Play in two acts by Vincenzo di Mattia
Translation: Angela Ioan

Artistic direction: Alexandru Colpacci
Scenography: Tatiana Manolescu Uleu
Musical illustration: Cornel Pop
Premiere date: March 30, 1974

According to the playwright himself, the "sixth power", after journalism and cinema, is science. The idea from which the play starts, and which has enjoyed wide circulation in Western literature, is that, sometimes, scientific means are used for harmful purposes, other than those for which they were created. The dramatic core of the play lies in the conflict between moral responsibility and the temptation to acquire as much power as possible over one's fellow human beings.

A successful man, accustomed to seeing his most ambitious projects realized, finds himself helpless and in the painful situation of seeing his only son sentenced to death for premeditated murder. He cannot get used to the idea that his power has limits. Thus is born his diabolical plan: he resorts to science with which he creates a culprit, inoculating him, like a virus, with the idea of guilt.

The meaningful ending brings the play closer to the theater of ideas, transforming it into a meditation on the price of independence and human freedom.

Distribution:

Furbringer:  Ion Tomorrow
Vogler:  Jean Sandulescu
Larsen:  Eugen Tugulea
David:  Marcel Popa
Johan Ephrem:  John Martin
Christina:  Simona Constantinescu
Mattia Rubes:  Grig Schiţcu
Nice:  Eugen Harizomenov
Simone:  Marcel Segărceanu

Technical director: Elena Varlam
Prompter: Gigi Groşanu