Teatrul de Stat Constanta

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Liubov Andreevna Ranevskaya returns ruined, together with her daughter, Anya, to her family’s country estate, after several years spent abroad. The family no longer has the money to maintain the property and, in order to save their home and escape their debts, they must sell the cherry orchard, an act that is at first refused, but gradually accepted. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century is undergoing profound social changes, and the aristocracy, along with its hedonistic lifestyle, is on the verge of disappearing.

Andrei Măjeri, theatre director: “THE CHERRY ORCHARD proposes a reading of lives turned theatrical, a world in twilight. A collective ghost and a field of contradictions, a crossroads and a territory of the marginalized, Chekhov’s orchard is a final dance before disappearance.
At the State Theatre of Constanța, I found the ideal place to tell our Orchard. I imagined a capsule-space, where the audience is immersed in the atmosphere of the house. Like a wardrobe-house, this place of passage is a space of silence, a cosmos of complicity. I called it THE CHEKHOV HOUSE. It carries marks of churches, of ships, of trains, ultimately revealing the ever-changing morphology of ‘the children’s room.’ Over the years I gathered small revelations about a potential staging of this seminal text: the audience on four sides, suitcase-floors, the bundles of Act II, the atypical appearance of the protagonist, the cultural clash between those who left and those who remained, and so on. Liubov Andreevna enters here as a stranger returning home, each element triggering painful memories. The children’s room is a room good only for dying in. In the hidden corners of this collapsing house, the family’s balance slips through her fingers. With a troubled past and an uncertain future, she behaves like a dethroned monarch, capricious and Bovary-like. Her acting is always ‘through tears.’ A queen cannot renounce being a queen, even in utter ruin.

And yet, the position of ‘main character’ is not firmly established, the place is instead occupied by the complex, profound, and irresolvable relationships among all the characters. Their consciences, stirred by questions and moral revolts, create permanent tremors. These exiles of fate seem to wear out their lives in speaking. Urgency drives them all: of faith, of returning, of status, of buying the orchard, of paying the debt, of falling in love, of luck, of social climbing, of changing the world, of love, of sleep, of death...

Their inner worlds are turned inside out, back and forth, here where the walls are us. Here, nothing is stronger than what has been saved. Here, you can cast one last look at the past, with a smile.”

COMEDY SHOP

An evening of comedy at the theatre. The kind of show you go to after a long, hard day, but you leave heading home with a smile on your face. No lessons, no “important messages.” The actors are on stage, you’re in the audience, and somewhere in between, the comedy comes to life.

THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA

Bernarda Alba decreed that reputation must be defended at all costs, even at the expense of the happiness of the eight women locked behind the walls. The barred windows only allow the illusion of freedom, and money is at the heart of the planned marriage between the most desired young man in the village and the oldest of the sisters. And if love has blossomed in other hearts, it is merely a symptom of freedom, which must be eradicated from the very start in the concentration-like space created over the centuries by the oppression of women through patriarchal traditions.

The House of Bernarda Alba is the final play in what commentators refer to as Federico García Lorca’s "rural trilogy," alongside Blood Wedding and Yerma.

The author’s general subtitle is "A Drama of Women in the Villages of Spain." To tell this drama, Lorca sets the scene in a house in Andalusia where the strictest mourning has been imposed, no men remain, and the matriarch Bernarda Alba exerts dictatorial control over her five daughters, her elderly mother, and the servant. Conformity, obedience, fundamentalism, and the repression of emotions cannot, however, last forever, in the face of the volatile and ever-changing nature of femininity, with love, passion, courage, rebellion, and self-sacrifice. The aspiration for love and freedom inevitably crashes against the unyielding walls of the House of Bernarda Alba.

Incendies

„I am not telling you a story; I am telling you about a pain that fell at my feet.” After the death of their mother and her bizarre will, a pair of twins—a boy and a girl—raised in the West embark on an initiatory journey through their war-torn homeland in the Middle East. They search for a father and a brother whose existence they had known nothing about.

A stark performance about survival, the human condition, social trauma, lives shattered by violence, confronting the horrors of war, people turning into beasts, and others turning into a silent song.

GAMES IN THE BACKYARD

Edna Mazya not only does the reconstitution of the trial of an extremely violent event that occured in the lives of some young people, but also analyzes the psychological mechanisms that allowed it to occur. "Games in the Backyard" is a performance about cruelty, an x-ray of the adolescent psychic, a story about four boys and a girl living their last day of freedom, of childhood, of innocence. Last day without consequences!
The play has enjoyed enormous success both in Israel and in other countries where it was set up, especially because it transposes a true story, of the trial of the aggressors in the case of a rape of a 14 year old teenager, which happened in a rural community in the north of the country. The case shocked the Israelis, and the initial acquittal of the perpetrators triggered massive protests throughout the country. The publicity surrounding the trial prompted several women to gain courage and report various forms of aggression held in silence.

THE MEMORY OF WATER

"The Memory of Water", a tragic comedy in which three sisters meet, after many years in which they have not been seeing each other, on the sad occasion of their mother's funeral, recalling events from childhood, reviving old rivalries and quarrels, which results in scenes of irresistible comic.

Each of the sisters is in a relationship and each relationship is in a time of crisis. Conflicts are fueled by alcohol and marijuana, thus arising hidden frustrations and half-acknowledged or knowingly blocked truths.

RABBIT HOLE

A couple's perfect life is turned upside down when their son, Danny, dies in an accident. The couple struggle to carry on with their lives, each trying a different way to cope with the tragedy, but ultimately come together in a tacit decision to accept that the pain will never end.

The play is an autopsy of tragedy, meticulously, empathetically and humorously investigating the depths of grief and how the characters involved deal with its various phases.

David Lindsay-Abaire's play won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and was screened in 2010, starring Nicole Kidman.

MACHINAL

„Machinal” propune o reflecție scenică asupra relației dintre individ și mecanismele sociale care reglementează munca, familia și intimitatea, într-o lume guvernată de eficiență și conformare. Adaptând piesa scrisă în 1928 de jurnalista și dramaturga americană Sophie Treadwell, spectacolul regizat de Diana Mititelu aduce împreună actori din generații diferite ale trupei Teatrului de Stat Constanța, alături de tineri colaboratori, și explorează din perspectivă contemporană condiția femeii, sub incidența relațiilor intime și a presiunilor sociale care îi normează existența.

TWELFTH NIGHT

Identity confusion—what could be more contemporary and, at the same time, more Shakespearean? Almost all the characters in Twelfth Night assume a different identity, leading to confusion, misunderstandings, and even love. Each character deceives and is deceived in turn.

Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, are victims of a shipwreck, each believing the other has drowned. Upon reaching the shores of Illyria, Viola disguises herself as a man and, under the name Cesario, becomes a servant to Duke Orsino.

Orsino is in love with Olivia, but she is mourning her brother's death and has rejected all of his previous romantic advances. Cesario (Viola) is sent by the duke to deliver his message of love to Olivia, and Olivia falls in love with the handsome messenger, deceived by Viola’s disguise.

Viola, however, has fallen in love with her master, Orsino, who, in turn, is confused by the strange feelings he has for his "servant." Thus, a love triangle forms in which Viola loves Orsino, who loves Olivia, who loves Cesario/Viola. But how much of these romantic entanglements is truly love, and how much is illusion?

Malvolio, Olivia's steward, holds a disdainful attitude toward everyone around his mistress—her drunken relative Sir Toby Belch, his friend Sir Andrew, the servant Maria, and the fool Feste. They all join forces against Malvolio and play a cruel prank on him.

Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, appears, along with Antonio, his rescuer and protector. Sebastian meets Olivia, who mistakes him for Cesario and proposes to him. Sebastian accepts and, inevitably, comes face to face with his twin—Cesario, who turns out to be his sister, Viola, whom he thought had drowned in the shipwreck.

In a provisional happy ending, the identity confusions are cleared, and the love triangle resolves into two couples: Sebastian and Olivia, Viola and Orsino.

However, the ending takes a different turn, as Malvolio seeks revenge on those who mocked him.

SEASIDE STORIES

SEASIDE STORIES, a succession of stories with different characters, with lightning encounters, short intense slice-of-life moments, perhaps some of those we have all lived, with feet full of sand, with wrinkled skin on which the sun dried the sea water, with senses constantly perceiving, beyond the events, in the background, the ripple of the waves, the mirror of the water with its never the same shades, the horizon, the stillness of the deep, the salty taste of the air, the smell of rotting seaweed and shells, the repetitive music of the terraces, the bright colours of the beach toys.
The common thread running through the stories is that feeling of a seaside holiday, which is shared, though not always realised, by those who live near it and those who return here year after year or at least from time to time.
And in all of them there is the sea, like a mythological character that fills all stories with its meaning.
Seaside Stories make us recall our own long-forgotten stories and understand what keeps us here or brings us back.

