“He who laughs last laughs longest”

Just one day till after-tomorrow, runs an old Romanian saying. Fine weather, perfect for celebration, has been forecast for Bucharest this weekend. From Friday, 25 October, the National Theater Festival will occupy the capital city for ten days, with theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, and book and magazine launches, with the great small joys of normal life, and particularly with the appetite for laughter.

Life’s a comedy and theater shows it. Laughter is healthy and doctors recommend it. Let us, then, laugh at NTF’s comedies, modern interpretations of classical texts. As usual, Caragiale, the inevitable, more contemporary than ever, could not be missing from this year’s festival. His Lost Letter is found by Craiova’s Marin Sorescu National Theater in a show about everyday political and love affairs directed by Mircea Cornişteanu. The amorous triangle of the play, Zoe-Trahanache-Tipătescu, is humorously played by Cerasela Iosifescu, Ilie Gheorghe and Claudiu Bleonţ in the performances scheduled for Wednesday, 30 October, at 17:30 and 21:00, at Odeon Theater’s Majestic Hall.

Like it or not, we’ve “all kissed independence square” for more than a century, hypochondriacally dreaming of utopian republics, like Master Leonida facing the reactionaries. Leonida Jam Session is a free-fall adaptation of Caragiale directed by Gábor Tompa at the Cluj Hungarian State Theater. András Hatházi and the cross-dressed Zsolt Bogdán give life to a couple as funny today as it was a hundred years ago, because the sex war is never-ending. The performances are scheduled Tuesday, 29 October at 17:00 and 21:00, at Bulandra Theater’s Toma Caragiu Hall.

You may beat me, but let me laugh is the philosophy of the classic Molière, one so true in the history of Romanians… Viewers laugh in cascades at The School for Wives, a quick-paced show directed by Cristi Juncu at Târgu-Mureş National Theater’s Liviu Rebreanu Company. The protagonist is Nicu Mihoc, in two performances scheduled for Thursday, 31 October at 20:30, and Friday, 1 November, at 18:00, at Bulandra Theater’s Liviu Ciulei Hall.

Wellbeing or happiness? Money or love? These look like trite questions, but they also come from a long time ago, haunting Molière’s characters brought to our days by the stage director László Bocsárdi at Tamási Áron Theater in Sfântu Gheorghe. In the role of The Miser: Tibor Pálffy. The performances are scheduled for Sunday, 27, and Monday, 28 October at 18:00, at Bucharest National Theater’s Studio Hall.

The National Theater Festival invites all of you to the shows, reminding you that a day without laughter is a wasted day. Tickets are sold at the hosting theaters box offices and online, on their websites.