Current Repertory
God dresses from the thrift
by Iulian Margu
God dresses from the thrift
by Iulian Margu
Premiere: 06.12.2014
Duration: 2 h / Pause: 15 min
The soundtrack was produced with the support of the Radio Romania Cultural Media Centre. Musical director Florin Tudor.
Comedy
A Romanian play in two acts and a satire engulfed in the rhythm of waltz, “God Dresses from the Thrift” is the surprising story of a family’s life across decades and that of a brand name piano in the whirl of history.
“It is a play with a puzzle-like text structure. At least that is how I viewed it”, explains director Ion Caramitru. “The main story is divided in several sections, portrayed in multiple eras and reconstructed only at the end of the play, in order to fully understand the narrative. From a stylistic perspective, it features two types of humour: one brash, the other roundabout. The play’s many references compose a symbolism which transcends the moulds of time and space.” In the words of its author, the play is “a short history of modern Romania told with the help of an enchanted piano.”
You are warmly invited to enter an almost cinematographic décor and watch a comedy which will make you laugh to keep you from crying, presented in a genuine Romanian manner and featuring the music of Chopin.
Translated by Diana-Crezante Raicev
MTTLC, University of Bucharest
Foto Florin Ghioca
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The Studio Hall | 19:00 | Buy tickets |
Lae: | Lari Giorgescu | Buza: | Dorin Andone |
Eliza: | Carmen Ungureanu | Elefteria: | Teodora Mareş |
Dimitrie: | Armand Calotă | Elena: | Fulvia Folosea |
Manole: | Eduard Adam | Iorgu: |
Ioan Andrei Ionescu Mihai Munteniţă |
Teodora: | Diana Dumbravă | Elena - the child: | Luna Iacob |
Policemen: |
Viorel Florea Alexandru Popescu |
"The show is gripping: the two lead actors, Dorin Andone (Buza) and Lari Giorgescu (Lae) – two generations, but also two well-shaped talents, the first more comical, the latter more lyrical, - are keeping their spectators on the edge.
The show is pleasant, with good music, animated with comic scenes in this sadness of an, actually, tragic history".
Nicolae Prelipceanu, Teatrul azi magazine no.1-2-3/2015 – Chopin’s Piano and Romanian History
"Iulian Margu knows how to invent stories departing from reality, relying on a real case. He also intuits well the impact on the audience, which recommends him as a successful author with an assumed recipe. That is, a little historical and political reality, a bit of sentimental idealism and a well-mastered technique of surprise.
(...) Lari Giorgescu, very persuasive in the role, forming a counterpoint tandem with macho Dorin Andone. In an explosive appearance, Florina Cercel for whom the stage is reserved, gives flesh to an image talked about on-goingly, of the local prominent nicknamed the Shrew.
Ion Caramitru orchestrates harmoniously, as director, the intricate structure of the text, using the stagecraft device (the revolving stage) not only for changing frames, but also for their interference, when he wishes to turn the dialogue past-present into a stake. He proposes beautiful solutions for identifying historical moments and biographic episodes.
(...) I can say, according to the reactions of the hall that we are dealing with a triumph, supported with amusement by the well-known triumphal Radetzky march, accompanying the final applause".
Doina Papp, Adevarul – The travelling piano and history not leaving us alone
"The idea that the process of communism can comprise comedies has startled me and made me curious, all the more because I was assuming that the work of a young man, belonging to the generation for whom the memory of communist persecutions is reduced to the fact that they were forced to cut their long hair or beard. On the other hand, Caramitru’s name complicated the equation and made it exciting.
I was not familiar with the text, so I do not know how many of the ideas of the show in its final form pertain to the playwright, to the director or to the stage designer, but it is clear that the mixture of eras through the continuous rotation of the scenery rooms not only succeeds in blending laughter with crying, making fun with sentimentality, depression with schadenfreude in a puzzle game which is, in the end, the very definition of history".
