Silviu Purcărete / 3 x NTF

A dramatis persona himself, the stage director SILVIU PURCĂRETE is present at this year’s National Theater Festival in a triple capacity. First, with two productions that bear his unmistakable mark. The Italian Straw Hat, staged at the Iaşi Vasile Alecsandri National Theater, will be presented on Monday, 28 October, at 21:00, and Tuesday, 29 October, at 18:30 at the Bucharest National Opera. His filmSomewhere in Palilula, distributed by Transilvania Film, will run on 29 October at 14:00, 31 October at 14:30, and 3 November at 19:00 at Cinemateca Union, under the Festival Films heading. 

The vaudeville The Italian Straw Hat, written in the mid-19th century by Eugène Labiche, is a proof that well-written plays are ageless and the tutelary geniuses of the genre never lose their appeal. Comedy is elevated to an art form by a peerless trio: the stage director Silviu Purcărete, the set designer Dragoş Buhagiar, and the music writer Vasile Şirli, working together with the numerous cast of the National Theater in Iaşi. Amorous mix-ups (some conjugal, others not), generous spaces and mobile walls, period wigs and costumes, original music performed live / this is the complete arsenal of a vivacious baroque show full of juicy humor. 

The same artistic trio, now joined by the set designer Helmut Stürmer, can be found among the credits of a movie about a God-forsaken ghost town in the Oltenian plains and the community that populates it: ridiculous, lazy, angel-hearted ne’er-do-wells living in sweet irresponsibility. The film credits include an illustrious cast: Răzvan Vasilescu, Horaţiu Mălăele, George Mihăiţă, Marius Manole, Áron Dimény. 

Silviu Purcărete’s name may also be found in the pages of a new book. Theater Is A Dream by Octavian Saiu will be launched on Sunday, 27 October, at 13:30, at Löwendal Foundation. A professor and researcher, Octavian Saiu took the liberty to produce (im)possible shows directed by the greatest stage directors in the world / exercises of imagination by a theater critic influenced/seduced by their art. “What does a show directed by Purcărete based on an Oscar Wilde text look like?”, “What Trilogy would Şerban create from the energies of the peoples of the Pacific?”, “What images would be born if, after Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Robert Wilson chose Eminescu’s Evening Star?” are only a few of the questions looking for answers in this original book. 

The National Theater Festival carries on all the artistic fronts. The feast is at its height. New details about the schedule and many photographs from the related events are uploaded daily on the website (www.fnt.ro), while the info point in the University underground passage delivers both fresh news and surprises for all tastes.