Exactly ten years since the unanimously appreciated play staged in the Act Theater by director Horia Suru, cock, one of the best plays by American playwright Mike Bartlett returns to the Bucharest stage. Theater named after Stella Popescu. Which, at the moment and in the case of the play I’m about to talk about, is what from the Theater Megapolis.

Stella Popescu until now, it is a controversial theater marked by the presumption of impurity. A theater whose purpose is often questioned. The work of female critics in particular, who, in search of cheap popularity, cry about the mother of fire on the subject of the cruel fate of young generations of actors. They don’t really have anywhere to play. And if they still have, and this happens relatively often, especially in a few recently established performance institutions, they are still in great danger, why? Because they have no chance of effective managers. Which, by chance, could only be the faces of professional mourners. Poems, criminally ignored by the authorities, although their place would be in executive chairs.

But this is the fate of the Theater for more than a year and a half Stella Popescu a lot has changed for the better, the general director of the institution, actor Christian Shofron, finding ways to diversify the repertoire offer, attract young actors and attract brand collaborators. In the Theater named after Stella Popescu installed Equus director Victor Ioan Frunze, performer of the main role, Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu, were nominated at the UNITER Awards gala. But what to see? – the performance was ignored by the curators National Theater Festival, release 2022. Where else do you think that the chronic hypervocal also pretended not to notice the production. That is, they did not go to her, merrily, unconsciously and irresponsibly applying the principle if I don’t see it and don’t write about it, then it doesn’t exist. Neither she nor the production company.

But thank God! Romanian theatrical life does not take such whims into account, Theater named after Stella Popescu now offers a new premiere to be reckoned with. The one with the Mike Bartlett song, Cock. If in 2013 the show p ACT was presented to the public under the name Cuckoosin the Theater named after Stella Popescu on the poster is the title of the song in English. Cock it has all kinds of connotations in the English language, some of which are a little more obscure, but which are not in the text of the play. With two or three minor exceptions, at any rate, from this category of de-semanticized words.

Cock this is the story of the couple’s avatars. What is not similar to the usual and unanimously accepted. John and M are almost family. Not even traditional. A family in which troubles, quarrels, separations intervene. Perhaps life is more ordinary than in the case of standard couples. The topic itself is not very new. I remind you that the various postures and struggles of the “changed couple” can be found in literature from antiquity, which, as far as the subject matter is concerned, bears signs of having been Open your mind even more so than our unfettered modernity. Which in the 60s and even today harbors inhibitions when he hears words and realities such as gay, bi, straight or Lesbian. However, dramatic literature and theater seem to have been somewhat reluctant to this issue. Perhaps in the name of those famous, but – the top! – theoretically not noticeable enough bienséances so nurtured by classicism, perhaps because, unlike other literary genres whose desired destiny is reading, that is, what is done in private, the aspiration of drama is representation aimed at a collective recipient.

I do not intend to compile here even a minimal bibliography of the stages and ways in which the theater overcame its reluctance to approach this delicate topic. I will only say that the story does not even begin with that Angels in Americano with bent, no with Adam Geist not even with Crazy house. Maybe not even with Beckett, one of Jean Anouy’s most beautiful, most inspired texts, unfairly forgotten by Romanian filmmakers. The text, the origins of which lie somewhere in the Middle Ages and in Lives of the saints. The place from which history was revived not only by the French writer, but also by the poet Tennyson or the playwright TS Eliot.

Cocka very good play written by Mike Bartlett which premiered in 2010 in Royal court, where she later ended up on Broadway, laureate of the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award, is by no means an action film. This is not a manifesto in favor of the gay community. He does not want to open our eyes and soften our souls by bringing to the fore the secrets, sensitivities or more than complex tectonics of feelings that bind two people of the same sex. After all, even the matter of the marital triangle and unrelated endurance tests are of the greatest interest Rooster (axes). What really matters in Mike Bartlett’s writing is the problem of power games in couples. About the strategies, the pressure, the deception, the help resorted to by a partner who is at risk of being abandoned, when the one with whom he lives for several years goes through a period of insecurity, at the end of which anything can happen.

John, the only character in the play with a full name, is going through such a period. For seven years, John lived with a man, marked in the text only by the initials M. He was dominated by him, sometimes even emotionally blackmailed. He always yielded, made compromises, always obeyed. And this view goes back to early youth. When John became a hero by admitting his sexual orientation to colleagues. Neither John nor M are very strong people. They are extremely sensitive and vulnerable as can be. But to varying degrees. M. was the one who won most of the fights. He played a tough, self-righteous card. Now he has to fight a decisive battle. And that’s because John is going through a serious identity crisis. He accidentally met the girl V. and even had sex with her. He sees that he is faced with clarifications and choices. This becomes a point of contention between M and W. Both want to win it, both see it as a possible trophy. V. relies only on his own funds, M. resorts to the help of his own father, marked with the initials F. That is father A planned dinner for three turns into a dinner for four. For a long time, the winner remains uncertain as John has an extremely difficult decision to make. For a few moments, the girl (the one with the W, for “Woman”) and her intense sensuality and stalker personality seem to be the winner, the points winner, in a boxing match of perpetual weaknesses. The result of the match changes thanks to the intervention of F. It is he who changes John’s decision. He and the poor cake. He does it cunningly, expertly, the girl has no choice but to leave the living room, which has become an arena of defeat. Should it be so? This is the end? Will M really be the winner? Or the detail that for the first time in seven years of coexistence, John categorically asks M for something, even through tears, even if something seemingly insignificant – to leave him alone, himself, and this is the first real decision in his life as a hero. ? His first win? Who knows! Everything may not be exactly as in the band’s famous song ABBA and the winner does not take all.

Director Tony Adam Horaciu gave his own Romanian version of the text. He edited it in a clear, sober framework, focusing mainly on highlighting the twists and turns of the situation, psychological tension and struggle between the characters. Highlighting their different degrees of vulnerability. Vulnerable as well is the volcanic M, superbly played by Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu, who occupies a position of superiority. He did this for seven years while his relationship with John lasted. He imposed his power in various ways. He decided everything every time, strengthened John’s inferiority complex. Instead, it made him believe that the reasons for insecurity and insecurity had disappeared. When it turned out that he did not win definitively, when his opponent appeared in the person of a woman, something fell apart. Lu John’s mask fell off. He feels that he himself will not win the game, understands this and calls for reinforcements. In the person of his father, who was played by Catalin Frasinescu. In turn, a speakerand man of the word. Tartuffe of small caliber. Which poses in Open your mind, but who admits that he accepted M’s sexual orientation with the idea that in John he would find his guarantee of safety. M. is baptized, says thanksgiving prayers at the table, but, like the Tartuffe mentioned above, looks at the cleavage of V. The girl, please, is an intelligent, experienced, beautiful, charming woman, besides, she perfectly masters the art of persuasion. Technique of argumentation. Ioana Nicule plays W gracefully, not harshly. IN Cock from the Theater named after Stella Popescu I had the pleasure of discovering a wonderful young actor in the person of Christy Neatzu. He was entrusted with the difficult role of indecisive John, who becomes both a punching bag and the object of negotiations and disputes. John is accumulation of things, contradiction not only because this is how M characterizes it, not only because this is how the text defines it. But because the actor Christy Neatsu plays him in millimeter scale. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro