by Maurice Maeterlinck
Translation: Anca Măniuţiu
National premiere

Stage version, artistic direction, lighting and sound effects: Mihai Măniuţiu
Assistant directors: Vava Ştefănescu, Mariana Presecan
Sets and costumes: Violin Bara
Set design assistant: Marinela Asăvoaie
Stage movement: Vava Ştefănescu
Premiere date: October 15, 2002

 „In the play seen on stage, a woman is in agony. She gave birth in agony and the mother’s death seems a necessary exchange for the child’s life. Those who watch over her – her daughters, her husband, her brother-in-law, her old blind father – still hope, still delude themselves. Treated symbolically, this everyday tragedy – according to the author’s formula – is, from the beginning, under the scenographic, easy-to-understand sign of the clock that measures the passage of hours and of the still-lit lamp, whose oscillating flame casts moving shadows on the walls. The expectation of healing is intertwined with the expectation of a relative, a nun who is due to come that evening. Through a series of strange signals, through the words of the characters who comment on them, Maeterlinck achieves an increasingly emphasized crescendo of anxiety. The expected relative is late, noises announce someone invisible, the wind whistles, the trees tremble, the dog hides, the swans seem frightened, the moonlight amplifies the anguish that is increasingly difficult to control. The feeling that, in the darkness of the garden, there is someone unexpected – the „uninvited guest” – increases the tension. The door does not close; outside, a scythe can be heard, strangely, cutting the grass… The acute sensitivity of the blind old man catches the signals before everyone else. He hears footsteps on the stairs, a sigh, a cry, somewhere close by. He feels how the unseen guest has sat down next to him… Everyone experiences a terrible pressure, fear suffocates them, but only „an icy silence” enters through the open window. It is the culminating moment of anxiety – probably, when the dying breath has ended and a ray with „strange glimmers” suddenly crosses the stained glass. The clock strikes midnight, "a very light noise, as if someone were getting up in a hurry" is accompanied by the increasingly loud scream of the child, silent until then. The lamp has gone out, but when there is light, only a breathless body will be visible, nothing else. Because this time too, "the rest is silence". (Ion Cazaban, in "Theatre Today")

Distribution:

Ursula:  Mariana Presecan
Grandfather:  Ion Tomorrow
Father:  Dorin Presecan
Uncle:  Serban Borda
Dying:  Paula Chirila
Daughters:  Angela Tanko, Corina Cernea, Codruta Ureche, Geo Dinescu, Mihaela Gherdan, Zentania Lupse

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, Sorin Domide
Sound effects: Cristian Segărceanu