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The speech delivered by Ion Caramitru at the Romanian Academy, in his capacity as Shakespeare Ambassador, within the framework of the symposium "Shakespeare in Romania, Shakespeare in the World" marking the quatercentenary commemoration of the death of the author. „Great Britain has launched the motto ”Shakespeare is Alive” for the 400 years since his death, hoping to perpetuate his memory – which shall not require tremendous efforts ­­- , but also for honouring in every country of the world, those who have served, in an artistic way, the Shakespearean ideal. To me, Shakespeare represents the sole playwright who masterfully blended poetry and prose, giving life to characters (with the necessary realism), seemingly drawn from reality and accompanied by a magical lyricism, shaping them directly under our very eyes. Furthermore, what adds to his commemoration, simultaneously with the anniversary of his contemporaneity, is recalling the fact that his favourite subject is man and his passions. As man’s life cycle has not changed, as he is perpetually born, lives and dies, and as Shakespeare is always interested in describing what dominates man in different moments of life, we always encounter in his plays what we see around us, day by day. The struggle for power, murder, betrayal, theft, hidden vices, the awakening to bleak realities or condemnable naïvetés are present both in life and in his drama. Certainly, the material aspects of our world are distinct, but what kind of difference is there between Richard III in those days, who was demanding a horse in order to save himself, and the ruler nowadays, who demanded a helicopter and even obtained it?! Shakespeare is invincible because he is present in everything, all the time. His characters become ideas, human prototypes. He makes sure to let Romeo and Juliet die young, in order to nurture the heavenly surprise, the coup de foudre, the teenage love which is a miracle of life, unrepeatable and divine. Old and tired, Romeo and Juliet are no longer Romeo and Juliet; they are not allowed to grow old. ”Romeo and Juliet” is a play without to be continued. Hamlet represents the ideal prototype of the desired leader, awaited by a country brought to its knees by a fierce dictatorship, having murder as philosophy. We are faced with an unattainable ideal. Is Hamlet the noble man, educated in humanist spirit, romantic and generous, left to rule a country, a people? I sincerely doubt it. Look around you and you will be persuaded that it is not true. Not yesterday, nor today. And Hamlet must die. King Lear is ”stupidity” in old age. He decides to share his fortune with his children, but his naïveté leads him to death, forgetting that man’s obsession with power, money and his vulture-like character are present even in the most sacred place in life – within the family! In how many newspapers do we read nowadays about such family dramas? I have been playing a lot of Shakespeare and still I have not had enough. My Bachelor degree was with Hamlet, then I was Octavius in ”Julius Caesar”, Feste the Fool from ”Twelfth Night” and again Hamlet at the Bulandra Theatre, Pericles at Odeon Theatre, Romeo, Eduard III, Macbeth and Prospero from ”The Tempest” at the National Theatre. I have enacted ”The Merchant of Venice” and ”Othello” in Tokyo, Japan. I am always the victim of a permanent challenge to understand human nature, as it is dissected and fathomed by Shakespeare by means of dramatic poetry and the pompous and cynical design of characters. I feel comfortable and activated when I say ”To be or not to be”, thinking how acutely contemporary this question sounds, ”Being or not being” (the more accurate translation into Romanian) in agreement with what the authority has reserved for us today and always it seems? ”To be or not to be” on one side or the other of equally unsupported alternatives? ”To be and thou art a fool If thou understand... these laws” And yet, nothing more Socratic than what is happening in our profession. One has to prepare always, relentlessly, in order not to know anything. Not knowing anything about art means staying young and ingenuous forever, until death. And as for death, one cannot know anything, lo and behold, maybe, an open ending from a play, as Prospero says,” by that destiny to perform an act whereof what's past is prologue”. Shakespeare entices you to join his world through a reading, in which you shall shake off all the slag of time in order to clarify, just for yourself, what is left for you to do”.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