CAST:

RUNNING BEAUTIFULLY, HIGH KNEES by Tudor Ganea

Tudorel – Ștefan Mihai

Mother – Laura Iordan

Father – Iulian Enache

Cătălin – Theodor Șoptelea

Haughty Lilly – Liliana Ghiță / Mirela Pană

Bitălz – Marian Adochiței

Thugs – Andrei Bibire, Alexandru Burcă, Cătălin Bucur

Rockeritzele – Anaïs Agi-Ali, Mihaela Velicu, Lana Moscaliuc, Alina Manțu, Cristiana Luca

FRAGILE by Simona Goșu

Girl – Cristiana Luca

Mother – Nina Udrescu

VIENI QUA by Marius Chivu

She – Cristiana Luca

He – Theodor Șoptelea

Paco – Ștefan Mihai

Monica – Liliana Cazan

ALL THE EARRINGS IN THE VAMA BEACH by Lavinica Mitu

She – Mihaela Velicu

He – Marian Adochiței

Couples: Alina Manțu și Andrei Bibire, Cătălin Bucur și Cristiana Luca, Lana Moscaliuc și Anaïs Agi-Ali, Alexandru Burcă si Ecaterina Lupu

The weird one out: Laura Iordan

AT THE SEA EAGLE - FISH IN ITS CLAW by Marius Chivu

The Boy – Andrei Bibire

Thugs – Cătălin Bucur, Alexandru Burcă, Ștefan Mihai, Theodor Șoptelea, Remus Archip

SHE USED TO LIKE THE SEA by Nicoleta Dabija

She – Lana Moscaliuc

Them: Alina Manțu, Laura Iordan, Anaïs Agi-Ali, Mihaela Velicu, Cristiana Luca, Lana Moscaliuc

WYOMING by Marius Chivu

Cezar Dumitrescu – Cătălin Bucur

Mother – Liliana Cazan

The Girl – Anaïs Agi-Ali

Minions – Mihaela Velicu, Ecaterina Lupu, Andrei Bibire, Alexandru Burcă, Theodor Șoptelea, Cristiana Luca, Ștefan Mihai

Poem: YOU ARE DRIFTING AWAYby Nina Cassian

Nina Udrescu

Other texts by Radu Afrim:

MC Seaside Stories – Cătălin Bucur

Pegas – Ștefan Mihai

Relu Pescărelu - Theodor Șoptelea

Haughty Lilly – Liliana Ghiță / Mirela Pană

Albano și Romina Power - Lana Moscaliuc & Marian Adochiței

Nana Mouskouri - Marian Adochiței

Bitălz' fans – Lana Moscaliuc, Mihaela Velicu, Laura Iordan, Alina Manțu, Ecaterina Lupu, Cristiana Luca

The Punk – Cătălin Bucur

Monica – Liliana Cazan

MACHINAL

SEASIDE STORIES

CAST:

RUNNING BEAUTIFULLY, HIGH KNEES by Tudor Ganea

Tudorel – Ștefan Mihai

Mother – Laura Iordan

Father – Iulian Enache

Cătălin – Theodor Șoptelea

Haughty Lilly – Liliana Ghiță / Mirela Pană

Bitălz – Marian Adochiței

Thugs – Andrei Bibire, Alexandru Burcă, Cătălin Bucur

Rockeritzele – Anaïs Agi-Ali, Mihaela Velicu, Lana Moscaliuc, Alina Manțu, Cristiana Luca

FRAGILE by Simona Goșu

Girl – Cristiana Luca

Mother – Nina Udrescu

VIENI QUA by Marius Chivu

She – Cristiana Luca

He – Theodor Șoptelea

Paco – Ștefan Mihai

Monica – Liliana Cazan

ALL THE EARRINGS IN THE VAMA BEACH by Lavinica Mitu

She – Mihaela Velicu

He – Marian Adochiței

Couples: Alina Manțu și Andrei Bibire, Cătălin Bucur și Cristiana Luca, Lana Moscaliuc și Anaïs Agi-Ali, Alexandru Burcă si Ecaterina Lupu

