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