de Euripide
Translation: Alexandru Miran

Artistic director: Ion Sapdaru
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Asistent regie:  Alexandru Rusu
Choreography: Victoria Bucun
Sculpturi:  Iulian Anghel
Data premierei:  martie 2001

Montarea orădeană a tragediei lui Euripide optează pentru o viziune modernă, păstrând metrica antică, dar incluzând numeroase aluzii la viața contemporană, elemente coregrafice multiple și chiar accente de vodevil.

Fiica regelui Colchidei, Medeea este prototipul femeii pentru care „a fi” înseamnă „a iubi”. Din iubirea pentru Iason, ea a nesocotit voința tatălui ei, a încălcat tradițiile, și-a ucis fratele mai mic și a plecat pe meleaguri străine, unde a fost mereu considerată o barbară. Ea a sacrificat totul pentru dragoste, dar la un moment dat se vede înlăturată ca urmare a unor calcule josnice: în Corint, regele Creon i-o oferă de soție lui Iason pe fiica sa, Glauce. Considerând această căsătorie mai profitabilă, Iason acceptă; Medeea este izgonită și i se acordă o zi pentru a părăsi cetatea. O zi este de ajuns pentru plănuirea și înfăptuirea răzbunării. Iubirea se transformă în cea mai virulentă ură, demonstrând cât de apropiate sunt în fond cele două sentimente. A-l ucide pe Iason nu ar fi suficient: Medeea vrea să-l facă să sufere cumplit, așa cum a suferit și ea. Uciderea regelui Creon și a Glaucei este un pas decisiv spre hotărârea cutremurătoare de a-și ucide și copiii pe care i-a avut cu Iason. Sentimentul matern nu este anihilat, el veghează, dar dorința de răzbunare prevalează. Între aceste două coordonate se consumă drama eroinei.

Finalul montării orădene diferă substanțial de originalul grec: Medeea visează uciderea copiilor, însă asasinatul rămâne la acest nivel oniric, fără a deveni realitate sângeroasă.

Distribution:

Medeea:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Iason:  Romeo Romitan
Creon:  Petre Panait
Announcer:  Sebastian Wolf
O doică:  Mariana Vasile
Altă doică:  Ileana Iurciuc
Glauce:  Angela Tanko
Absistus:  Serban Borda
The photographer:  Alexander Rusu
Choir:  Mirela Niţă Lupu, Mona Erhan, Simona Nica, Igor Lungu, Pavel Sîrghi, Sorin Ciofu, Richard Balint şi Oana Cernea,  Anca Turcuţ,  Levente Movik
Children:  Igor Lungu jr., Patrik Csokmai, Denise Szabo

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

Dramatic screenplay by Daniel Vulcu and Mircea Chirilă, based on an idea by Jean Poiret

Artistic direction, scenographic concept and soundtrack: Daniel Vulcu
Set design assistant: Oana Cernea
Costumes: Amalia Judea
Original music: Florian Chelu
Choreography: Annamaria Kiss
Premiere date: January 14, 2001

The show captures some funny moments from the life of a small homosexual community. "The subject revolves around the self-indulgent visit of a high-ranking dignitary, together with his wife, to the possible cuscra. What the parliamentarian does not know is that the family of Alin, the future son-in-law, is "the other way around", his father - Georges - living with Jeannot, the "woman" who has "turned his back" on him for 20 years. To make a good impression, Georges must transform his strip club into an honorable theater venue, and the gestures, the way of speaking and the gait of those of his kind must seem as manly and natural as possible. Consequently, they also take behavior lessons from the butcher, who is a "boy of a boy" and an artist on top of that, liking the meats displayed by Rubens and Breugel. "From here, a multitude of hilarious situations, pigmented with music and dance, so that in the end, the dignitary and his wife give their consent to Alin's marriage to their daughter, Miorița. After which, in a general madness, they all disguise themselves to deceive the vigilance of the press, which came to hunt down the parliamentarian and look for scandalous topics." (Florin Șipoș, "Jurnal Bihorean", January 22, 2001).

