Octavian Saiu, Christopher Wynn

Expecting fewer guests than in previous years (“big crisis, dear!” – Caragiale), but no less welcoming, the National Theater Festival will bring to public attention, as ambassadors of European theater, three very different companies coming from as different cultural spaces: Hungary, France and Portugal. Conceived chiefly as an occasion to highlight the creativity of Romanian artists in foreign professional contexts, the international section of NTF 2011 (which originally had at its center the classical triad author-director-actor – Matei Vişniec – Andrei Şerban -Anamaria Marinca – but unfortunately lost one of its members in the process) features highly acclaimed guests this year as well. Scheduled to open the Focus: [b]Andrei Şerban – Chekhovisions[/b] section, the performance of [b][i]Three Sisters[/i][/b] (Andrei Şerban’s debut on a Hungarian stage), characterized by the actor and director Róbert Alföldi, Director of the company and interpreter of the role of Vershinin, as “majestic”, will also open the Festival on Friday, 28 October, at the Grand Hall of Bucharest National Theater, where it is also scheduled for Saturday, 29 October. Played by the excellent actors of the Budapest National Theater, Chekhov’s characters live frantically in a story told on stage by Andrei Şerban with both irony and compassion. Awarded this year the Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities, the most important theatrical distinction on the continent, Teatro Meridional from Lisbon presents on Saturday, 29 October and Sunday, 30 October at Little Theater an intense, thrilling performance in which the spoken word blends with music and dance. Directed by Miguel Seabra, Carla Galvao and Fernando Mota take us on a fascinating voyage to an exotic, albeit familiar, geographic and spiritual space with their [b][i]Traveling Stories – Cape Verde[/i][/b]. The text selection and dramaturgy are by Natália Luíza. [b][i]An Attic in Paris[/i][/b] by Matei Vişniec, scheduled for Saturday, 5 November at Nottara Theater’s Studio Hall, will close the NTF international program. Trained at the Little Angel Marionette Theater in London, Alain Lecucq is the re-discoverer and most enthusiastic promoter of paper theater, a form of theater dating back to the 19th century. Guests of the NTF in the Actors in the Foreground section, the Papierthéâtre company, the director Alain Lecucq and the actor Brice Coupey offer us an interrogation-show about the world we live in, confronted with a painful loss of memory, just like – toward the end of his life – the hero of the show, the philosopher Emil Cioran, who said about himself: “I am a man whose roots are in Romania and whose wings are in France.”

26 October 2011,  Articles

Ca să ne amintim de cele mai frumoase spectacole ale anilor trecuți și să anticipăm surprizele din toamna aceasta, am vorbit despre FNT cu cinci iubitori de teatru, personalități din domenii diverse – arhitectură, jurnalism, medicină, muzică, finanțe.