The international section of the 25th National Theater Festival (2015) had two main themes. War and old age. After that, it was possible to watch two performances, which in one way or another marked the end of a century since the beginning of the Great War. It is about Front (Theater Tal from Hamburg) directed by Luc Perceval, in the production of which one could recognize fragments belonging to Henri Barbus and Erich Maria Remarque, and War, directed by Volodymyr Pankov. An international co-production based mainly on the novel Death of a hero Richard Aldington.

Apart from the value of their respective performances, distinctly different, both stimulated professional debates about how war could be presented on stage. Of course, all kinds of technological advances, more and more dynamic, the insertion of filmed fragments into a theatrical performance have brought with them significant changes and the desired dynamics, but in the end, the weight of the earth, as they say, still falls on the originality and ingenuity of the theatrical treatment of some of the same sub-themes. That is, the relationship between victors and vanquished, between heroes and cowards, the way victories were achieved, the human and social costs they caused, the state of the family during the war. The theater cannot really convey the action. Battle. He must be satisfied with the detection of states and consequences.

All these topics, as well as states, traumas, consequences of conflicts can be found in the play of Sophocles. Trakhinyanka. In which we see Deianira, who, wishing to preserve the love of her husband Hercules, sends him a cloak soaked in a deadly liquid, which will cause him to die in terrible agony. Death followed by suicide of the culprit.

Approximately the same thing happens in the play Cruelty and tenderness, written in 2004 by the famous British playwright Martin Crimp. The main character Amelia sacrificed her whole life in the name of love for the general. For years, she had to accept the miserable condition of the waiting room. Brief returns from the theater of war, news of exploits in arms, as well as husband betrayals, and son James’s post-adolescent rebellion. Amelia has a maid, a masseuse and a manicurist, and she has a room equipped with a massage table and the latest technology. The room she lives in is like a bunker (set design: Hannah Nistor), as her son James bluntly tells her. Young and rebellious, a pacifist who relentlessly condemns his parents. Amelia is visited by the journalist Richard, as well as the political and military commander Jonathan, who bring them interesting, but driven by other interests, news from the front. Amelia also has to endure the humiliation of receiving Leala, the general’s latest, recent mistress, a prisoner of war. Which complements the information about his secret will. A will that completely excludes her from the inheritance. Amelia resorts to the trick of a magical liquid that, if drunk, would guarantee eternal love, but the bottle in question actually contains a powerful poison that brings about the general’s end. Who, when he disappeared, is accused of terrorism, of war crimes, of violating military honor, of established rules that should be respected during international conflicts.

I do not know to what extent Martin Crimp in his famous play took into account the cynical statement of von Clausewitz, according to which the natural state of mankind would be war. But it is very clear to me that the playwright wanted to highlight its connection with terrorism, removing it from the framework of any rules, the idea that violence begets violence.

In the production of the Theater named after queen maria Andrey Dinu from Oradea aimed to emphasize the kinship between the myth of the past and the present. The show begins with song and dance (choreography and stage movements: Raoul Hotkas), a trio consisting of a housekeeper (Adela Lazar), a masseuse (Anda Temashanu) and a manicurist (Georgiana Coman), functioning as a replacement for the ancient chorus. The characters avoid looking into each other’s eyes, maintain normal or strained relationships, such as that between Amelia, a still young, beautiful woman played very well by Alina Leonte (controlled reactions and feelings dictated by the supremacy of codes, all thrown into the air by the decision of suicide) and her son James. Another role in which the very young actor Tudor Manea takes full pleasure. He has both strength and sensitivity, playing rebelliousness and vulnerability. He builds his character, full of contradictions, insisting on the clash between cruelty and tenderness. Karina Bunea brings Laela to the stage. A trophy of war, a captive lover from another civilization with completely different rules for marital coexistence. If Eugen Nig has the task of portraying the naive Richard, head over heels in love with Amelia, then Ciprian Cucciu plays him intelligently, with strange elegance, a learned hypocritical politician whose interests cause the transformation of white into black. Finally, Alin Stanciu in the role of the general has and takes the chance of a tragic character, in any case completely different from those he has played up to this point in his career. No, he is already being asked to play not cute guys, newcomers, but mature, experienced ones, –

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