Distribution:

George:  Doru Firte
Jeannot:  Emil Sauciuc, Daniel Vulcu
Mercedes:    Richard Balint
Jura:  Andrian Locovei
The newspaperman:  Paul Sarghi
Aline:  Serban Borda
The butcher:  Romeo Romitan
Mr. Ciobanu:  Ion Abrudan
Mrs. Ciobanu:  Simona Nica
Miorita:  Angela Tanko
Simone:  Mirela Corbeanu
Coco:  Mona Erhan
Dodo:  Andreea Balazs
Lola:   Helga Varga

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

Comedy by Alexandru Kiriţescu

Artistic direction and soundtrack: Ion Ciubotaru
Assistant director: Ion Abrudan
Scenography: Camelia Köteles Panait
Set design assistant: Oana Cernea
Premiere date: November 9, 2000

The comedy "The Hawks" is part of the so-called "Bourgeois Trilogy" by Alexandru Kirițescu and depicts, throughout the three acts, the avatars of the Duduleanu clan, embodied by the three "hawks" (Aneta, Zoia and Lena), as well as the next generation. The very brief plot is outlined by the advances that Wanda Serafim makes to conquer Mircea, Margareta Aldea's husband. Miserly, rapacious, the three old women give the impression that they could live as long as the world. The death of Margareta, daughter and granddaughter who committed suicide with laudanum does not shake their appetite, nor the pleasure of gossiping endlessly, playing cards and tactically drinking coffee.
The focus of the work, however, lies in sketching the cruel face of the provincial world. The rhythm of the play is born outside any evolutionary line from the permanent tension of the dialogue, from the gratuitous display of malice, from the provocation, the abruptness and the irritation of the discussion partner. All the characters are (and label each other) "mad", "exalted" and "monsters" in an atmosphere of general ferocity, in which each wants the other's "life, body, breath, all the blood of the heart". As Ion Vartic (Analytical Dictionary of Romanian Literary Works) states, "deceiving through their realistic appearances, the characters, in their mechanical, played, simulated furies, in reality resemble Jarry's Ubuştî creatures". The comedy "Gaițele" thus becomes one of the most modern Romanian theatrical experiences.

Distribution:

Aneta Duduleanu:  Mariana Vasile
Wanda Seraphim:  Mariana Presecan
Margareta Aldea:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Colette Duduleanu:  Ileana Iurciuc
Miss:  Mona Erhan, Simona Nica
Lena:  Simona Constantinescu
Zoia Duduleanu:  Mariana Neagu
Zamfira:  Angela Tanko
Mircea Aldea:  Dorin Presecan
Georges Duduleanu:  Tiberiu Covaci
Ianache Duduleanu:  Ion Abrudan
The man with the axe:  Nicholas Thomas

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

A two-part play by Gabriel García Márquez
Translation: Darie Novaceanu

Dramatization, artistic direction and soundtrack: Ion Sapdaru
Assistant director: Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Set design assistants: Oana Cernea and Csaba Baican
Choreography: Victoria Bucun
Premiere date: September 12, 2000

„"The story of the "ruthless" grandmother who forces her beautiful and immature granddaughter Erendira to prostitute herself in order to compensate her for the damage caused in a fire that consumed her house and for which she holds her own granddaughter responsible is skillfully dramatized by director Ion Sapdaru. He borrows from another Marquesan story an angel [...] to whom he gives a role of raisonné, as the narrator of the whole plot, an angel who descends God from the machine with the chaos in the heavens and which, in the end, will ascend to the kingdoms the heroine of the show, Erendira. A suffering and humiliation on earth rewarded with a rapture between the Lord.

