by Harold Pinter
Translation: Horia Hulban
National premiere

Direction and scenography: Sergiu Savin
Premiere date: February 15, 1983

„"The Anniversary", a play that has become a classic in universal dramaturgy, was classified by Martin Eslin in the category of theater of the absurd. The action of the play is set in a claustrophobic, dirty, suffocating boarding house, located in an English seaside town, not far from London. The boarding house is owned by a couple in their sixties, Meg and Petey, whose only client is Stanley. An apathetic, dull figure, Stanley assumes the identity of a former pianist and retreats to the boarding house as if to a refuge. Meg cares for Stanley with a maternal affection that borders on incest.

The threat felt from the beginning of the play materializes with the appearance of the two strangers, Goldberg and McCann, who have arrived, ostensibly, for Stanley's birthday. Although he denies that it is his birthday, at Meg's insistence a party is organized that gradually turns into a nightmare. Stanley is harassed with accusations and countless aggressive questions about an organization he has allegedly betrayed, as well as philosophical questions ("Why did the chicken cross the street?") or rhetorically absurd ones. After a hallucinatory game of blind and right, the two forcibly take Stanley to a certain Monty, a metaphor, perhaps, of man's slide towards death.

The oppressive atmosphere of the play is built through several elements such as: the possibility of a hidden danger in apparent normality, the foreboding of an imminent disaster, the use of irony where communication becomes useless, almost surreal confusions, the lack of any rational explanation for the characters' actions, all giving rise to the most typical theatrical absurdity.

Distribution:

Petey:  Eugen Tugulea
Meg:  Anca Miere Chirilă
Stanley:  Ion Tomorrow
Lulu:  Tania Filip
Goldberg:  Eugen Harizomenov
McCann:  George Voinese