Play in five acts by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster
Translation: Ovid Densuşianu

Directed by: Otto Szombati Gille
Scenography: Eliza Popescu
Arrangement and musical direction: Zoltán Boros
Premiere date: January 18, 1969

„"Old Heidelberg" is W. Meyer Forster's dramatization of his own novel, "Karl Heinrich"; the play achieved astonishing fame immediately after its publication in 1900.

Among the songs, farces and fragments of student life, the play depicts a love story that takes place in the old German university city. The young Karl Heinz, Crown Prince of Saxony, arrives to study in Heidelberg, where he discovers a warm, cheerful, lively world, so different from the one at the German court, with its rigid and protocolic regime. Meeting Kathie, the niece of an innkeeper in the city, he has the revelation of true life and falls madly in love with the girl, for her optimism, purity and simplicity. Their idyll is brutally shattered, however, by the differences in social rank.

Beyond the slightly melodramatic plot, the play shines through its humanism, in which the joy of knowing friendship and love are highly valued. Seductive and luminous, the play retains, over the years, a special fragrance, from which nostalgia shines through, unaltered.

Distribution:

Karl Heinrich:  Nicolae Barosan, Florin Piersic (guest in several shows)
Kathy:  Gina Nicolae
Marshal:  Ion Tomorrow
Dr. Jüttner:  Dorel Urlăţeanu, emeritus artist
Lutz:  Radu Voicescu
Von Haugk:  Mircea Olaru
Ruder:  John the Baptist
Kellermann:  Grig Schiţcu 
From Metzing:  Jean Sandulescu
Detlew:  George Pintilescu
Engelbrecht:  Octavian Uleu 
Karl Biltz:  John Martin
From Wedell:  Eugen Tugulea 
Mrs. Dorffel:  Olympia Tomorrow
Mrs. Rüder:  Doina Urlățeanu
From Breitenberg:   Ion Abrudan
Gloss:  Ben Dumitrescu
Schollermann:  Marcel Segărceanu
A Swabian student:  László Tolnai Tank
Reuters:  Dorel Olea
Students:  Stefan Blaga, Viorel Cura, Calina Marcu, Iuliu Mathe, Ion Mociar, Ion Mureşan, Alexandru Nagy, Stefan Olah, Sandor Tatai, Mihai Tomulescu, Nicolae Vidican, Abelino Zsok

Technical director: Dalma Simionescu
Prompter: Agy Segărceanu
Lighting: Vasile Blejan
Sound: Dorel Olea