The juxtaposition of moral monstrosity and senile cupidity (the grandmother) and virginal beauty (Erendira) creates a picture of extraordinary strength and drama. Bought for a hundred or so pessos by a "widower", deflowered and then abandoned to the pleasures of soldiers and smugglers, Erendira has, however, the chance to discover her love in a client who has never made love again and who is also an angel (whose wings were cut off by life). In order to snatch her away from the debauchery imposed by the old woman, the monks of an order kidnap Erendira and lock her up in a monastery, preparing her for an ascetic life or a forced marriage to an oligophrenic in a cell. Erendira, however, escapes, in order to seek her true love in freedom. Which, however, can only be fulfilled through a crime. Because she still had two years to serve in prostitution, in order to compensate her grandmother, Erendira's lover poisons the old pimp […]. The old woman, instead of dying, dances with Ulise, in the last gasp of her life, so that the lovers believe that the poison had no effect. In the end, Erendira's lover stabs her several times with a knife, not expecting the effect of the poison.„ (Pașcu Balaci, ”Crișana”, October 2, 2000).

Distribution:

Grandmother:  Mariana Vasile
Erendira:  Angela Tanko
Rafaelo and the Fair Host:  Petre Panait
Ulysses:  Serban Borda
The Photographer and the Fair Man:  Ion Abrudan
The smugglers' boss:  Tiberiu Covaci
The widower:  Ion Tomorrow
The Driver, Blacaman, The First Monk:  Dorin Presecan
The Postman, The Second Soldier, The Second Monk, A Man at the Fair, The Second Groom:  Sebastian Wolf 
The Uruk Soldier, A Smuggler, The Third Monk, A Fair Man, The Third Groom, The First Indian, A Soldier:  Andrian Locovei
A smuggler, The fifth monk, The fifth groom, A fairground man, The second Indian:  Igor Lungu
The fourth soldier, The fourth monk, A man from the fair, The fourth groom:  Romeo Romitan
The Truck Driver, A Man from the Fair:  George Voinese
The groom with the horse's lip, the Drummer:  Ion Ruscut
The First Nun, The First Bride, A Prostitute, Death:  Mona Erhan
The second nun, The second bride, A prostitute:  Simona Nica
The Third Nun, The Third Bride, The Spider Woman:  Mariana Presecan
A woman at the fair:  Ileana Iurciuc
The adulterous husband:  Marcel Popa
The Circar:  Mircea Cosma
A child:  Tiberiu Covaci Jr.
In other roles:  Sorin Ciofu, Richard Balint, Pavel Sarghi, Alexandru Rusu, Oana Cernea, Zoltán Rézműves, Florian Chelu, Levente Movik, Noémi Buda, Florin Popescu, Gabriela Mariţan, Gheorghe Iernea, Alexandru Luca, Nicolae Segărceanu, Cristian Segărceanu, Adrian Pintea, Alexandru Rois, Florica Cighir

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Translation, adaptation, artistic direction and soundtrack: Alina Hiristea
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Set design assistant: Oana Cernea
Premiere date: May 15, 2000

Written at the end of the war, the play "Closed Doors" encompasses a series of theses that Sartre would later take up in fundamental works that reveal a writer who constantly rises up against traditional ways of thinking. The same is true of the play "Closed Doors", in which a narrow, closed space is imagined, from which there is no way out and relationships between people are extremely degraded. That space is Hell itself, organized as a true system of oppression, in which there is no need for executioners, torture devices or eternal fires; here, each soul is the executioner of other souls, through presence, through accusations and examinations of conscience: "The executioner is each of us for the other two") The characters who populate Hell are the reporter Garcin, the clerk Ines and the aristocrat Estelle, three natures that are sufficiently different to be unable to coexist in harmony. They will be forced to admit their own sins – adultery, infanticide, deceit, cowardice, malice, odious manipulation), illicit desires and unpleasant memories and to discover those of others, being forced to accept that one does not end up in Hell by chance: „We are among ourselves, among criminals.” When the door of the elegant living room-cell opens, none of them dares to leave, because they have convinced themselves that they have nowhere else to go, the condemnation meaning to stay together forever, continuing to harass each other, to suspect each other, to lie to each other, to contradict their tastes and beliefs.

So, contrary to popular belief, we don't need to go down to find ourselves in Hell. The full cruelty of Hell can be found in the most comfortable living rooms and in the company of the most presentable people, according to Sartre's conclusion that has become an aphorism: "Hell is others.".

