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A new Romanian play, for the first time at NTB: Matilda and the Grave-Makers!
Matilda and the Grave-Makers by Stela Giurgeanu, proclaimed "Play of the year 2018" at the UNITER Awards Gala, will celebrate the official premiere on Saturday, February 15th, 2020, at the Black Box Hall, from 8 pm.
The audience of the National Theatre of Bucharest has the opportunity to meet with a new Romanian play, inspired from the reality of our days, in which domestic violence hovers, pressing, sometimes silent, but most often violently noisy, like dark birds, above the shelter, hosting three sisters-in-law and a seemingly identical destiny. A dark comedy about the eternal dispute between men and women, full of suspense as a detective novel, where no one knows who wins, or at least ... on the surface. A text about a generation that buried their demons to give the next generation the right to happiness.
"Who wants to laugh like champagne? asks renowned journalist Eugen Istodor on HotNews. Who wants excitement, suspense, entertainment, fear, happy end? They should go to Matilda and the Grave-Makers".
Directed by Mircea Rusu, with a cast chosen and directed with psychological finesse, Matilda and the Grave-Makers is a show ‒ plea for the freedom of women so powerful in all their frailty, a game of appearances, camouflaging terrible pain and scarred wounds.
"This mixture of fear and humor, "dark humor", fascinates me. It is a micro-universe that rejects and attracts at the same time," says Mircea Rusu.
"If things are not what they seem? asked the author, a journalist passionate about social investigation. "Can anyone, who says a joke, hide a trauma? What if someone who looks angelic is in fact diabolical? Can a strong man be an extremely fragile man?" A cold and detached man, who laughs at the idea of love, does he not long for despair after love? Caught in the pace of a pulsating life, we often ignore the sufferings of those around us - thus risking to build that vicious cycle in which those around us will be deaf to our sufferings.
Because "Matilda and the Grave-Makers" is, first of all, a play about appearances, it seems like a comedy. But, as one viewer told me: "you don't know whether to laugh or cry." And I think that through this, I reached my goal: to give people time to think twice before putting a label and to offer them a journey on the axis between good and evil, a journey full of nuances - at the end of which one gets the gist,evenif briefly, of the weariness of everyday life,” says Stela Giurgeanu.
Editor of the Dilema Veche magazine, Stela Giurgeanu is a remarkable journalist focused on social issues. In 2003, she received a mention in the "reportage" section of the contest "Young journalist of the year", organized by the Freedom House Foundation and in 2008, she was designated "European Reporter of the Year", an award granted by the Representation of the European Commission in Romania, for the footage on the Europe of the Gârda People. She made her debut in 2007 with the story Two People, published in the volume The Book with Grandparents (Humanitas Publishing). As a playwright, she participated several times in the annual contest organized by UNITER under the aegis and with the support of the Royal House of Romania. In 2015, the play The Time of Madmen was nominated "The best Romanian play of the year" and was presented, in a lecture-show, at NTB. In 2016, the play The Time Collector was nominated in the Final Selection of the UNITER Drama Contest. In 2019, Matilda and the Grave-Makerswas designated "The best Romanian play of the year" and was published by the Unitext Publishing House.
We invite you to discover why, in an apparent impromptu, three women take refuge on the terrace of the house, in a hilarious and improvised existence. Who are they running from, what mysteries do they hide?
Cast: Amalia Ciolan / Liliana Hodorogea, Cesonia Postelnicu / Tania Popa, Erika Baiesu / Oana Constantinescu Fulvia Folosea / Cristina Constantinescu, Lari Giorgescu / Dragos Ionescu.
The scenography is signed by Gabi Albu, whose creations you could admire recently at the premieres of The Merchant of Venice and The Cherry Orchard.
The following representations of Matilda and the Grave-Makersare scheduled for March 18th and 28th, 2020, at the Black Box Hall, from 8 pm.
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
