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In the current edition of the National Theatre Festival, the greatest number of shortlisted shows from a single theatre belongs to the I.L. Caragiale National Theatre of Bucharest. In other words, 4 times NTB at FNT! In order to mark once again the success of the past season, where the billboard of the National Theatre of Bucharest has reunited great names of classical and contemporary drama, remarkable actors, as well as top-class Romanian and foreign directors, we have undertaken to meet the most loyal NTB spectators at FNT with a prize. The spectators who shall witness all four NTB productions to be presented on the theatre stages in the time frame 20 - 30 October 2017, within the National Theatre Festival, have the opportunity of winning a Special VIP package from the hosts. Behold, thus, the four shows who have received the endorsement of the demanding selection of the National Theatre Festival, 2017 edition: On Monday 23rd October 2017, from 6.00 p.m., the grand stage awaits you with King Lear by William Shakespeare, a spectacular staging filled with surprises, of a very special visual inventiveness, on the specific note of Georgian director David Doiashvili, one of the trendiest directors of the moment. On Wednesday 25th October 2017, from 8.00 p.m., in the Studio Hall, Old Clown Wanted! In a surprising atmosphere proposed by Ion Caramitru, who directs the show and stage designer Florilena Popescu – Fărcășanu – and performed by the three musical clown-actors: Petre Ancuţa, Florin Călbăjos and Emilian Mârnea, Matei Vişniec's play puts on new clothes and unveils unsuspected meanings even for the connoisseurs of the work of the most enacted Romanian playwright. On Thursday 26th October 2017, from 8.00 p.m., in the Studio Hall, a troubling story, based on the script of an Oscar-awarded movie, No Man’s Land! – now also in a version for the stage, directed by Bulgarian Alexander Morfov, well-known to you due to his previous enactments from NTB, The Tempest and The Visit. A wonderful team of actors, led by Mihai Călin, Richard Bovnoczki (nominated for this role for the UNITER Awards) and Ciprian Nicula impersonate one of the most human and unpredictable stories derived from the wars of contemporary world, signed by Bosnian writer Danis Tanović. On Friday 27th October 2017, from 8.00 p.m., in the Black Box Hall, Shadows – the play by Spanish writer Marilia Samper, herself the authoress of a successful enactment of her own text. This time, the director is a young man on the rise, Vlad Cristache, starring exclusively actors of the current NTB troupe (!), where you can applaud Ana Ciontea, Gheorghe Visu, Mircea Rusu, Gavril Pătru, the younger Alice Sălceanu and Emilian Mârnea, alongside the unrivalled couple Mariana Mihuţ and Victor Rebengiuc… Come and see all our shows from FNT, keep the tickets and register for the competition! Do not miss the chance to win an exceptional ”VIP package” at the National Theatre of Bucharest! For details regarding the competition, you are invited to access the web page www.tnb.ro, as well as the official Facebook page - "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre of Bucharest. Media partners: TVR, RFI, Gold FM and Radio Romantic. You are welcome to the theatre! Contest regulation

The jury of the Teen-Fest Festival, composed of pupils, has awarded on Sunday, 8th October 2017, the Best Show Award to the NTB production The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time after Mark Haddon, directed by Bobi Pricop. The production, extremely popular and appreciated both by the audience and by the specialised critics, has received over the last years several distinctions and nominations, including: Best Show Award, Best Director (Bobi Pricop) and Award for Best Actor in a Leading Part (Ciprian Nicula), at the International Theatre Festival of Oradea, UNITER nomination to the Best Director Award (Bobi Pricop) and UNITER nomination to the Award for Best Actor in a Leading Part (Ciprian Nicula). Director Bobi Pricop and the team of the show The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time after Mark Haddon, adaptation Simon Stephens, translation Andrei Marinescu, stage design Adrian Damian, video projections Dan Adrian Ionescu & Mizdan Negatron, score Alexei Turcan, light design Andrei Florea, starring Ciprian Nicula, Emilian Oprea, Ana Ciontea, Rodica Ionescu, Carmen Ungureanu have received the Grand Prize in the Theatre category, at the Radio Romania Cultural Awards Gala, 17th edition.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