Ana Blandiana, Observator cultural - Ion Caramitru and the trial of communism
„Ion Caramitru has capitalized this dramatic incident, having two charismatic actors at hand (Dorin Andone and especially Lari Giorgescu), remarkable performers of the National Theatre (Teodora Mares, Armand Calota, Ioan Andrei Ionescu and Fulvia Folosea), a brand (Florina Cercel) and two wonderful artists finding the just balance between emotion, sensibility, innocence and humour (Eduard Adam and Carmen Ungureanu). But the most important partner of the director was undoubtedly stage designer Maria Miu. Bringing this story to the limelight, using the revolving stage as main scenotechnical element represents a magistral directorial intuition. (…) "God Dresses from the Thrift" enters the category of productions with great audience success – an honest history about the traps of destiny, the implacable history, but also providential recuperation”.
Razvana Nita, Acta est fabula - History – the Most Beautiful Story
„Maria Miu solves admirably the scenic visualization of the text.
The stage design gives life and pace to the story of the two thieves with honest souls, mutilated by the conditions of contemporary society.
Lari Giorgescu and Dorin Andone underline in a credible way either personal sorrows, or they highlight with fine humour the satirical tendencies of the retort about the present rife with corruption. (…) For evocations, the text resorts to argument-typologies, performed by the actors beyond reproach, with attention to the definition of each one’s essence. Teodora Mares (Elefteria) and Armand Calota (Dimitrie) compose the portraits of Lae’s great-grandparents, with delicacy. (…) Carmen Ungureanu (Eliza) and Eduard Adam (Manole) excellently develop another image of history. With her well-known prowess, Florina Cercel presents the final satire addressed to the individual getting rich by manipulating the conditions offered by contemporary society”.
Ileana Lucaciu, Spectator - A „Prose” about Past and Present
„One is standing, from now on. One is applauding the show „God Dresses from the Thrift”. One lets oneself be led towards the music house of the 19th-21st centuries, from that ending to this beginning.
One does not waltz into the night, but one already knows that one shall remember for a while the passage of time measured in the piano’s sand glass”.
Andrei Craciun, Ziarul Metropolis – The Piano, the Time
"It seems like we are dealing with one of the best texts which appeared in Romanian dramaturgy in the last two decades. (...) the great ally, the Scenery: the Scenery – as well as the costumes – created by that extraordinary stage designer, Maria Miu. Another powerful ally in creating the atmosphere of this show is Music... As far as the cast is concerned, it comprises actors of the theatre, each one special... All have remarkable creations... one cannot quote all actors, as their talent and performance would deserve. I would emphasize, however, two exceptional creations: Florina Cercel, in the role Teodora and Carmen Ungureanu, as Eliza".
Silvia Kerim, Formula As no.1149/January 2015 – Glimpse into the World of Theatre and Music
"The director knew how to choose two reliable allies – in the stage designer Maria Miu and in the cast in its entirety – and he won the bet. Maria Miu has exploited to the maximum the virtues of the revolving stage. She segregated it in order to give it the possibility of individualizing and capturing the essence of each of the periods in which the plot is set. Lari Giorgescu and Dorin Andone are two nice burglars, not at all hardened, but sensitive even.
(...) Florina Cercel, who, even on the day I have seen the show, turned 72, showed us that she is preserving her volcanic temperament and creative force, which aided her like almost 30 years ago to immortalize Vassa Jeleznova".
Mircea Morariu, Adevarul – Family Chronicle
"Two hours and ten minutes have passed like in a magical cinematic box, the technique of the filmic juxtaposition of the play, the rapid pace of the passage from one era to another, the perfect performance of the actors, the scenography and music subsumed to a flawless direction, leaving all actors „free range” to „replenish” the characters with their intuition and talent, are together achieving a gem of contemporary Romanian drama writing".
Eugen Cojocaru, Tribuna - With „the travelling piano” through 20th century Romania
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu