by Ana Ripka-Rus (debut)

Artistic director: Iustina Prisacaru (debut)
Scenography: Vilmos Bölöni
Premiere date: October 5, 1995

A play with absurd and grotesque inserts, "Almost a Forest" evokes a strange world, undetermined in time or space, isolated behind a clump of trees that make up "almost a forest" and hide nameless, tormented, maladjusted and incoherent characters behind them.
At the center of this world is the Woman, who lives in self-imposed isolation, feeling guilty for having pushed her childhood lover to suicide. The reasons for this are unclear, but since then, the Woman has sunk into utter misanthropy, with her only companions being the Hunchback, who guards her gate and secretly loves her, the Madwoman (possibly the Woman's alter-ego), and the garden gnomes, who – she believes – only come to life at night. Both the Young Man's and the Policeman's subsequent intrusion into their world have erotic motivations and are seen as a threat to the comfortable solitude in which the three of them indulge.
The Lover and Mistress sneak into the attic of the house where the Woman lives every night. It is the same attic where, many years ago, the Woman and her lover met, none other than the Lover from the present, who once staged her suicide farce to free himself from a relationship that had become boring and too serious.

Distribution:

Woman:  Joanna Blaga
The young man:  Dorin Presecan
The hunchback:  Ion Abrudan
Crazy:  Mariana Presecan
The lover:  George Voinese
Mistress: Andra Tudor
Policeman:  Eugen Tugulea
In other roles:  Loredana Iuga, Marius Costea, Otilia Bosca

Technical director: Eugenia Popa
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lights: Laviniu Goron
Sound: Sorin Domide