9 Degrees in Paris

Rhythm, timbres, energy, music, movement! A tendency that is as old as it is enthusiastically rediscovered by each generation of stage directors will sometimes shift the accent from the uttered word to movement in theatrical performance. Of course, a comprehensive event such as the NTF could not remain insensitive to this perpetual rediscovery, so it became almost traditional for dance theater, movement theater or nonverbal theater to have their own section in the festival. The tradition is strengthened in this edition, this time by a preference for shows in which the choreography is not an objective per se, but melts into the fabric of the performance, imbuing and supporting it. As a result, none of the productions included in the [b]DANCE IN THEATER[/b] section pursues kinetic performance at all costs, but rather highlights the sometimes surprising choreographic skills of drama actors. A graduate of the Choreography section of the NUTCA, recipient of various festival awards, and dancer of the Gigi Căciuleanu Romanian Dance company, Arcadie Rusu is the author of the show [i][b]Crazy Stories in the City[/b][/i], a production of Little Theater. Friday, 28 October and Sunday, 30 October, we are invited to Very Little Theater to a fabulous voyage among Romanian folk tales, in which the heroes must pass various trials of initiation, fight the forces of evil, (obviously!) win, and then are generously rewarded. Finally, they live happily ever after. This year, two major Romanian directors, Alexandru Tocilescu and Mihai Măniuţiu, are present with productions in which, besides the word-based text, music and dance are essential elements. William Shakespeare’s [b][i]The Merry Wives of Windsor[/i][/b], directed by Alexandru Tocilescu (Monday, 31 October and Tuesday, 1 November) offers the connoisseurs not only a subtly nostalgic reenactment of a great success of almost 40 years ago of the (then) young director of the Youth Theater in Piatra Neamţ, but also a fresh, topical show, a musical that reinvents Shakespeare’s world through the score written and performed live by Nicu Alifantis and his colleagues and Felicia Dalu’s choreography. Lucian Iancu, George Ivaşcu, Adriana Trandafir, Şerban Celea, Gelu Niţu, Crina Mureşan, Mariana Dănescu perform dance steps in this production of Metropolis Theater. Widely appreciated for the powerful images in his shows, where various arts meet to create intense theatrical events, Mihai Măniuţiu authors the production [b][i]Othello and His Beloved Desdemona[/i][/b], after William Shakespeare, presented to the audience on Thursday, 3 November, and Friday, 4 November, at Atelier Hall of the National Theater. A production of the Sfântu Gheorghe M Studio Movement Theater, Othello remains, even reread through modern eyes, the same amazing story of jealousy, fear, envy and inferiority complexes, about which Mihai Măniuţiu says: “I wanted to stage, together with Péter Uray and the excellent company at M Studio, a performance in which tragedy and comedy do not repel each other, but on the contrary, attract each other.” Supported by the choreography of Péter Uray, a Hungarian guest with a solid reputation in contact dance, the young ensemble from Covasna provides a real demonstration of precision, flexibility and team spirit. Intensely concerned with the expressive possibilities of the marriage between theater and dance, László Béres will be present in the NTF with [b][i]Yerma[/i][/b] by Federico Garcia Lorca, a production of the Youth Theater of Piatra Neamţ (Saturday, 5 and Sunday, 6 November), the director’s second staging in the last two years, after the first version at Figura Stúdió Theater in Gheorgheni, whose Director he is. This variant places a firm bet on the 2011 UNITER recipient of the special award, Lóránt András’s choreography, elaborated in the spirit of the passionate Iberian flamenco, but also on the self-denial of a cast made up of gifted, ambitious actors.

14 October 2011,  Articles

COMUNICAT DE PRESĂ Cea de-a 24-a ediţie a Festivalului Naţional de Teatru (FNT) se va desfăşura la Bucureşti, între 24 octombrie şi 2 noiembrie. Criticul de teatru Marina Constantinescu, directorul artistic al festivalului, va anunţa selecţia oficială a actualei ediţii în exclusivitate pe noul site www.fnt.ro, luni, 21 iulie, la ora 12.00.