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The premiere participation of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest at the International Theatre Olympics Festival, which took place this year in Hungary, was a great success, both with the Hungarian audience and the critics. In the main hall of the Moricz Zsigmond Theatre in Nyíregyháza, actor Marcel Iures enchanted the audience, together with his other colleagues (Ana Ciontea, Alexandru Bindea, Alexandra Salceanu, Lucian Iftime, Afrodita Androne and Victoria Dicu), receiving a standing ovation at the end. The first reactions after the performance arrived quickly. One of Hungary's leading newspapers, Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation), gave ample space to a review "beyond the theatre". About the actor Marcel Iures, journalists in the neighboring country say that he is "one of the best practitioners of his craft", "a sensitive artist who gave a fantastic performance with a strong stage presence". The other actors, "although receiving less attention, contribute to the success of the show with their gestures, facial expressions and unspoken opinions". "Histrionics which is a two-hour monologue about the irreplaceability of the arts, is full of anger, despair and disillusionment, but says: it's not worth living without theatre," the review by Anita Szaraz also says. Marcel Iures thanked the hosts of the Moricz Zsigmond Theatre in Nyíregyháza and the director Robert Kirjak for their warm welcome, saying that it is a very beautiful, resourceful and friendly place. The "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest took part last week in the "Theatre Olympics" International Festival, the biggest event dedicated to theatre this year, with the show "Histrionics", directed by Alexandru Dabija, with Marcel Iures in the title part. The 2023 edition of the Theatre Olympics is a special one, both in terms of quality and impressive statistics: from April to July, 400 companies from 58 countries will be coming to Hungary for a real festival of light. The 750 performances that will bring together some 7500 performers suggest a potential record for the largest festival of its time! "Histrionics", a play by one of the most important contemporary playwrights, the Austrian Thomas Bernhard, is a paradoxical hymn to the theatrical art, but also a caustic look at our petty and tragicomic lives.   As Bruscon, Marcel Iureș gives life to a splendid buffoon in search of the absolute in art.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

For the first time on the Atelier stage of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest, Perplex - a play by one of the most popular contemporary German authors, Marius von Mayenburg! Translated by Elise Wilk and directed by Stefan Iordanescu, "Perplex" is an absurd and surreal comedy, in which the world of the protagonists falls apart with dizzying speed, where relationships dissolve and reassemble in surprising ways. The first performances will take place on 10 and 11 May (previews), 17 May 2023 (premiere). Until the end of the season, two more performances on 3 and 22 June 2023. All performances start at 20.00. Marius von Mayenburg is a playwright and director at the famous Berlin theatre Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz - where he began his career and established himself as a playwright with the play Feuergesicht/Fireface, subsequently translated into over 20 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean. He has written numerous plays and radio plays. He also works as a translator (Shakespeare, Sarah Kane, Martin Crimp, etc.) In 2010, he wrote PERPLEX, which he staged himself at the Schaubühne. This play has been staged once before in Romania, by Theodor Cristian Popescu, at the "Ioan Slavici" Theatre in Arad. Also in our country, his plays "Fireface", "The Cold Child", "The Ugly one", "Plastic", "Martyr", "The Stone". Instigating and rebellious, funny and witty, the German playwright's text launches a real assault on theatrical conventions, on the classical plot, on the traditional concept of the fourth wall and, finally, on the consistency of the theatrical character. The situations follow one another confusingly and quickly, impregnated with a lot of humor, in this play in which everything is theater, but the director has not appeared, and the set is dismantled while the play is still playing. A play in which vitality and metamorphosis are celebrated, revealing the human tendency to escape to other roles, other identities, or other, perhaps more auspicious lives. The author leaves it up to the director and actors to decide whether the characters take on the names of the performers. That's why you'll hear them calling each other by name, or using their diminutive. In the cast: Medeea Marinescu, Alexandra Salceanu, Gavril Patru, Petre Ancuta. "The moment you meet four actors so dedicated, so willing to unravel the secrets of a text that breaks the barriers of conventional dramaturgy - says director Stefan Iordanescu - it's better to step back. For me, this project was an experiment. That of respecting the spirit and the letter of the text as much as possible. I believe it is our duty to make the audience go through all the stages through which four actors, in exceptional form, bring before our eyes a story about the world and life, about the ridiculous and the sublime, with the means of the postmodernist current in which, of course, nothing of what there is not apparent to you, in which themes from Pirandello, Brecht and Martin Crimp are woven together in an almost mathematical demonstration of the world, life, theatre and the vain. At these moments the author has decreed that the director has retired. And so he should be. I'd still like to find him somewhere again at the applause and catch a glimpse of the gleam of triumph in the eyes of the actors on stage. Because we also have to contradict the text, don't we?" asks the director rhetorically. The atmosphere of the show is supported artistically, visually and acoustically by his other collaborators: Dorothea Iordanescu - Set design and original music, Sebastian Hamburger - Video design, Flavia Giurgiu - Stage movement, Lucian Moga - Lighting design. We invite you to stay as long as possible... Perplexed, watching this fast-paced and provocative prank, brilliantly performed by the four NTB actors, under the discreet but effective direction of director Stefan Iordanescu.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

