Enchanting comedy in five acts and nine scenes by Vladimir Mayakovsky
Translation: Tamara Gane

Artistic direction: Alexandru Colpacci
Scenography: Paul Salzberger
Musical illustration: Cornel Pop
Premiere date: November 17, 1974

According to the author's confessions, the material for the play comes from the mass of small facts encountered throughout his journalistic and publicistic activity. Discussing a series of issues with a thesis, he synthesizes the theme of the play as "the unmasking of contemporary philistinism". A simple reading of the play reveals a plan of pro-communist meanings, appropriate to the era in which it was performed. The two parts of the play take place 50 years apart, and the playwright's irony and satire, although in different registers, are preserved at the same intensity. Prisypkin, projected from the third decade of the 20th century into a world that he no longer recognizes half a century later, cannot understand the world suffocated by false principles and candor. His inability to communicate with this new world results in a deep and human despair. On a second reading, however, the play, apparently a plea for communism, turns out to be a demystification of it: the bedbug becomes the symbol of the "new type of man", ready to forget his origin, to submit to brainwashing, but also the symbol of the huge Soviet Empire, which sucked the vitality of its inhabitants for almost a century.

Distribution:

Prisipkin:  Eugen Harizomenov
Zoya Beriozkina:  Eugenia Papaiani
Elzevira Davidovna:  Mia Popescu, Ileana Iurciuc 
Rosalia Pavlovna:  Olympia Tomorrow
David Osipovich:  Grig Schiţcu, Ion Mâinea
Oleg Baian:  Ion Abrudan
The barefoot boy:  Nicolae Barosan
The Boy with the Book and the Inventor:  Laurian Jivan
The locksmith:  John Martin
Girl:  Mariana Vasile
Bridesmaids:  Doina Urlăţeanu, Anca Miere Chirilă
Knight of Honor:  Marcel Segărceanu
The guest:  Octavian Uleu, Grig Schiţcu
Firefighter I:  Nicolae Barosan
Firefighter II:  Laurian Jivan
Firefighter III:  Theo Cojocaru, Mircea Constantinescu
The speaker:  Marcel Segărceanu
The master of ceremonies:  Eugen Tugulea
Zoo director:  Nicholas Thomas 
The teacher:  Dorel Urlățeanu emeritus artist
The President:  Jean Sandulescu 
Shopkeepers, Newspaper Sellers and Nurses: Alla Tautu, Anca Miere Chirilă, Doina Urlăţeanu, Ana Popa, Mariana Neagu 
Flasher:  Florence Manea

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Gigi Groşanu
Lighting: Vasile Blejan
Sound: Dorel Olea