Comedy by Tudor Popescu

Artistic direction: Alexandru Darie (debut)
Scenography: Maria Miu (debut)
Music: Ludovic Boross
Instrumentalists: Ludovic Boross, Cornel Ungur, Eta Szél Patka, Augustin Vertan, Ioan Biguş
Premiere date: February 21, 1984

The play "Jolly Joker" dismantles the mechanism of hypocrisy, cowardice and compromises that falsify existence and degrade the humanity of the individual. At the center of the argument is the "Aroma Carpaților" factory, which no longer produces anything profitable, staying afloat through the maneuvers of Mincu, the main character of the play. He understands that the repeated brigades of pseudo-specialists who come to control can easily be distracted from their true goals and even determined to obstruct each other. In order to get their way, Mincu plays the parade of submission, maintains their impression of usefulness and seeks to know their weaknesses. He is the only one who resists in the daily thicket of absurdities, adopting histrionic positions, appropriate for a Jolly Joker. The caricature of the system and its representatives acquires grotesque accents, the buffoonery even has a dreamlike outline, demonstrating the deep interpenetration between comedy and tragedy.

 On another level of interpretation, the play transforms into a cruel satire on socialist society, marked by deprivations, but also by distorted and absurd relationships between people. The factory where everything goes wrong, where people lie, steal and hide reality when inspections arrive, becomes a great metaphor for Romania caught in a gear of moral and material misery that contradicts all normality and common sense.

Distribution:

Mincu:  Cristian Sofron
Tudor:  Nicholas Thomas
Zizi and Onita:  Ileana Iurciuc
Dora:  Mariana Vasile
Move, Stan and Vergu:  Tiberiu Covaci
Benea, Stere and Manea:  Eugen Harizomenov
Nica, Deacon, Dumitru, the Fireman:  Marcel Segărceanu
Olga, Victoria and Corn:  Alla Tautu
David, Dunea and Vereş:  Laurian Jivan
Gavrila:  Eugen Tugulea

Technical director: Mărioara Goina
Lighting: Vasile Blejan
Sound: Dorel Olea