1. A woman’s life

In June 2022, it was held at the Theater named after ACT from Bucharest, the premiere of a performance with a play Girls and boys by Dennis Kelly. Thus, the director Cristi Juncu and the performer Raluca Aprodu were the first to present the text presented for the absolute premiere on the Romanian stage in 2018. Royal court.

In addition to the novelty of the text translated by the two of them into Romanian, the production in a private theater on Kalya Victoria brought with it another novelty. What from the first a one woman show from the career of a famous folk actress. And from many points of view, this novelty would metamorphose into an event. And not in any case, but very well, apart from a slightly more uncertain beginning, sometimes even unclear (the lack of clarity at the beginning can be a minus of the text), some small syncopes, some annoying problems with diction, Raluka Aprodu joins from a fairly consistent line of actresses , who have successfully illustrated this genre over the past ten to fifteen years. Tanya Popa, Ilona Brezoianu and Marcela Motsok presented their version Rainbow girlsLeticia Vladescu was very good This is SoniaOphelia Popii continues to play in Sibiu with great success Slices (also text by Leah Bugnar) and does so outside of dark prophecies – yes, you guessed it! – critic, Amalia Cholan plays in TNB 20 years in SiberiaKatya Pascariu is developing To all peace in the world from the Training Center Replica.

I have compiled this list, which in no way pretends to be complete, to show how wrong those critics, though few, were who said that a one-woman exhibition would be a rare bird in Romania. And since they always talk about criticism and critics, I can’t help but notice that in the commentary to the play at the Theater named after ACT two trends emerged. It was said that both the play and the text would limit the women’s movement. That is why the person mentioned in the play would be so black. What is the women’s movement – what to see? – from the dramaturgical point of view, the husband – the writer Dennis Kelly – and in the Bucharest show the director – Christy Juncu serves.

Decent critics were closer to the truth. They did not ideologize their reading. They noticed that in Girls and boys, a first-person text, once a beautiful woman, a truly happy time, undoubtedly intelligent, tells the story of her life. Whose natural course was lost most tragically through dementia, through the crimes of one man. It was true, believable, probably, as the French classics used to say, so that the woman in question practically did not open the court on the stage against the murderer of her children? Forgive the ancient Christian Greek god who defeated her while standing in a long line to board a plane. low cost which was successful at first and then lost everything selling furniture old? Find an explanation for the man’s crimes? no Don’t we all know that most acts of domestic violence are committed by men?

I have a performance at the Theater named after ACT it did not seem chained to any movement. No modern aggressive ideology. Girls and boys it’s just like that a woman’s life. The phrase has nothing to do with the title of the song on the line Barangays

The woman from the Bucharest show not only found her chosen one. With whom he will have two children. Which even after her husband’s heinous crimes continues to haunt her existence. For a long time, the audience was led to believe that they would continue to be present. After a persistent search, the hero found a job, became the personal assistant of a famous and important woman in the cinema. A woman he could admire. She herself tried her hand as a producer. It’s at the end of the road now. Congested road. He summarizes his life. He does it barefoot. Placed in a sand pit. Dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt. simple. She does it on the sand just like Winnie from Oh, what wonderful days!. He does this in alternating madness and clarity.

Raluka Aprodu and Kristi Juncu turned the personality of the character from all sides. All episodes of his life were extremely harshly dramatized. They found a way to bring them to the stage. They alternated visions about and vision with character. So as not to sell the whole story from the very beginning. And open the limb prematurely. Raluka Aprodu enters into a dialogue with the hall. It makes him do justice to the character he is playing. Here is great artistry of the actress. In the play, which a priori and outwardly does not rely on party affiliation, the audience becomes unconditional partners of the main character.

Theater ACT from Bucharest

GIRL AND BOYS with Dennis Kelly

Translation: Raluka Aprodu and Christy Junko

Director: Christy Junko

Lighting design: Bohdan Georgiou

with: Raluka Aprodu

2. Jonuts Karas, entering the category of unique actors

In 2012, the National Theater in Cluj-Napoca received a new employee in the person of the Italian director Roberto Bacci. Which turned out to be long. Opening performance, that p Hamletwere added over time Cherry Orchard – Don Juan and something fresh Il nulla facete.

As you can see, the Italian guest always preferred big, reference names. Unfortunately, his performances were not like that. Some remained in the memory of the audience mainly because of a useless display of nudity, others were preserved only by the silent memory of the archives.

Perhaps the fifth performance, named Black mirroran absolutely exceptional one-man show, the main character of which is the wonderful actor Jonuts Karas, who should become, be a role model. Black mirror based on two lesser-known prose works by Luigi Pirandello. La Carriolla (Roaba), written in 1917, and Sofia (breath) from 1931. Both were published in a cycle Novels per anno, a cycle containing at least 246 short prose. These two texts were beautifully translated by Maria Rotar and translated into the stage register by a person who apparently wishes to remain anonymous. Anonymity, in my opinion, has no justification, since the textual support perfectly corresponds to the needs and rules of the scene and is created in such a way as to highlight the artistic individuality of the performer. After all, that’s the point a one man showin Which in this case turns into a well-deserved recognition/celebration of the talent and skill of one of the most important actors currently available for the Cluj national team.

The purpose of the text, and subsequently of a good show, is, among other things, to evoke associations in the mind of the recipient. The role where Ionuts Karas plays a successful lawyer, who from a certain moment begins to feel and behave otherwise (and otherwise Indicated in the very title of the story), it made me think first of the works of Gombrowicz and his theories about the terrorism of form, and then of the almost forgotten novel by Michel Butor. When modifying. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro