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Kiritza Changes Her Voice, but Not Her Habits!
The National Theatre of Bucharest announces the first performances of the new premiere Kiritza or the Game of..., on Wednesday 13th (preview) and Thursday 14th October 2021 (official premiere), at 8 pm, at Studio Hall.
A show produced by NTB in co-production with the Art Production Foundation and Gigi Căciuleanu Romania Dance Company with the support of JTI.
How else could the "merry Alecsandri" be celebrated, now 200 years after his birth, if not with a production about the famous Lady Kiritza, the character who crowned his long career as a playwright with success?
A first-rate artist, a multifaceted talent, Gigi Căciuleanu returns to the NTB stage with a dance-theatre challenge. A Kiritza of all Alecsandri's Kiritzas from the first (Kiritza in Iași or Two Daughters and Their Mother, 1850) to the last (Kiritza in the Balloon, 1875), and you will recognise the other two, with all the gallery of comic characters, inflamed by desires and fears. A show starring the well-known provincial Bohemian, uncultured, rude and rank-hungry aristocrat.
„An exotic and sophisticated character", as the show's creator sees her. "In fact, all those men (and women) who impersonated her were personalities as complex as can be. The fact that the character was originally conceived as a transvestite shows the need to represent him as 'something' out of the ordinary. Excessive. In the sense that the "excesses" of a soprano are represented by high notes or that of a ballerina by dancing on pointe. But what is more "out of the ordinary" than an opera diva?..." asks Căciuleanu rhetorically. Just as Charlie Chaplin's character didn't always make me laugh, but rather made a tear tremble in the corner of my eye, the character of Lady Kiritza has touched me since I discovered her. Like that of a Moliere-like "gentlemanly bourgeois" in the feminine, eager for emancipation at any cost. Desiring with all her soul to leave her condition in order to "go to the moon and the stars"... I think that if Alecsandri had lived in Gagarin's time, Lady Kiritza would certainly not have flown in a balloon, but in a cosmic rocket...", Gigi Căciuleanu.
We invite you to enter the game proposed by the director-choreographer, to savour Alecsandri's texts translated into moving words and sung words, to unravel the tangled webs of Kiritzoaia's intrigues, now, in 2021, a charming opera diva - Kiritza changes her voice, but not her moods! - endowed with the most brilliant and dizzying high notes.
Together with the distinguished soprano Oana Berbec, the superb DanceActresses and the marvellous DanceActors of the National Ballet, Gigi Căciuleanu creates a performance with exceptional scores, full of charm and joy, which transpose into gesture, movement and rhythm, the flavour of the language and speech of an era with its cosmopolitan mentalities.
You may ask, why "The Game of..."? Gigi Căciuleanu explains: Because, in fact, the characters do not exist as such, but as members of a troupe of actors modelled on the one in Shakespeare’s "Dream..." where each one of them can put themselves into the skin and costume of any of the characters".
Beside soprano Oana Berbec, you will admire a lot of beloved actors from the NTB company: Ileana Olteanu, Lari Giorgescu, Costina Cheyrouze, Fulvia Folosea, Aylin Cadîr, Crina Semciuc, Victoria Dicu, Eduard Adam, Ciprian Nicula, Florin Călbăjos, Mihai Calotă, Mihai Munteniță, Ionuț Toader, Emilian Mârnea, Axel Moustache, Petre Ancuța.
Kiritza or the Game of..., a performance by Gigi Căciuleanu after Vasile Alecsandri. Written, directed and choreographed by Gigi Căciuleanu, assisted by Lelia Marcu-Vladu. The set design is signed by Florilena Popescu Fărcășanu. Costumes - by Liliana Cenean. The music is composed by Paul Ilea.
Do not forget your mask at home, and hurry to the NTB ticket office - or online at www.mystage.ro - to grab a seat at your heart's desire at one of the upcoming performances.
The next performances are scheduled for 27 and 29 October 2021, at 8pm.
Kiritza or the Game of..., a reverence from a dance aristocrat to a 19th-century aristocrat of the pen. Kudos!
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