Distribution:

Ines:  Mariana Neagu
Garcin:  Doru Firte
Estelle:  Mariana Presecan
The boy on duty:  Andrian Locovei

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

by Eugen Ionescu
Translation: Mariana Şora

Artistic director: Ion Ciubotaru
Scenography: Camelia Köteles Panait
Premiere date: February 2000

The absurd play "Delirium in two, in three... in as many as you want" takes up a favorite theme of Ionesque theater: that of the couple whose existence is based on mockery, on trifles that are given a capital importance by abolishing any system of values.

For seventeen years together, He and She have been struggling with a lack of communication. The little marital war is built around the dilemma of whether or not the turtle and the snail are one and the same animal. The argument seems to be the essential existential mode of the two characters, but also of the secondary couple, the Neighbors, who go through the same states. We are dealing with a fierce dispute, with invectives and harassment about nothing, basically; it is a way of discussing about something, but also to respond to the disturbances outside. Because in the outside world, too, a generic, nameless war is going on, which even affects the apartment where He and She live. This war also has no meaning: "At least, when they fight, at first they don't know why they do it, they discover their reasons over time. They don't overcome their reasons, or, if they overcome them, then everything is channeled towards a direction, and when everything is over, they have to start over." The absence of confrontation triggers panic: "Peace has broken out. They made peace. And what will happen to us?"„

Thus, the inner and outer struggle mirror each other. The arguments in the apartment are only a reduced expression of the madness outside. The impersonal history rivals the violence of the personal language, which disaggregates, and the play's development resembles a morbid joke that never ends, a mechanism that spins in vain. Interhuman relationships gradually dissolve, as does the border between reality and the absurd. Delirium becomes generalized, and the characters remain from beginning to end prisoners of their own experiences, dramas and misunderstandings.

How can we hope for peace and communication if we cannot hear, or even listen to, each other?

Distribution:

It:  Paula Chirila
He:  Serban Borda
Neighbor:  Andrian Locovei
Neighbor:  Angela Tanko
The soldier:  Igor Lungu

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide

International Eminescu Year
Poetry performance based on verses by Mihai Eminescu
Selection of lyrics, scenography, sound ambience created by composer Jean Michel Jarre, interpretation and artistic direction: Eugen Ţugulea
Premiere date: January 2000

Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

by ILCaragiale

Artistic director: Alina Hiristea
Scenography: Cosmin Hiristea
Set design assistant: Oana Cernea
Musical illustration: Floriana Chelu, Alina Hiristea, Gabriel Băruţa
Premiere date: January 13, 2000

The setting of the one-act farce "Conu Leonida Faces the Reaction" is a modest room in a Bucharest slum. Here, Conu Leonida, a pensioner, is talking to Efimita, his wife, about the political situation in the country. The emphasis falls on the old man's unbridled desire to praise his qualities, his merits as a "republican", whose family was at the forefront in '48, and in '90, and in '96 (allusions to political life after the fall of communism). Conu Leonida imagines that he was once one of the perpetrators of the revolution, evoking with nostalgia the bright past. The comic results from the description of the events and the atmosphere, with "flags, music, gongs, drums, great things and the world, the world ..." so that the idealized revolution becomes nothing more nor less than a popular fair. Coana Efimița uses superlative terms to maintain this empty and ridiculous chatter, actually understanding very little of what she hears. In the quiet of their marital home, the two declare themselves the most fervent supporters of the republic, which they would defend at the cost of their lives. But when they are awakened from their sleep by bangs, hooting, volleys and shouts, the couple are terribly scared that the revolution has broken out and are ready to flee to Ploiești – the capital of Caragiale republicanism.

The second interpretation of the infernal noise outside is given by Conu Leonida based on the breaking news read in "Aurora Democratică": "It's not a revolution, sir, it's a reaction." Thus, Victor Fanache states, "in this second connotation, the noise is given a meaning contrary to the previous one. It descends on the scale of social events, from the maximum to the minimum level of significance, from the sacred fire of the revolution to the destructive one of the reaction." (Analytical Dictionary of Romanian Literary Works, coord. Ion Pop).