  Starting with the month of April 2016, on the website of the ”I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre, a totally exceptional virtual tour can be accessed, in the form of an interactive documentary film, consisting of 310 panoramas, enabling the navigation of the NTB building, inside and outside, before, during and at the end of the restyling works of the theatre building. The material published on the website further includes the virtual presentation of the sceneries of six performances from the NTB production of the last years: Scourge, The Avalanche, Master Leonida Facing the Reactionaries, Lottery Tickets, The Cherry Orchard, The Visit. The time frame for the creation of the 310 published panoramas (accomplished in the period 2010-2016) has been estimated to over 1500 hours and approximately 30.000 separate photographs have been used. The high-resolution images enable the study of the spaces in detail and from a bird’s eye view, presenting the users even areas inaccessible to the audience (workshops, dressing rooms, the costume stock, the off-stage area etc). The application is accompanied by a brief ”visualisation guideline” in Romanian and English. Not lastly, the publishing of this complex virtual tour also aims at promoting the « new » National Theatre as an institution open to a new audience, interested in theatre, but also in the latest technologies. The material used for the creation of the virtual tour is part of an extensive documentary archive compiled over 7 years, in the time frame 2008-2016. Completed at the end of 2015 (except for some photographs taken in 2016), the archive comprises video and photo materials, panorama images, architecture layouts, interviews and media coverage, following the National Theatre evolution and of its former and current employees throughout the entire duration of the building site for the building restyling. Through the spatial and temporal deployment, the archive has been first and foremost gathered as a study material on the topic of the architecture project, of the habitation of areas and the place occupied by NTB in the public space, aimed at both the audience and theatre professionals or those wishing to pursue a training in this field. The project has been entirely produced, in his capacity as author, by Mihai Bodea-Tatulea, graduate of the National University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography, who even from the launch of his initiative, had the theatre’s consent to film and shoot all key moments in connection with the evolution of the institution. The entire documentary archive is subject to a potential publishing, and the author is seeking financial aid for supporting this effort. The National Theatre encourages the affiliation of other people, institutions or companies for supporting the project continuation.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

In the year marking 100 years since the launch of the Dadaist manifesto, which revolutionised modern art and 120 years since the birth of Tristan Tzara, the father of this literary and artistic trend, the ”I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre invites you, between 11 and 13 March 2016, to witness two events: the premiere of the dance show L’Om DadA, by Gigi Căciuleanu and the conference of writer Ion Pop. Along with this new NTB premiere, the artist Gigi Căciuleanu, whose name has travelled around the world, brings on stage not only his talent as a director and choreographer, but also as a performer, in a show where, alongside actor Lari Giorgescu, he aims at proving that “...we are all Dadaists. We defragment, and we thrust something away from us on stage and in life. Why L’Om DAdA? Because I wanted to juxtapose these words, „om” in Romanian (Engl. “man”) and „Dada” – the universal, explains Gigi Căciuleanu. I have used Tristan Tzara’s text, L`homme approximatif, as a starting point, terribly poetic, not at all absurd, beautiful, coherent, dense, filled with meanings, very contemporary even after 100 years. The approximate man is actually the archetype of man as precise as possible, namely the actor and dancer.” Musician and poet of movement, endowed with a refined satirical spirit, as you could discover him in his previous show from the National Theatre, Our Kind of Stuff, the artist Gigi Căciuleanu assures us that “L’Om DAdA shall be a very contemporary show, because it comes as a follow-up to Our Kind of Stuff. There, Caţavencu’s speech has been disjointed into vowels, which actually represented a Dadaist intervention. Thus, I shall pursue with Lari Giorgescu in L’Om DAdA what I have started in Our Kind of Stuff”. At his fourth project alongside Gigi Căciuleanu, actor Lari Giorgescu confesses for his part: "… the proposal to work on a text by Tristan Tzara is all the more welcome as I discover, with astonishment, how close we all are to the Dadaist movement; most of the times, without knowing. I believe this will also be the audience’s feeling, at the end of the show”. Co-production between the ”I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre (through the Ion Sava Centre for Theatrical Research and Creation), Gigi Căciuleanu Romania Dance Company and the Art Production Foundation, with support from JTI and ICR, L’Om DAdA shall première on the days: 11, 12 and 13 March 2016, as of 8.00 p.m., in the Black Box Hall. On Sunday, 13 March 2016, as of 11.00 a.m., in the same Black Box Hall, the writer and translator Ion Pop shall hold the conference on the topic Tristan Tzara, Dadaism and the Romanian Avant-Garde. Dedicated to the centenary of the Dada movement, launched in Zürich in February 1916, the conference aims at sketching a critical portrait of the main Dadaist mentor who was Tristan Tzara. Therefore, at the end of next week, 2 cultural offers of great interest, a premiere and a conference, await you at NTB, in the Black Box Hall.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

    The ”I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest gives you the opportunity this spring to offer another kind of gift. The gift vouchers expect you at the National Theatre box office, to help you offer the shows that you enjoy to your loved ones ! Our shows can be offered as a present this spring. Make a Gift together with the National Theatre of Bucharest ! It is our spring thought for theatre lovers. Offer a show evening at the National Theatre ! It will be a special gesture, which your loved ones will not forget easily. How many times did you wonder what to bestow on a beloved person ? The National Theatre is giving you a helping hand. Gifts for mothers, grandparents, friends, work colleagues, for your employees or superiors ! The voucher offering you a special evening in the greatest and most modern theatre in Bucharest. It is a present anyone would highly appreciate. The gift vouchers Make a Gift together with NTB expect you at the box office, starting with the 1st of March ! Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

