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