia's father:  Ben Dumitrescu, Ion Abrudan
Chora Yako:  Viorica Cernucan

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Sofica Spoiala
Sound: Dorel Olea