The weird one out: Laura Iordan

AT THE SEA EAGLE - FISH IN ITS CLAW by Marius Chivu

The Boy – Andrei Bibire

Thugs – Cătălin Bucur, Alexandru Burcă, Ștefan Mihai, Theodor Șoptelea, Remus Archip

SHE USED TO LIKE THE SEA by Nicoleta Dabija

She – Lana Moscaliuc

Them: Alina Manțu, Laura Iordan, Anaïs Agi-Ali, Mihaela Velicu, Cristiana Luca, Lana Moscaliuc

WYOMING by Marius Chivu

Cezar Dumitrescu – Cătălin Bucur

Mother – Liliana Cazan

The Girl – Anaïs Agi-Ali

Minions – Mihaela Velicu, Ecaterina Lupu, Andrei Bibire, Alexandru Burcă, Theodor Șoptelea, Cristiana Luca, Ștefan Mihai

Poem: YOU ARE DRIFTING AWAYby Nina Cassian

Nina Udrescu

Other texts by Radu Afrim:

MC Seaside Stories – Cătălin Bucur

Pegas – Ștefan Mihai

Relu Pescărelu - Theodor Șoptelea

Haughty Lilly – Liliana Ghiță / Mirela Pană

Albano și Romina Power - Lana Moscaliuc & Marian Adochiței

Nana Mouskouri - Marian Adochiței

Bitălz' fans – Lana Moscaliuc, Mihaela Velicu, Laura Iordan, Alina Manțu, Ecaterina Lupu, Cristiana Luca

The Punk – Cătălin Bucur

Monica – Liliana Cazan

TEATRO LÚCIDO AT THE EDGE OF INFINITY

Script by Radu Afrim, including texts by Adriana Bittel, Bogdan Răileanu, Doina Ruști

When Radu Afrim plays, you want to be there—to see what emerges: an afrimiad or an afrimedia, a suspenseful oscillation between absurd situations, bizarrely comic lines, and poetry that brings you to tears.

Afrim almost invents a new dramatic genre, relying on the element of surprise that bursts from every direction—text, acting, set design, props, costumes, and music.

"Sometimes, a little bit of kitsch holds you back if you feel like you've surged too far ahead of your peers in aspirations and ideals."—this line from Afrim’s script might serve as one of the keys to understanding the playful (self-)irony that fuels this production. With a painful sense of humor, Afrim lucidly—just as he has accustomed his audience throughout his theatrical work—takes aim at all the intolerances of our times.

10 THINGS WE HAVE LOST AT THE MAMAIA FESTIVAL

A dreamland. Nostalgia for a past that we didn't live. Or that we forgot.

A contemporary art curator, a former singer in her youth, wins the selection to represent Romania at the Venice Biennale with her performative installation called "10 things we have lost at the Mamaia Festival". Throughout the six months spent in Venice, 10 performers locked in the exhibition relive real or fictional memories from the history of Romanian light music, spent (or not) in Mamaia, related to iconic stars, but especially to small, unfulfilled artistic destinies.

ATTENTION! Some scenes may contain stroboscopic effects that may affect photosensitive viewers.

TEATRO LÚCIDO AT THE EDGE OF INFINITY

Script by Radu Afrim, including texts by Adriana Bittel, Bogdan Răileanu, Doina Ruști

Afrim almost invents a new dramatic genre, relying on the element of surprise that bursts from every direction—text, acting, set design, props, costumes, and music.

Incendies

A stark performance about survival, the human condition, social trauma, lives shattered by violence, confronting the horrors of war, people turning into beasts, and others turning into a silent song.

MACHINAL

AN ISLAND

A show for the whole family, where myth blends with playfulness, comic absurdity, and the unmistakable music of Ada Milea. The actors from Constanța, who have already proven their vocal talents in other performances, now have the opportunity to make full use of them, turning almost any object on stage into a musical instrument. You are invited to a deserted island, where you'll meet Robinson, Friday, the Mermaid, Mary, her mother and grandmother, the Pirate, Randolph, the King of the Cannibals, the parrot Coco, and many other parrots.

From Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s novel that every child and teenager once read while confronting the strange idea of absolute solitude, to The Island by Gellu Naum, and then to An Island by Ada Milea, this updated shipwreck story on a deserted—yet not entirely deserted—island offers both artists and audiences plenty of opportunities for lighthearted reflection on highly contemporary themes.