The mystery of the events is unraveled at dawn, when the maid Safta arrives, who tells the terrified masters that the previous night there was a big party on the occasion of the End of the Century at the corner grocer, and when the party broke up, the drunken guests booed and fired their pistols, gestures that Safta's common sense qualified as a "Mitocan custom". It is the moment when the civic courage of the two old men is reborn, as is Efimită's unconditional admiration for the genius of her husband, who knows everything.

Distribution:

Efimita:  Ileana Iurciuc
Leonidas:  George Voinese
Week:  Mona Erhan

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Free adaptation after Raymond Queneau by Daniel Vulcu and Mircea Morariu

Artistic direction and scenography: Daniel Vulcu
Original music: Florian Chelu and Claudiu Frunză
Premiere date: November 5, 1999

„"From Queneau, an incident is retained, a short story, an event that happened on a bus, an incident between two travelers, one of whom was wearing a soft hat, with a string instead of a ribbon and was missing a button on his overcoat. This episode, with its details, is narrated in many ways, turned inside out, each time opening up a different comic perspective. After being initially played "objectively", it is "narrated" now by an Arab who speaks roughly Romanian, now by an Oltean, now by a Transylvanian shepherd, now by a grandmother, now by a gypsy, now by a Frenchwoman, now by "becoming" a well-known character from the period of the flower bridges across the Prut; at another moment it becomes a fashionable music text, a pretext for parodying soap operas, it is "filtered" through the sclerotic ears of a decrepit old man or it is an opportunity for play, for amusement with half-words or combined words." (Dumitru Chirilă in "Familia" no. 1, January 2000).

In distribution:
Daniel Vulcu, Paula Chirilă, Mircea Cosma, Serban Borda

by Matei Visniec

Artistic direction and soundtrack: Petru Vutcărău
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Set design assistant: Camelia Köteles Panait
Premiere date: October 21, 1999

„"Time can only heal wounds that can be healed" could be the motto of a play in which human destiny is projected against the backdrop of a world torn apart by existential aberrations. It is about the war in Bosnia (or any other war), in which the horrors do not only mean bombings, mass graves, mutilated people, but also psychological dramas determined, among other things, by rape, transformed into an instrument and consequence of armed confrontation. Through concrete, earth-shattering images, the war is "transformed into a symbolic framework of everything that means the desecration of the individual, regardless of time and space." (Dumitru Chirilă, article "Peste vitregiile momentului" in "Familia" no. 11-12/1999).

Against this backdrop, the destinies of two women intertwine – Kate, an American psychiatrist working at a center for raped women, and Dora, one of the hundreds of victims. Their dialogue, impossible at first, gradually turns into a beautiful communion, as both try to understand the meaningless events around them. Around them gravitate the „Balkan men”, people who mimic human existence to hide their animal instincts, vulgarity, dirty and criminal deeds.

Through violence, but also through the humanity that shines through the actions and attitudes depicted, Vişniec's play transforms into an appeal to memory, creating images that have "the power to save, to engage, to remind that the urgency of our days is the fight against this historical oblivion." (Matei Vişniec, in the program of the show)

Distribution:

Dora:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Kate:  Mariana Presecan
Men from the Balkans:  Petre Panait, Dorin Presecan

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

AWARDS:
– Scenography Award: Vioara Bara, at the 12th edition of the Short Theatre Week, Oradea, 1999

Crime comedy by Robert Thomas

Artistic direction, stage version and sets: Eugen Harizomenov
Assistant director: Mirela Niţă Lupu
Costumes: Amalia Judea
Premiere date: October 7, 1999

„"Is the Assassin Among Us? (Eight Women)" is an ingenious police farce, punctuated by spectacular theatrical strokes, but also endowed with a visible satirical dimension.

