Written by Teatrul Regina Maria on 12 May, 2015.
Lukas Bärfuss is an acclaimed contemporary Swiss playwright who was born on December 30, 1971. The author began to focus on his career in the theatrical world in 1997, founding the theater troupe 400th together with Samuel Schwarz and writing plays for it. Currently, he collaborates with theaters in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, and his plays enjoy great international success, being translated into dozens of languages and performed on the stages of many major theaters in Europe.
The plays based on his texts deal with contemporary issues related to interpersonal relationships with cynicism and humor. The situational comedy in the plays written by Lukas Bärfuss is quite dark, revealing the contradictions in the problems that torment his protagonists, without ever judging them.
Love, in four paintings (orig. Four Pictures of Love) is no exception to this rule. Four paintings, four locations, four central characters and a somewhat ghostly one who seems to always try to guide the characters towards the door leading outside, which is a symbol of freedom, of personal salvation from the routine in which they have immersed themselves.
Evelyn, a schizoid housewife, is celebrating her hundredth date with her lover, Daniel, an oncologist. They always meet in the same hotel with four-star comfort for the price of three. Both feel trapped in their relationships with their partners and seek something else, a variation from the marriage and routine into which it has fallen. Evelyn would like to shake her husband with the news that she has a lover, but she knows that he is indifferent, cold, unmoved and that he would not believe her capable of such a thing. Daniel, married to Susan, lives in the illusion that his relationship is more modern, and that his wife, being an artist, openly accepts extramarital affairs. Both decide to confess their relationships to their partner.
But despite what they think, things take an unexpected turn. What is left to do when you find out that your devotion and fidelity have been rewarded with a lie? Will you respond calculatedly, will you let yourself be guided by impulses, or will you continue to lie to yourself that your relationship is pure and moral? The show thus becomes a meditation on love and couple life full of turmoil caused by the contradiction between the morality of love and the temptation of freedom, trying to answer all these questions.
Cast: Evelyn: Georgia Căprărin Susan: Anda Tămășanu Sebastian: Alin Stanciu Daniel: Sorin Ionescu The Young Man: George Dometi
Artistic director: Daniel Vulcu
Scenography: Eliza Labancz
Musical illustration: Dorin Griguță
Translation: Victor Scoradeț Premiere date: June 10, 2014