A great audience hit, two months after the premiere, Magic National, this concert-show reuniting, like in a constellation, high-class musical, choreographic and recitative fingerprints, unusual for the NTB repertoire, does not cease to surprise us. In the representation to take place on Sunday, 28 February 2016, as of 8.00 p.m., you shall be given a wonderful surprise. Like a harbinger of spring, Paula Seling’s voice shall echo, live, on this late February evening, in the Grand Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest.   As a special guest, Paula Seling shall join the actors spoiling us with unusual artistic poses, as well as those seconding them with mastery, the sorcerer-musicians Emy Drăgoi (accordion) and Lucian Maxim (percussion), together with 3D Pro'ect and Jazz Hot Club Romania. Ion Caramitru (in a double posture as actor, but also director), Medeea Marinescu, Marius Manole, Istvan Teglas, Anca Sigartău, Lari Giorgescu, Aylin Cadîr, Eduard Adam, Florin Călbăjos, Emilian Mârnea and Petre Ancuţa shall take you to the meridians of song and poetry, juggling with words in a few languages of the Earth, in an acoustic ambiance of refined modernity, over which a vintage vibe floats discretely. An unforgettable evening, which we invite you to spend in the Grand Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest. And hereafter, we urge you to follow the path of this Magic National, because a series of other surprises is within sight!   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, after a novel by Mark Haddon, sold in over 6 million copies worldwide and distinguished with 17 prestigious literary awards, in the stage adaptation of British playwright Simon Stephens, was enacted for the first time at the London National Theatre in 2012, and is currently registering a new success with the public and the critics, on Broadway. The new show at the National Theatre of Bucharest is directed by young Bobi Pricop, an artist on the upswing, already causing a great stir nationwide and at international festivals, with his pattern-breaking enactments. For the adult roles in the play, he cast four well-known actors: Ana Ciontea, Carmen Ungureanu, Rodica Ionescu and Emilian Oprea, and in the leading role, the very young Ciprian Nicula, a talent directly aiming at the spectator’s heart. Not long ago, at the UNITER Awards Gala, section for Debut, the audience placed him at the top for the roles played in Râmnicu Vâlcea, in the show You are an Animal, Viskovitz! Unlike the other performers in the show, Ciprian Nicula plays this time a single character. Christopher is a special teenager, aged 15, suffering from the Asperger syndrome, a special form of autism, introducing himself as a „mathematician with some kind of behavioural difficulties”. Christopher does not dream. He calculates, analyses, weighs, measures, observes and perceives life through the unpoetic filtres of logic. He is a Sherlock Holmes as a child, knowing for sure that killing the dog Wellington with a garden fork is the mystery which only his little grey matter can solve. With an obvious economy of theatrical effects, with a precious cast, the show keeps you in breathless suspense during Christopher’s investigations. A genuine slalom among the lies and metaphors of adults, with unexpected secrets and disclosures, behind which painful solitudes, mismatches and conjugal dramas are lurking. Gliding with lucid sensibility between comedy and drama, the show has a different speed from daily life: it is the mind-boggling speed of an intellect captive in a reality stuck inside its own boundaries. A performative show, in which emotion is the main special effect, and the world-scenery built by scenographer Adrian Damian, made of mirrors, distances and perceptions, is composed and decomposed in order to face us with ourselves and with our frail certainties.A modern stage parcours, enforced by the music of Alexei Turcan, video projections (Dan Andrei Ionescu şi Mizdan) and lighting design - Andrei Florea, as well as costumes by Liliana Cenean.   We invite you not to miss this show! The first representations of next month shall take place on February 2, 3 and 6, as of 8.00 p.m., in the Painting Hall. Tickets are available at the NTB ticket counter, as well as online on mystage.ro   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

A new show of the National Theatre of Bucharest is greeting you, in the Black Box Hall, with a love story in a remarkable cast, signed by a Dutch author, famous in her country. Clay („Klei”, 2002) is the best-known dramatic text of the writer Marijke Schermer, born in Amsterdam, who by the age of 40 has written over 10 theatre plays and two novels, and in 2009 was distinguished with the „Charlotte Kohler" Award for Literature. Director Vlad Massaci, at his first enactment on an NTB stage, gives life, together with scenographer Andu Dumitrescu and the actors from the cast, to a show fraught with Nordic melancholies, with elaborate characters, powerful conflicts and a startling denouement. In the female lead, Dora’s, you shall encounter one of the pivotal actresses of the mid generation, Irina Movilă. She believes that „We all, who consider love a major vector in our lives, feel the urge to mythicize the absoluteness of a relationship. And the moments of ultimate happiness, the shorter they are, the more they dilate the unhappy ones”. Disappointed by the fact that the man whom she had thought to be her great love had left her without any explanations, Dora decided to retreat to a deserted land in the midst of a clay marsh, with an endless grey sky above her head, but surrounded in a protective way by her loved ones. Husband, daughter, sister, everyone have willingly followed her in this melancholy exile, considering that half a Dora means more than no Dora at all. Accompanied by a powerful dramatic couple, heroically delivered by Irina Movilă and Mircea Rusu, seconded by Claudiu Istodor, Natalia Călin and Cristina Constantinescu, you shall witness a love story with two separations... Both equally unexpected. The first shows: on 2, 9 and 13 February, as of 8.00 p.m., in the Black Box Hall. Tickets at the NTB ticketing counter, as well as online on mystage.ro.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