  The Cherry Orchard, the last play of the great playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, family chronicle whose humour is breaking your heart, radiography of a society which cannot rethink its present and even less its future, the show enacted at the National Theatre of Bucharest by the Georgian director David Doiashvili, shall have two shows at the headquarters, in preview (26th and 28th September 2017), a few days before the scheduled tour in Georgia. Exceptionally, The Cherry Orchard shall have the national premiere after the international one, the show being invited (on 8th and 9th October 2017) to the current edition of the International Theatre Festival of Tbilisi, where it is expected with much interest. The two shows are sold out already since the day the tickets have been put up for sale! With this show, director David Doiashvili highlights decisively the comic nature of the famous Chekhovian drama. „It is, certainly, a sad, bourgeois life, but under no circumstances a burdensome, complaining life”, states the Russian playwright about the universe of his characters. Playful par excellence, surprising and very vivid, the acting performance perfectly complies with the directorial proposal, the result being an unusual Orchard, which you have either read differently, or seen in classical enactments, or you are barely discovering it now. The impetuously pragmatic Lopahin - Ioan Andrei Ionescu partners with, in the extraordinary role of Ranevskaia, Monica Davidescu alternating with Irina Movilă. In the other roles, emphasized with the same appetite for performance, Crina Semciuc, Raluca Aprodu, Mihai Constantin, Istvan Teglas, Gavril Pătru, Vitalie Bichir, Ana Covalciuc, Rareș Andrici, Silviu Mircescu, Idris Clate. At the headquarters, the premiere of the show shall take place in the month of November, after the National Theatre Festival, at a date to be announced later. We invite you to follow the theatre’s programme in order to book seats in a timely manner, to a new exceptional enactment of the National Theatre of Bucharest!   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Two of the successful shows of the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest, The Idol and Ion Anapoda and Placebo (D)Effect are participating in the National Theatre Reunion, third edition, taking place these days in Kishinev. Classical, with an inspired cast and masterfully led by director Ion Cojar, The Idol and Ion Anapoda is a title on the billboard for more than a decade, repeating the success of an older enactment, signed by the same director on the stage of the National Theatre of Bucharest. In the current version of the play by G.M. Zamfirescu, Dan Puric, Ileana Stana Ionescu, Ileana Olteanu / Cesonia Postelnicu, Irina Cojar, Silviu Biriş, Alexandru Hasnaş, Afrodita Androne / Erika Băieşu are the ones evoking the special charm of the interwar period, in a comedy transgressing the decades with carefreeness, at the hero’s pace, on the quest for happiness. The show is scheduled for Thursday, 21st September 2017, from 7.00 p.m., in the Grand Hall of the hosting theatre. The other show of the National Theatre of Bucharest, an exciting artistic challenge on which every actor has left the mark of his personality under the close supervision of director Ştefan Lupu, is conceived within the framework of the programme intended for the young theatre creators, “9G at NTB”. The Placebo (D)Effect is a vivid, engaging, provocative show, about the artificial of the world we inhabit, about the loneliness caused by excessive communication, about the humanity in us and the danger of technological upgrade. Vlad Nemeș, George Bîrsan, Ioana Predescu, Alina Petrică şi Rareş Florin Stoica, five young and gifted actors put their fingers on it, with humour and delicacy. The show is performed on Friday, 22nd September 2017, from 7.00 p.m., still in the Grand Hall. 12 effervescent days are announced beyond the river Prut, with shows from 8 theatres - 5 from Romania (Bucharest, Iaşi, Craiova, Târgu Mureş and Sibiu) and 3 from the Republic of Moldova (Chişinău, Bălţi and Cahul). The event shall take place in the time frame 20 September — 1 October 2017, at the 'Mihai Eminescu' National Theatre, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, the Ministry of Culture and National Identity and the Romanian Cultural Institute.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