Marcel, a seemingly caring family man, around whom eight women from successive generations gravitate, with greater or lesser importance, is found one morning in his room with a knife stuck in his back. From that moment on, the room is locked until the police arrive and a spontaneous investigation begins in the isolated house, in which each of the eight becomes, in turn, detective and suspect. In this sarabande of suspicions, difficult relationships, surprising and uncomfortable secrets, hidden character traits and illicit feelings are revealed. Accusations and explanations are chained together, while other complications come to enhance what author Robert Thomas understands and cultivates by the phrase "comic suspense": the gate is blocked, the telephones are cut off, the dogs are poisoned, the car is broken, the gun and the life-saving medicine have disappeared from their place.

„"A detective story without a corpse is not a detective story. And the more... dead the corpse, the better" (rule 7 of the 18 mandatory rules of the genre, formulated by Van Dine and applied to the detective story). However, the denouement of the play "Is the Assassin Among Us?" blatantly contradicts this rule, because Marcel is not dead, but has staged the entire story together with his daughter, Catherine, in order to see the true situation among those close to him. Exasperated that he is deceived and lied to, Marcel definitively leaves the coalition of eight women in his entourage with Catherine.

Distribution:

Grandmother:  Simona Constantinescu
Madame Chanel:  Mariana Vasile
Pierrette:  Mona Erhan
Louise:  Paula Chirila 
Augustine:  Ileana Iurciuc
Gaby:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu 
Suzanne:  Angela Tanko
Catherine:  Mariana Presecan
Marcel:  George Voinese

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

by Mihail Sebastian

Artistic direction and sets: Florin Antoniu
Costumes: Amalia Judea
Premiere date: March 25, 1999

„"The Nameless Star" evokes a generic-anonymous provincial town located on the Bucharest-Sinaia route, at whose station the fast trains do not stop. An unprecedented act in the city's existence, the luxurious express train from Bucharest stops one evening to disembark a passenger without a ticket and without papers, a disturbing unknown. At the station to pick up his astronomy book (his absolute passion), high school teacher Marin Miroiu, enchanted by the appearance of a gorgeous lady from the good and distant world, offers her his modest home as shelter for a night. This will be a magical night, in which the heavens open and in which Mona and Marin Miroiu, each have, through the other, the revelation of another world, a revelation from which love is born. But the dream ends at dawn, in the form of the banal everyday life and the unattractive perspectives offered by life in the small town. Although transfigured by her encounter with Miroiu, Mona will still leave with her admirer, Grig, who arrived by car to retrieve her. But the encounter was not in vain: although stars never return from their path, their flame continues to shine from above.

Distribution:

Myrrh:  Dorin Presecan
Mona:  Mariana Presecan
Station manager:  Eugen Harizomenov
Udrea:  Doru Firte
Miss Cuckoo:  Mariana Vasile
Zamfirescu student:  Angela Tanko, Delia Martin
Greg:  Romeo Romitan
A peasant:  Nicholas Thomas
Ichim:  Ion Ruscut
Pastor:  Sebastian Wolf
The conductor:  Marcel Popa

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Comedy by ILCaragiale
120 years since the absolute premiere

Artistic direction, set design and musical illustration: Ion Ciubotaru
Assistant director: Petre Panait
Costumes: Amalia Judea
Premiere date: February 11, 1999

„"A Stormy Night", the well-known play by IL Caragiale evokes a not too distant and not at all idealized time, a time when human characters mirror absolutely hilarious morals and situations, worthy of highlighting, since we can find current typologies, doing just a small recognition exercise. Captain Dumitrache Titircă, also known as Inimă-Rea, a captain in the Civil Guard and a liberal political activist, is a man who respects himself and wants to be respected, especially in his "honor as a family man". Very outraged by the "vagrants" who have filled the world, Dumitrache tells his friend Nae Ipingescu how for two weeks, an "employee" has been burning his days, looking for ladies: Veta - his wife and Ziţa - his sister-in-law. Veta, however, married at a young age to Dumitrache, a "coptic" man, has an affair with Chiriac, the captain's trusted man. The comic climax is reached when from the street, Dumitrache, who is doing his night patrol, shouts to Chiriac, tightly embraced by Veta, to watch over his honor as a family man.

