Text taken from Contributors.ro / author: Mircea Morariu

Theater Queen Mary from Oradea has recently enriched its repertoire with a new, good and exciting show called Rabbit Hole. It is based on a skillfully written play by the American David-Lindsay Abaire. Who, after being rewarded for it in 2007 with the prestigious Pulitzer (Abaire also received other awards), he turned it into a film script. A 2011 film that was released in our country under the rather uninspired title Awakening to reality. Film directed by John Cameron Mitchell and which brought Nicole Kidman, who was a perfect fit for the female lead role, a nomination for Oscar.

The original title of both the song and the film somehow reminded us of the famous White Rabbit from the even more famous Alice in Wonderland. The film, which, like any film, took some distance from what could be seen at the Theater, substantially strengthened the suggestion. However, it also appears as such in the scenography of the performance in Oradea, a scenography due to Andrea Tecla. Which admirably serves the directorial ideas of Vlad Cristache. Simplicity as a basic rule, Here, like Alice and the White Rabbit, young Jason disappears on a slide, excited, stuttering because of this, very well played by Tudor Manea. Now, Jason is the one who wants to title his story that will appear in a school magazine exactly with the name that gives the title of the performance. At the third appearance of the character, the reason will be clear to us.

Almost all the events in the show take place within the confines of a space dominated by white (I remind you that white can sometimes be a sign of mourning) on which there are two drawings belonging to a four-year-old child. A sun and, of course, a child, sometimes twinned with the flowers in the rooms. Flowers of life, flowers of mourning.

It is, after all, about mourning, about the suffering of losing this child in a terrible car accident, about how that suffering can blow up everything and intensely undermine couple relationships, as well as about acceptance and recovery. Rabbit Hole.

It's been barely eight months since Danny's death. Much for the emptiness that has settled in the souls of the two parents, Becca and Howie, little for finding a solution to survive. Something is not working between the two, their relationship is increasingly tense, no sign of a sexual life. Normality itself is suspended. More and more raised tones in the way Howie addresses Becca. More and more frequent moments when Becca prefers self-exclusion and absence.

The mismatches, whether in tastes, in options, or in the way of understanding the world and the future between the two, are increasingly evident. The way in which the couple in a state of dissolution relates to the memory of the child is also different. After Tazz, the dog whose rescue was paid for with the price of Danny's life, was given into the custody of Becca's mother (the dog actually appears on stage, his name is Rara and he is trained by Alexandru Bondar, and his first appearance on stage, alone, in the first sequence of the show has an emblematic function), Becca harbors a plan to remove objects, things, clothes that belonged to the child until recently from the house. A way of cleansing the memory? Maybe! A good opportunity for the great purge turns out to be the imminent motherhood of the flirtatious and eternally optimistic Izzy. Becca's younger sister, whom Georgiana Coman, like Gabriela Codrea, plays as the mother of the two girls, is more than just a supporting character or a simple splash of color. It is true that the scene of Izzy's birthday celebration and especially the moments of karaoke They are, in my opinion, a little long.

A little later, Becca will propose to her husband to sell the house. When, finally, he gives in and accepts the idea, something goes wrong again. There are few buyers, most of them rather frivolous. But could it be, as Becca suggests, about the presence of the Child's Room? The place that reminds us of someone who is no longer there. Note the inversion, the intelligent citation of one of the key motifs of the Chekhovian Cherry orchards.

Becca has chosen complete isolation. The suspension of any trace of social life. She is irritated by everything Howie does and thinks, she has a hard time with Izzy's presence, with all her antics, as well as that of Nat, who always talks about the deaths in the Kennedy family, and about the death of Arthur. Becca's drug addict brother. But something happens after receiving the letter from Jason, after the clarifying conversation with Nat who talks to her about the pain of losing a child and the brick that remains in the soul forever, and after the third meeting with Jason. In which Tudor Manea is very good again. Maybe better than ever, the fact proving how much it matters when a native talent meets a real director. As Vlad Cristache is.

Becca's suffering is in contrast to Howie's. He seeks solace in work, in sitting for hours at the computer screen, in group therapy, in squash games and in the beginning of a failed adventure. However, he secretly watches a last recording of Danny (his voice is due to the child Ivan Liam), and concentrates his pain in the squash he plays alone. In the end, he understands that all these escapes are only deceptive solutions. Accept not waking up to reality, but the adjustment to the new situation. the attempt to regain the cohesion of the couple, the confrontation with the normality of other people's lives.

In the roles of Becca and Howie, the actors Alina Leonte and Răzvan Vicoveanu have remarkable performances. They are also exemplary, natural, without the slightest trace of artifice led by Vlad Cristache. Very often, sparks fly from the confrontation between the two. Frequently, their silences hide both love and hate. Both characters believe that they are more authentic in their suffering. One shows it, the other hides it. Nothing is extra, nothing is out of tune, nothing wants to attract attention, to draw attention to themselves in the performance of the two actors. And not the slightest trace of egotism, much less cheap egotism directed by Vlad Cristache.