  After the triumph of the multi-awarded show The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, young director Bobi Pricop returns to the „I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest, to the same Painting Hall, releasing in national premiere the play UFO of one of the most gifted and enacted young Russian playwrights, Ivan Vyrypaev, in the inspired translation of Mașa Dinescu. Using simultaneous projections on manifold surfaces, 3D virtual media 3D (built by Paul Spike), live-video (coordinated by Tudor Panduru), an inventive scenic and technical construction (Paul Popescu and Mizdan) and the original score of Alexei Țurcan, the show UFO tells the stories of people who were in contact with alien civilisations. The confessions of these events are tackled with clarity, authenticity and humour, blending virtual truths with practical revelations and thus becoming the surprising show of the encounter between technology and emotion, between art and digital programming, between the innovations rebuilding theatre and the truths which have always defined it. The storytelling mechanisms employed in the show rely on state-of-the-art technology integrated in a dramaturgy of the natural, in a hi-tech artistic installation of emotions expressed at several levels, at all levels of life, perception and reality. An enactment breaking its own conventions, turning reality into the supreme artifice, and the soul into performance. UFO is the show – experience which we need when we forget about ourselves due to the surrounding noise, but also a game of docu–mystification, with green humanoids, alien civilisations and the peace of a cloudless morning. The cast of the show (in the order of appearance on stage): Ada Galeș, Istvan Teglaș, Ciprian Nicula, Mihai Călin, Raluca Aprodu, Medeea Marinescu, Ion Caramitru.   The first representations: 15th and 16th September 2017, from 8.00 p.m., in the Painting Hall. The official premiere shall take place on Sunday, 17th September 2017, 8.00 p.m. Tickets: at the NTB box office, as well as online, on www.mystage.ro. Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Andrei Șerban staged The Cherry Orchard three times. The first version, from 1977, at Lincoln Center, New York, starred the very young Meryl Streep, in the role of Dunyasha. Photo: Meryl Streep in The Cherry Orchard, directed by Andrei Șerban, Lincoln Center Details    

  After a summer rich in international encounters, during which the „I. L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest has participated, with standing ovation followed by most gratifying echoes, in the Forest International Festival of Thessaloniki with The Tempest by William Shakespeare, directed by Alexander Morfov, and with Magic National - concert-show directed by Ion Caramitru – in the Ohrid Summer Festival, further shows of the theatre are expected in the next period abroad, at first-rate cultural events. The Idol and Ion Anapoda, a show which has made history on the NTB Stages and Placebo (D)Effect, collective creation directed by Ştefan Lupu, one of the top achievements of the 9G Programme at NTB, shall represent the Bucharest National Theatre at the third National Theatre Reunion of Chişinău, on the 21st and 22nd September 2017, both representations being scheduled to take place in the Grand Hall of the „Mihai Eminescu” National Theatre of Chişinău. The opening of the new season of the National Theatre of Bucharest is marked by the resumption of a highly successful show, on the billboard for 7 seasons, The Dinner Game by Francis Veber and through a premiere signed by one of the most gifted directors of the new generation, Bobi Pricop. The play UFO, by Ivan Vyrypaev in a modern vision, with a promising cast (Ada Galeș, Istvan Teglaș, Ciprian Nicula, Mihai Călin, Raluca Aprodu, Medeea Marinescu, Ion Caramitru – in the order indicated by the author) becomes, on the stage of the Painting Hall, the surprising show of the encounter between technology and emotion, between art and digital programming, between the innovations rebuilding theatre and the truths that have always defined it. The second premiere of the season is betting on a surprise cast. The Cherry Orchard by A.P. Chekhov brings back to the attention of the Romanian audience the Georgian director David Doiashvili, the premiere being scheduled for the end of this month – 28 and 29 September 2017. The show shall be performed on the grand stage of NTB, with the audience seated on the very stage! The show is also expected with utmost interest at the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre, where it shall be performed within a tour, on 8th and 9th October 2017, both representations of the festival being already sold out, within only two hours since their being put up for sale! Further titles are already – or shall go – into rehearsals, with their premieres to be held until the end of the year: Exit the King by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Andrei and Andreea Grosu, Orchestra Titanic by Hristo Boicev, directed by Felix Alexa, The Blizzard by Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea, directed by Alexandru Dabija. Launched almost eight decades ago by Ion Marin Sadoveanu, The National Theatre Conferences have returned to the stage of the Black Box Hall as of 2006, giving the opportunity of hearing lectures of prominent personalities of Romanian culture on the most diverse and exciting topics. The first conference of this season, The Female Inferno and Brumaru’s Angels, shall take place in the Black Box Hall, on Sunday 24th September 2017, with the very poet Emil Brumaru as its guest, the author of one of the most original universes of Romanian poetry. A series of shows of the 9G Programme at NTB, intended for the young theatre creators of Romania, can be witnessed on the occasion of the national festivals in the next period: The Girl Soldier, at the Short Theatre Festival of Oradea (28 September), ActOrchestra at the National Theatre Festival for Children and Youth “Child in Europe”, Timișoara (3 October) and the 200 Years Anniversary of the Oraviţa Theatre (5 October), The Girl Soldier - with 2 representations at the International Theatre Festival – FE(A)ST on the Boulevard in Bucharest (on 8 October, from 5.00 and 7.00 p.m.), After Hours at the National Comedy Festival of Galați (14 October), Europe Hotel and The Girl Soldier at the De-butan-T Festival of Sfântu Gheorghe - (30 and 31 October), and Love and Information shall be presented within the Festival I Plead for YOU(ng), Piatra Neamţ (12 November). The current edition of the National Theatre Festival comprises one of the richest selections of shows from the NTB repertoire; not less than 4 productions of the past season shall be featured in the time frame 20 - 30 October 2017, in Bucharest: Old Clown Wanted by Matei Vişniec, directed by Ion Caramitru, No Man’s Land by Danis Tanović, adaptation, direction and musical illustration by Alexander Morfov, King Lear by William Shakespeare, direction and stage design by David Doiashvili, Shadows by Marilia Samper, direction, stage design, musical illustration and lighting design Vlad Cristache. In the theatre’s exhibition spaces, the visual arts loving audience shall be invited to two comprehensive exhibitions, produced within the programme NTB Paratheatrical - Visual Arts: on 19 September 2017, at 6.00 p.m., in the Rotunda of the Small Hall lobby, the Yearly Salon of the Graphic Department of the Romanian Artists Guild shall be opened, under the title Applied Art, and on 20 September, 6.00 p.m., the Media foyer (Intercontinental wing) shall host the opening of the graphic exhibition of the artist Georgeta Năpăruş – Letters and Characters, with novel works from the Grigorescu Family collection. The National Theatre of Bucharest promises thus a new season to its audience, under the sign of artistic excellence, with a powerful debut, on site and on tour! We invite you to stay tuned! Tickets: at the NTB box office, as well as online, on www.mystage.ro.    Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Lucian Pintilie was signing in 1967, at the Bulandra Theatre, a memorable Cherry Orchard. Pintilie was imagining a frail world breaking under the pressure of history. Clody Bertola as Ranevskaia has an ethereal dimension, which explained her failure to adapt to reality. The scene of the wheat field remains famous, where the mistress of the orchard recollects her life. „I was contemplating that wheat field as an expression of bliss fading away, as a farewell before extinction, as a suspended moment anticipating the ultimate fall.” George Banu Photo: Clody Bertola in The Cherry Orchard, directed by Lucian Pintilie   Details  

Did you know that the actress Olga Knipper, the spouse of A. P. Chekhov, has held the female lead role, Ranevskaia, in the first enactment of the play The Cherry Orchard, staged by K. Stanislavski in 1904, at the Moscow Art Theatre? The actress had met Chekhov in 1898, when she was performing in The Seagull, where she had been cast as Arkadina. Olga Knipper has also played the role of Masha in Three Sisters, another major play by Chekhov. Photo: A.P. Chekhov and Olga Knipper Details  

Did you know that, in Chekhov’s view, The Cherry Orchard was a comedy with farce elements? The playwright often expressed his profound dissatisfaction for the way in which his friend, Konstantin Stanislavski, great director and theatre theorist, had enacted his play at the Moscow Art Theatre, in 1904. Chekhov accused Stanislavski of ruining his play, because he had read it as a tragedy and had staged it too tragically, too grave, too gloomy. Photo: Scene from The Cherry Orchard, directed by Stanislavski Details