Text author: Mircea Morariu
Taken from amphitheater.com

A new translation made from the perspective and in accordance with the intentions of the show (signed by Elvira Rîmbu), a director with a consistent, honorable and hopeful calling card, a director who, by the way, is not at his first encounter with Gogol's text (Petru Vutcărău), a spectacular, dynamic, energy-generating set, and numerous spaces that intelligently and efficiently value almost all the kinetic and expressive possibilities offered by the revolving stage (Adrian Damian), a set enriched by the remarkable contribution of light design (Bogdan Gheorghiu) and video creation (Ioana Ilaș-Badale), by a scenic movement that is itself efficiently elaborated, with a clear focus on spectacularity, a movement from which images are created in which realism merges or sublimates into the fantastic (András Lóránt), a large cast with a successful coordination of group moments, with several well-performed roles (Șerban Borda, Eugen Neag, Pavel Sîrghi), others who would have had the chance to be like this if their queen had been found and especially preserved (Răzvan Vicoveanu, Sebastian Lupu, Alexandru Rusu).

These seem to me to be, in general, the arguments that could be brought in favor of the performance of the play "The Inspector" at the "Regina Maria" Theater in Oradea. A performance that I have every reason to believe was conceived not only as an event of the Oradea season, as its peak, but also as a chance given to the natural desire of the producing institution to return to the forefront of the national theatrical movement.

There was another reason why it would have been desirable for the show with "The Inspector General" to succeed in its entirety. To overcome the stage of partial, fragmentary success, which, unfortunately, it is confined to. It should have functioned as a revenge for the relatively embarrassing situation of about 20 years ago, when "The Inspector General" still figured in the repertoire projects of the Romanian Section of the State Theater of Oradea at the time. A project that had to be abandoned for various reasons. From the fact that the old translation by Sică Alexandrescu, the only one existing at that time on the market, no longer sounded good and artistically plausible, to the reality that the actor who was entrusted with the difficult role of Khlestakov was, by far, surpassed by the complexity of the character and that the director did not really have the necessary professional scope either.

Why does the current production not go beyond the stage of partial success? Undoubtedly because the director Petru Vutcărău has not found a genuine integrative vision. That everything is presented as a succession of sequences that seem to be aspiring to summarize various moments in the history of universal theater and ways of stage treatment that are defective in the integrative vision. We are basically dealing with an amalgam of styles, tracks, solutions tried and then completely abandoned. The feeling I had at the end of the performance is that we were offered a melange in which we can find something from "The Lost Letter" (the first appearance of the Dobcinschi-Bobcinschi couple cannot help but make you think of Farfuridi and Brânzovenescu, just as the police commissioner Uhovertor, played by David Constantinescu, is an alcoholic Pristanda), and from the Chirițel cycle or from "The Roosters" (this is how Gabriela Codrea evolves from one end of the show to the other in the role of Ana Andreevna, as well as Anca Sigmirean, played by Maria Antonovna), and from Pirandello (at one point it was as if we were confronted with a quote that appeared out of nowhere from "Six characters in search of an author"), and from "The Diary of a Fool" (unfortunately, in this exaggerated key, the great, famous monologue of Khlestakov is conceived and performed by Răzvan Vicoveanu, and not through his fault), and from "The Phantom of the Opera" Opera„ (Mr. ”N„, given to Alin Stanciu in this stylistic area evolves towards the end of the first part, a part that ends with a nightmare of the Mayor, which beyond its undeniable spectacularity, means nothing more than a moment of absolute gratuitousness).

Many of the costumes created by Tatiana Popescu are shocking. The most blatant is the operatic vampire attire that the same undeservedly wretched Răzvan Vicoveanu is forced to wear, who, however, has many good moments, especially in the sequence in which the character enjoys receiving the bribe offered to him by the city's notables (Petre Ghimbășan, Sorin Ionescu, Pavel Sîrghi, Eugen Neag, Alexandru Rusu, Sebastian Lupu). A scene that I would have liked to have been more dynamic, with increasing acceleration. The first sequence in the show seemed as long as a fasting day and predictable to me, also compromised by the fact that absolutely all the performers speak from their throats.

I wondered, and not really, why Osip (Andrian Locovei) is so little visible, I didn't understand the multiplication of endings. I would have liked it all to end with highlighting the unrest stirred up in the cities with the arrival of the false auditor and who, as Lucian Raicu well observed (cf. "Gogol and the Fantastic of Reality" (Editura The Romanian Book, Bucharest, 1974) does not end with his disappearance. A final solution was preferred that would stimulate applause, not meditation. Too bad.

"Regina Maria" Theater in Oradea – „"The Inspector General" by N. Gogol

Translation: Elvira Rîmbu
Artistic director: Petru Vutcărău
Assistant director: Elvira Rîmbu
Scenography - decor: Adrian Damian
Set design – costumes: Tatiana Popescu
Set design assistant – costumes: Mădălina Baciu
Choreography: András Lóránt
Light design: Bogdan Gheorghiu
Video creation: Ioana Ilaș-Bodale

Distribution:

Anton Antonovich Scvoznic-Dmuhanovschii, the mayor of the city – Serban Borda
Anna Andreevna, his wife – Gabriela Codrea
Maria Antonovna, his daughter – Anca Sigmirean
Luca Luchici Hlopov, school inspector – Petre Ghimbasan
Ammos Feodorovich Lyapchin-Tyapchin, judge – Sorin Ionescu
Artemii Filipovici Zemlianica, administrator of charitable institutions – Pavel Sirghi
Ivan Cuzmici Şpechin, the postmaster – Eugene Neag
Piotr Ivanovici Dobcinschi, local landowner – Alexander Rusu
Piotr Ivanovici Bobcinschi, local landowner – Sebastian Wolf
Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, Petersburg official – Razvan Vicoveanu
Osip, his servant – Andrian Locovei
Mr. "N" – Alin Stanciu
Stepan Ilyich Ukhovertov, police commissioner – David Constantinescu
Avdotya, maid in the mayor's house – Lucia Rogoz
A waiter at the inn – Ciprian Ciuciu
Prostitutes, beggars, guests, rats – Carina Bunea, Maria Teisanu, Miruna Lazar, Giorgiana Coman, Calita Nantu, Daniela Purcarea
Rats, guests, passers-by – Ciprian Ciuciu, Pavel Sîrghi, Petre Ghimbaşan, George Dometi, Eugen Neag, David Constantinescu, Ionuț Șerban, Igor Lungu

Performance date: February 18

Photo: Remus Toderici