by DRPopescu
Absolute premiere

Artistic direction and soundtrack: Ioan Ieremia
Scenography: Emilia Jivanov
Premiere date: May 9, 1989

A polyphonic and stirring spectacle due to the multitude of messages transmitted, "The Powder Mill" captures, in essence, a process of terrible spiritual struggle, projected against the historical backdrop of the peasant uprising led by Horia, Cloșca and Crișan. Gabor, the one who experiences the dilemmatic process, is "a character of Shakespearean strength, put in a position to develop and solve several great problems of humanity" (Valentin Tașcu in "Flacăra pentru minde, inimă și literatură", September 22, 1989). A former musician in Vienna, Gabor becomes an executioner in Deva, by force of circumstances, during the peasant uprising in Transylvania. The process of conscience begins when the victims are no longer the villains, but the peasants of the same blood as him, and the punishment is not dictated by Justice, but by absolute Power, embodied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Having reached an age of wisdom, Gabor reconsiders the essential moments of his life, an approach in which memories are selected (some becoming obsessions) and meanings are clarified. Thus, both his condition, as a social outcast, and the world forbidden to him, in which his love for Magda also falls, are increasingly clearly outlined. The dilemmas of conscience take place in the executioner's troubled dream, in which the victims rise from their graves, change their identities, and constantly mix with the real heroes. Confronted with himself, the executioner tries – without success – to duplicate himself, and then he devises something that no one has managed to do before him: to kill the thought (or the dream), a gesture equivalent to a self-execution, the only way to free himself from his victims, but also from himself.

Distribution:

Gabor:  Ion Tomorrow
Magda:  Miriam Cuibus
Popluhard:   Daniel Vulcu
Wenceslas:  Eugen Harizomenov
Novotny:  Petre Panait

Technical director: Mărioara Goina
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lighting: Iosif Balogh, Mihai Constantin
Sound: Stelian Panea