In accordance with the provisions of Law 307.Art.19, letter K and OMAI/163/2007 art.144-147 on emergency response exercises, On May 15, 2023, starting at 10.00 am, the "Mihai Voda" Fire Department of the "Dealul Spirii" Bucharest-Ilfov Emergency Situations Inspectorate carried out at the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest a fire prevention and firefighting exercise with forces and means on the ground in which all NTB employees present in the building participated. When the fire alarm went off, the employees evacuated the building according to the evacuation plan established by the SPSU, CT, PSI intervention coordinators and followed the steps that were communicated to them in advance by the convocation sent by email to all NTB employees. A similar exercise will also take place on 16 and 17 May 2023, starting at 22.00 (after the end of the performances on those days). Drafted: Zapan Iordan CTSU   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

Approximately 3,000 people visited the Queen Mary at the Theatre exhibition, opened with a special program for the Long Night of Museums on 13 May 2023, at the first participation of the National Theatre from Bucharest in this event, now in its 19th edition. Inaugurated on March 27, 2023, on the very same World Theatre Day, the exhibition "Queen Mary at the Theatre" presents 38 cultural objects from the Theatre Museum's collections, including a magnificent dress with a four-meter train, made of silver thread fabric and silk embroidery, which belonged to Queen Mary of Romania. Until almost midnight, the public could admire stage costumes of actors from different generations, documents, posters and photographs. The Minister of Culture, Lucian Romașcanu, was the first to visit the exhibition and gave a symbolic start to the event. "This dress belonging to Queen Mary, restored after so many years, is impressive! I was pleased to visit a special exhibition, both for the objects on display and for the stories behind them. It is a happy coincidence that the presentation of this superb gallery should be on the very day that the Ministry of Culture purchased the intimate green-scaled diary of Queen Mary of Romania. A royal day for Romanian culture!" said Minister Lucian Romașcanu on the occasion. He was followed by almost 3,000 people of all ages, who formed a huge queue at the entrance of the "Ion Caramitru" Hall, in what was NTB's first participation in The Long Night of Museums. The most admired and photographed was certainly Queen Mary's dress, while visitors of younger ages enjoyed the "interactive light tunnel", an installation within the exhibition. "Queen Mary at the Theatre" is the result of a project with a non-reimbursable funding of approximately 130,000 euros, provided by the EEA Grants, implemented by the National Theatre from Bucharest in partnership with the National Art Museum of Romania, the National Military Museum "King Ferdinand I", the National Village Museum "Dimitrie Gusti" and the National Library of Romania. The project was funded by EEA Grants 2014-2021 under the RO-CULTURE Program. The "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest is one of the public performing arts institutions that owns a heritage made up of documents and unpublished images, vintage photographs, posters, leaflets and programs, manuscripts and letters from personalities from the world of theatre, props and stage costumes, objects with memorial value and art objects such as paintings, sculptures and graphic works, heritage that represent testimonies of the evolution of Romanian drama and scenic art. The National Theatre Museum was opened to the public in 1942, at the initiative of the actor George Franga, with the support and agreement of the director Liviu Rebreanu. The exhibition "Queen Mary at the Theatre" remains open for another five years and can be visited by the general public according to the schedule available on the theatre's website, tnb.ro.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu