In 1957, shortly after the publication of the book that finally ensured his popularity (Zero degree of writing) and which is in many ways relevant even today, Roland Barthes published a volume in which he debunked some of the myths created in the first half of the 20th century. A critic who in a few years will give a mythological study Sir Racine, here he dealt with cars, detergents or photos of writers on vacation.

It’s interesting how the things that didn’t interest Bart are more interesting Eastern Express. The ancient miracle of the railway, which crossed almost all of Europe. He left Turkey, crossed Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, stopped briefly in Vienna and finally arrived in Paris. And if for Westerners, EastEspressoproved to be the perfect setting for crime mysteries that were good enough to be translated into the pages of books and movies with guaranteed cash registercrimes that only someone with the clever mind of Hercule Poirot could uncover, for Eastern Europeans this train would at some point become the means by which they could reach places where the right to seek freedom and prosperity.

Probably, p Eastern ExpressEmil Cioran arrived in the capital of France to continue his philosophical studies there, and this fact will have consequences that Matej Vishniec will mention years later in the play An attic in Paris with a view of death. with Eastern Express– those Romanians and other Eastern Europeans who managed to escape from the inevitable introduction of the Red Terror arrived in Paris in just a few years. Everyone thinks that Paris will be only a temporary residence. According to the testimony of Monica Lovinescu from By the water of Babylon a large part of the Romanian migrants for some time greeted each other with hatred Next year in Bucharest!. All the villages Eastern Express– arrived in Paris on the last day of 1973, George Banou, who thus settled in that year entre deux often mentioned in his books. Playwright Matei Vishnets also arrived in Paris on the same train in 1987, and maybe – who knows? – director Alain Timard would have started his French existence in the same way. Or maybe someone from his family. Timar returned to the Theater in 2023 Matei Visnets from Suceava, after settling there a few years ago Rhinoceros to Ionesco. This time, Asya will choose one of the works of the institution’s spiritual patron. Western Express. A play written, if I remember correctly, in the first half of the 2000s and which in 2019 should receive a large-scale performance, created by the director Zakarias Zalan (a lover of Vishnets dramatic literature) at the Theater scream from Oradea.

Performance at the Theater named after Matei Visnets from Suceava is at the opposite pole from Oradea. Director Alain Timar made the stage canvas as essential as possible. His focus is on the migrants from Romania, who also have a mission to remember what happened to the Hungarians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs or Macedonians who, for unknown reasons, also took the world into their heads. We see three people with suitcases on stage and in a square marked by a minimalist scenography signed by Katalin Redinchuk. People who, like the colonel from the play, just wait and dream, like a train with luxury cars Pullman to slow down at some station and at least have the opportunity to touch them, like snails who came to the West, where they work 11 months a year. Thinking of their country houses, which remained empty. Homes to which they periodically return in August, the month of vacation, with the hope that once and for all this return will be final.

The play in Suceava also tells about the desire to leave, about the temptations or disappointments of the West, but also about longing for the homeland and the desire to return. Its essence is expressed in one of the final lines. The return makes sense of the departure. Three young actors, one better than the other – we are talking about Cristina Florea, Katalin Stefan Mindra and Horia Andrii Butnara – play all the characters in the play. He portrays everyone effectively and carefully. Not a trace of caricature, not a word of condensation, even in scenes that clearly appeal to the theater-within-a-theatre formula. These three are young people who support the illusion of a colonel, an ex-fighter at the front, a former political prisoner who hopes to finally fulfill his dream of taking a seat in a luxurious Pullman car, and immigrants in Italy who ended up in Avignon who knows how, young parents , who know that their children speak Romanian with an Italian, French, German, Spanish accent, pay moral humiliation and physical suffering for the audacity to achieve different the promised land.

as Western Express was prepared and with the idea of ​​participating in the Avignon Festival, he plays in French. Additional complexity successfully overcome by performers. Of course, their French isn’t perfect, and it shouldn’t be, it’s a language spoken by immigrants. But it is certainly understandable. Like, in his honor and to our joy, the whole show.

