Miruna Runkan’s latest book isTheater restoration workshopwhich has a subtitle Study of critical and rhetorical reconstruction of the play. 1990-2000 years (Publishing house Tracus Arts, Bucharest, 2022) – means a natural continuation and is recognized as such of the other three previous volumes. Published by the same publishing house under Theater in dioramas and with a subtitle Discourse of theater criticism in communism.

The main issue that he tries to highlight in more than 370 pages of the recently published volume and launched during the just concluded edition of the National Theater Festival is how this discourse developed and whether it really developed in the first decade after the revolution of December 1989. I mean mind, more precisely. Did he modernize, or did he know how to take advantage of the disappearance of any ideological control? Has he been enriched thematically and methodically? Did he properly accompany what was happening, good or bad, in the theaters or even try to encourage the establishment of the supremacy of good? Did he welcome and stimulate the trends of renewal, involvement in other ways of creating theater than, let’s call them, classical ones, or, on the contrary, did he demonstrate opacity or was he categorically against it? Did large-scale operations to update the ranks of critics and/or chroniclers (the author of the book rightly emphasizes the harmful inaccuracy in distinguishing the two concepts and, as a result, professions) materialized into the dynamism of critical discourse? In reforming, reformulating, or even dynamiting what we understand to be more or less correct, what might be called Model Sylvester? Or maybe the new writers (unfortunately, quoted here and there and with some generational errors placed almost all and not exactly under the sign of the eighties) were crushed by the pressure of the model? Of course. For example, the obligation, which is perceived as sacred, to begin with an extensive analysis of the text, followed by a more or less broad commentary on the director’s vision and much less with an in-depth study of the acting or set design. A small positive impact on criticism, its renewal in all aspects, was the fact that a constant number of plays created during the analyzed period went beyond the borders of the country, and some even had premieres abroad, or, simply put, chroniclers accompanied them on tours and write rave reports? Sometimes even falsifications patriotic reality and re-evaluation of the scale of perception and success transferred to other lands. What is hidden behind a rather fashionable label in the 1990s and 2000s export production? How were qualified, for example, some plays directed by Silviu Purcarete or Mihai Manyuziou. Does the mentioned label only hide the desire for individualization or, rather, indicates a gross misunderstanding or rejection of novelty? Did such productions have a positive effect on the general performance in the country and on the quality of its analysis or vice versa?

Miruna Runcan chooses 9 directors – Andrey Sherban, Silvia Purcarete, Alexandra Dari, Viktor Ioan Frunze, Alexander Hausvater, Tomp Gabor, Mihai Manyutsiu, Aleksandra Dabizh, Teodor Christian Popescu – of whose works she keeps several or three performances believed to be at that time brought something new to the theater. To create some revolutions or to start them. It should be noted that among the 9, only Teodor-Cristian Popescu means a really new name. He is the only ninety-year-old on the list. It is true that Alexander Hausvater, quasi-unknown in Romania, when he established Odeum…handcuffs are put on the flowers or To the gypsies but which has already had some success in Canada. She became a country of adoption after leaving Bucharest as a child and after a short stopover in Israel. Selected performances return to the historical moment in which they were created. Well surprised by the author. The moment is not always favorable, because even after 1989 obstacles appeared. And not only of an economic nature, but also regarding the intervention of political creation. Especially during the endless government (1992-1996) of Nikolay Vaquero. These last obstacles were more pronounced in the case of productions signed by Andrii Sherban, Victor Ioan Frunze, Mihai Manyutsiu, Alexander Hausvater, Alexander Dabia. Young Theodore Christian Popescu had to face a different kind of invasion when he performed on stage Angels in America.

After reconstructing essential footage from the moment a certain show was released to the public, Miruna Runcan analyzes how critics have commented on it.

The author of the book uses all kinds of caution. It is emphasized in a few lines that it does not pretend to be exhaustive. Neither in terms of selection of plays nor in terms of critical commentary does it stand up to scrutiny more than 20 years after it saw the light of day. Chronicles that are quoted, analyzed, praised, criticized, often belittled, unfortunately, many of them according to their own humor and sympathies, all from Bucharest publications. It is about a specialized monthly Theater today (whose tumultuous history, unfortunately, is not even very correctly presented), about Scene (appeared on the market only in 1998), Literary Romania (from the period of Valentin Silvestra, as well as Marina Constantinescu, successive owners Theatrical chronicle), Contemporary, 22, Rampa, Cult Spectator, Literary and Artistic Truth, and so on Journals from the province, the funds of which are somewhat more difficult to reach today, are clearly offended. For this, you need to make an effort to, as in the case Romanian theater in dioramas, Miruna Runkan did not want to do this. Actually, the book as a whole gives the impression that it was compiled rather hastily. A kind of race against time. To reinforce the opinion that the teacher from Cluj is the most diligent in the country. Hence the fact that some chapters are nothing more than a recovery or update of previously published research, hence the reality that some chapters (for example, the one devoted to the show with A bald singer and more) are apparently being sent. Most of the references are borrowed from the book Romanian theater model, even Miruna Runkan, as well as others. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro