"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to King Lear – the show in which life defeats the heart. Pulse, rhythm, efficiency, candour, brightness, excellence, abyss, universal, here, now, there.

... a Lear destroyed by the love towards the land – moments from the perishable subconscious of the one who shall certainly remain in the annals of Romanian theatre– His Majesty Mihai Lear Constantin.

We all felt the need of a Shakespeare in the Grand Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest and we welcomed him properly. With the dedication of a Lear who more than anything loves his profession as „Majesty” of a kingdom which was said, not long ago, to crumble, succeeding however to build new defence walls and rise to an aesthetic, communicational, higher quality level. (...)

I take a bow. The heartbeats are for “King Lear".                

Dragoș N. Savu, Dilema Veche - Lear – Electrocardiogram 

"The most beautiful moments are the simplest – an actor in the spotlight telling us, conveying us the truth of his character. Mihai Constantin – King Lear – is a paradoxical actor: an overwhelming force through his scenic presence doubled by inner candour and tenderness bringing tears to your eyes. A giant with the soul of a child beyond what he says and how he says it emanates so much truth and humanity, that it conquers an entire hall; with a rare instinct for the stage, obvious professionalism and an authentic faith in everything he performs on stage.

(...) „King Lear” from NTB is an event, beyond any doubt. It is an enactment taking itself very seriously and towering completely, monumentally over the grand stage".

Alina Epîngeac, Yorick – The Monumental King Lear    

"Deposited under the rocks of four centuries of history – the lust for power, envy, lying, greed and hatred – are “reconditioned” in a new coat by ingenious director David Doiashvili, a name of resonance not only in native Georgia, but also in the area of European theatre.

David Doiashvili pays – through this show – a tribute to theatre itself, not only through its organic theatricality, but also through the way in which the stage director has discovered unsuspected meanings in the poetics of great Will. Shakespeare’s text is endowed with new clothes, and the thirst for power receives topical connotations.

The world on stage oozes with vitality, boiling with passions and intrigues (...). The director confirms his mastery in creating tragic frescos, unveiling the modulations of a bygone era, but also of the contemporary ones, illustrating the obscurity behind the light and the monstrosity lurking behind speeches.

David Doiashvili puts into context, paraphrases, in a postmodern register, preserving the themes of Shakespearean drama, and King Lear on the stage of the National Theatre of Bucharest becomes an illustration of the accumulation and intensification of the process of (self) knowledge, at a pace “à bout de souffle”.

Mădălina Dumitrache, Web Cultura – The Strict Harmony of the Monochrome

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

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2017- National Theatre Festival