The second act is explosive and the adventures follow one another at a dizzying pace. Accidentally entering Veta's room in the dark, Rică Venturiano, Zita's admirer and none other than the "tramp" pursued by Dumitrache, is helped by Veta to escape the wrath of her jealous husband. In the end, the intruder is caught, but everything ends well. For Dumitrache, the alliance through Zita's marriage to Rică, a law student and ardent publicist, seems salutary. When things seem to have calmed down and the storm caused by a reversed house number is completely calmed down, Master Dumitrache has one last jolt of "ambition", taking out of his pocket the necktie found in his wife's bed. Chiriac, however, gives the necessary explanations: "Yes! Come back, master; that's my tie, don't you know?". The great subtlety lies in the fact that we will never know whether Dumitrache knows this spicy truth about his family life or not.

The 1999 staging of the well-known Caragiale text marked 120 years since its absolute premiere, at the National Theater in Bucharest.

Distribution:

Master Dumitrache Titircă the Evil-Hearted:  Doru Firte
Nae Ipingescu:  Ion Abrudan
Chiriac:  Petre Panait
Spyridon:  Sebastian Wolf
Rica Venturiano:  Dorin Presecan
Veta:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Zita:  Mariana Presecan
Ghita Tircadau:  Tiberiu Covaci

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

by Dan Mihu
Absolute premiere
Artistic direction and scenography: Florin Antoniu
Premiere date: January 29, 1999

„"Written for a single character, the play is a monodrama that problematizes the lack of communication between the scorned intellectual and the consumer society. The protagonist has a contradictory "discussion" with a second absent character [his own voice, recorded on a tape recorder], who constantly tempts him to renounce the illusory world, to accept the barren everyday reality, "with people and their petty wars". It is a deaf struggle with the malformation of his self. The hero "sees" ideas ("Reality does not exist, it is only an illusion") and prefers to live in a constructed universe (arranges the chairs on stage, explains where the bathroom, the kitchen, etc. are), not in a given one. Attempts to change him fail. Although he does not always manage to find his way to the library (the equivalent of finding Ariadne's saving thread), the character does not take on any worldly contours ("I refuse reality!"), balancing on the edge of psychoanalysis. More than the fact that he cannot decide, his drama consists in waiting "with boredom, without desire and without regrets" for death. A hunted dog without a master. A master he does not want and cannot have, feeling comfortable in his condition. The end of the play gains tension: the protagonist takes out a gun and, when everyone expected him to end his life, he lights a cigarette with it. The light goes out, the curtain falls. Did the character commit suicide or not?" (Florin Șipoș, "Jurnal Bihorean", February 1, 1999).

Distribution:

The man:  Romeo Romitan

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lights: Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Comedy in two parts by Beaumarchais
Translation: Valentin Lipatti

Artistic director: Alice Barb
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Musical illustration on themes from Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville: Alice Barb, Florian Chelu and Sorin Domide
Premiere date: December 17, 1998

Count Almaviva, secretly in love with a beautiful young woman he glimpses in Madrid, devises, together with the barber Figaro, his former valet, a stratagem by which he can meet and conquer his beloved, named Rosina. To ensure that the girl truly loves him and not his wealth, the Count assumes the false identity of a poor student named Lindor.

The news that Rosina's guardian, the old doctor Bartholo, will marry her the next day, makes the two of them hurry up the sequence of events. With the help of Figaro, inventive and resourceful, the Count enters Bartholo's house disguised as a soldier, and Alonzo - Rosina's substitute music teacher, and, despite the old guardian's vigilance, the two young people manage to exchange a few notes and words of love. At midnight, a new secret meeting takes place, during which the two lovers marry without thinking twice, in the presence of a notary who accidentally arrives at Bartholo's house.

Beyond the plot through which love is restored to its natural rights, "The Barber of Seville" lives on, over the centuries, through the vigor of the tirades, the verve of the dialogue, the logic of the argumentation and the harmony of ideas, but also through the inexhaustible energy of Figaro, who, making his first appearance on the literary scene through this play, has become, over time, a true archetype.

Distribution:

Count Almaviva:  Daniel Vulcu
Bartholomew:  Ion Tomorrow
Rosine:  Paula Chirila
Figaro:  George Voinese
Don Basile:  Ion Abrudan
Youth:  Mariana Vasile
L'Eveille:  Sebastian Wolf
The notary:  Alexander Cornea
Aldermen:  Ion Ruscut
Figaro's little girl:  Loredana Fodor

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Drama in two parts by Giuseppe Berto
Translation and adaptation: Doru Fîrte

Scenography and artistic direction: Vitalii Lupaşcu
Premiere date: November 13, 1998

The touching love story of two people who can neither live together nor apart… A Venetian musician afflicted with an incurable disease calls his ex-wife to visit him, without revealing the reason for this invitation. Walking through the charming streets and canals of Venice, the two recall in a series of flashbacks the happy moments, but also the difficulties of their marriage. The memories bring them closer together again, and the meeting is enveloped in the magic of total romance. But time has no patience with them anymore…

Distribution:

It:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
He:   Doru Firte

Technical director: Eugenia Floruţa Popa
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Drama by Jean Genet
Translation and artistic direction: Florin Antoniu
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Premiere date: November 8, 1998

Count Almaviva, secretly in love with a beautiful young woman he glimpses in Madrid, devises, together with the barber Figaro, his former valet, a stratagem by which he can meet and conquer his beloved, named Rosina. To ensure that the girl truly loves him and not his wealth, the Count assumes the false identity of a poor student named Lindor.

The news that Rosina's guardian, the old doctor Bartholo, will marry her the next day, makes the two of them hurry up the sequence of events. With the help of Figaro, inventive and resourceful, the Count enters Bartholo's house disguised as a soldier, and Alonzo - Rosina's substitute music teacher, and, despite the old guardian's vigilance, the two young people manage to exchange a few notes and words of love. At midnight, a new secret meeting takes place, during which the two lovers marry without thinking twice, in the presence of a notary who accidentally arrives at Bartholo's house.

Beyond the plot through which love is restored to its natural rights, "The Barber of Seville" lives on, over the centuries, through the vigor of the tirades, the verve of the dialogue, the logic of the argumentation and the harmony of ideas, but also through the inexhaustible energy of Figaro, who, making his first appearance on the literary scene through this play, has become, over time, a true archetype.

Distribution:

Claire:  Paula Chirila
Solange:  Delia Martin
Lady:  Andra Tudor Cornea

Technical director: Florin Popescu
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Sound: Sorin Domide

Comedy in two acts by Aristophanes
Translation: Alexandru Miran

Artistic director: Eugen Harizomenov
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Stage movement: Gitta T.Săteanu
Premiere date: October 8, 1998

In “The Assembly of Women,” Aristophanes investigates the differences, relationships, and tensions between the roles assigned to men and women in ancient Greek society. A group of women led by Praxagoras claims the leadership of public life for themselves, after the men have proven their incapacity. Identifying the flaws of the Athenian microcosm and despising the confused and unstable democracy, Aristophanes finds a paradoxical remedy: a full, utopian democracy, even suggesting that the communist mentality does not belong exclusively to the modern era. In the new organization imposed by women, the state occupies every Athenian citizen and all goods and practices, including sexuality, become common. But what are the chances of success of such an imaginary revolution?

Distribution:

Praxagoras:  Mariana Presecan
Woman I, Old Woman I:  Mariana Neagu
Woman II, Old Woman II:  Ileana Iurciuc
Woman III, Old Woman III, Woman Announcer:  Mariana Vasile
Blephiros:  Tiberiu Covaci
Neighbor:  Eugen Tugulea
Chremes:  Marcel Popa
Girl:  Mirela Nita Wolf
The young man:  Sebastian Wolf
The maid:  Andra Tudor Cornea
Athenians:  George Voinese, Ion Ruscut, Romeo Romitan
Athenian:  Paula Chirilă, Delia Martin, Angela Tanko, Ofelia Fîrte
Little girl:  Zoe Popa

Technical director: Eugenia Floruţa Popa
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup
Soundtrack and sound design: Sorin