Theater Matei Visen“from Suceava

OCCIDENT EXPRESS by Matei Visnets

Director: Allen TimYesR

Scenography: Katelin Redinchuk

Assistant Director: Antonia Mykhailescu

with: Christina Florea, Katalin Stefan Mindru, Horia Butnaru

2. Voices and illusions

about nincompoopIoana Bradea’s debut novel, published in 2004 by the publisher East and reedited closer to us in a much more famous Bucharest publishing house humanity, (at that time) a young colleague, an assistant at the Romanian language department, at that time the head of the literary chronicle section in the Oradja magazine, spoke to me for the first time Family. Where I owned Chronicle of the theater.

I read the book in turn, which seemed quite good, and, I confess, I carelessly passed by the supposed avalanche of words unclean which shocked many readers. These words meant something relatively new at that time in Romanian literature. I seem to have gotten used to such lewd words from theatrical performances, already a little bolder and even more low. And then, being a philologist, I knew that they were de-semanticized anyway. These are called zero marks. The first sentence of Ioana Bradea’s novel was, of course, completely de-semanticized, a sentence that scandalized many audiences at the time. However, it was completely different from those beginnings so beautiful The marquise leaves at 5 o’clock which I learned about in Theory of literature.

But now, almost 20 years after its publication, now that the book has been dramatized, and the dramatization has become a support for the play, which has entered the repertoire of the National Theater. Marin Sorescu from Kraiova, the text adapter we don’t really know who she is, and her director, the very young Cristina Giurgia, still feel the need for some security measures. After singing us a song in non-English, actress Julia Colan, the standout female lead of Andrey, deliberately goes out of character and warns us that the show contains lewd language. He spoke in what was, until then, a sweet Romanian language. Suddenly it became very sharp. Julia Kolan advises those who want to leave the gym from now on. Why do it later, slamming the door and disturbing other viewers? At the performance I saw, only one audience member admitted his modesty, but, dear readers, I don’t know if he went home well after that.

While preparing to write a chronicle of the show, I found on LiterNet a few lines about Bagau, written by the late Alex Leo Sherban. Former editor of the publication dilemma he made the critical observation that Ioana Bradea enters the subject too quickly, but unfortunately leaves too late. Thank God, this flaw does not transfer to Craiova’s show. Which is not too long and not too short. That’s just right. Sherban also said that he enthusiastically recommended reading the novel to Radu Kosas, who, however, had some reservations about the ending. Cristina Giurgia also surpasses this jump thanks to the final on the stairs the implementation of which is facilitated by the actors Raluka Paun, Claudiu Mykhailo and, of course, Yulia Kolan again. Finally I find in the fragment restored LiterNet, perhaps the most shocking statement. And that’s it Bagau It would be Human voice John Bradea. A reference to a relatively well-known work by Cocteau. Just not so much with Marius, Andrea’s ex-boyfriend, handsome, adventurous, womanizing and self-satisfied, played impeccably by Claudio Michael, Andrea talks on the phone. Both she and her colleagues who work at the hotline company, played well and differently by Edith Mag, Alina Mangra, Anka Maria Ilinka, Kostinela Ungurianu and Raluka Paun, communicate for a fee (only 40,000 lei for 30 seconds) with all kinds of hygge. , Cornelis, Vasilichi, whose voices are lent by actors Stefan Chepoi, George Albert Costea and Vlad Udrescu.

I don’t know if Christina Giurgia knew about what Alex Leo Sherban said and wrote. But it is clear that she also counted on the role of human voices. Voices can be heard talking on the phone. Women’s voices, which, following the rules, lustily repeated several times by patron Katelina (fragrant as Raluka Peacock), try to hide their personality, sadness, disappointment, troubles, loneliness, obsession, fears, apprehensions from real life. But also male voices of all kinds of idiots, incorrigibly shy, perfect heathens. And the list of qualifying participants is far from complete. – Read and comment on Contributors.ro