The National Theatre of Bucharest announces, on Friday January 22, as of 8.00 p.m., on the stage of the Studio Hall, the premiere Requiem, one of the most impactful plays from Matei Vişniec’s dramaturgy, in the view of one of Romania’s top theatre directors, Alexandru Dabija. Requiem marks the border between history and memory, where death appears to be impersonated by the Dead for their Homeland – worthy or unworthy – expressly claiming their rights to march at the homecoming parade. Under the close observation of the general, they are preparing for a triumphal march, with hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands of … defeated men, after a long war which, sad parable of history, does not appear to have ended until today. And ... a struggle, this one endless as well, for the top position, is placed in the crater of a black comedy and emphasized with plenty of humour by a glamorous cast. Beloved young actors from the new NTB generation, Marius Rizea, Gavril Pătru, Ioan Andrei Ionescu, Afrodita Androne, Mihai Calotă are joining their younger colleagues, whom you shall discover or rediscover with delight, in this show: Mihai Munteniţă, Lucian Iftime, Cristian Bota, Nicholas Caţianis, Eduard Cârlan, Sorin Dobrin, Ștefan Huluba, Emilian Mârnea, Mihai Niță, Mihai Nițu, Vladimir Purdel, Andrei Redinciuc, Alec Secăreanu, Andrei Seușan, Ionuț Toader, Alexandru Voicu. The songs by Ada Milea, the scenography by Irina Moscu and the choreography by Florin Fieroiu are replenishing a directorial vision which you shall take home with you, like a precious trophy. Dabija looks at death the way he looks at life – or history marked by wars or haunted by the spectre of Communism – with lucid detachment, with crude and aggressive, up to visceral humour. The vividness of Vişniec’s text feeds the voluptuousness of its grotesque and gives him an extra reason to prove the absurd of an existence in which we shall all inevitably step into. We invite you not to miss the new premiere of the National Theatre of Bucharest with Requiem, a parable filled with wit and irony about war, death and the „life” in it!   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

The second show presented this year by the „Mihai Eminescu” National Theatre of Kishinev on the stage of the National Theatre of Bucharest, within the tour Romanian Theatre at Bucharest and Kishinev, is Filumena Marturano or Divorce Italian-Styleby Eduardo de Filippo, starring two of the most famous actors of the theatre, Silvia Luca and Petru Hadârcă. The show is enacted on Thursday, January 21, as of 8.00 p.m., on the stage of the Studio Hall. Filumena Marturano or Divorce Italian-Style is a crowd-pleaser, focussing on a less ordinary love story. The characters are mature, and their love affair stretches over more than two decades and a half. The story between Domenico Soriano, wealthy Napoletan, and Filumena, former cocotte, irretrievably conquers through honesty and truth. Their love is wayward and stormy. Domenico is faced with an existential dilemma: should he pursue his life as a careless Don Juan, or should he start a family? In the end, the character interpreted by Petru Hadârcă reconsiders his outlook on life, every gesture being replete with dignity and greatness: children are children, says Filumena, masterfully played by Silvia Luca; for their sake, Domenico ties the knot. "Filumena and Domenico rethink their deeds, clarify their feelings. In the end, they realise how important family is, how lasting love is. The stage effects are minimal, the actor being in the spotlight. I dedicate this show to all those who maintain the feeling of love in the couple, in the family, for decades”, declared Alexandru Vasilache, the director of the show. In March, within the same project, the National Theatre of Bucharest shall perform at Kishinev the following two representations – Powder Keg by Dejan Dukovski, directed by Felix Alexa and Twenty Years in Siberia after Anița Nandriș-Cudla, directed by Sorin Misirianțu.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

The remarkable and beloved troupe of the „Mihai Eminescu” National Theatre of Chişinău shall soon make a comeback on the stage of the Bucharest National Theatre with further two successful shows from its repertoire, The House on the Border by Slawomir Mrozek and Filumena Marturano by Eduardo de Filippo. The 2016 tour is a natural extension of the project launched in 2014, which has been a huge success, Romanian Theatre at Bucharest and Chişinău, the most extensive cultural exchange between two National Theatres. On Wednesday, January 20, as of 8 p.m., the Studio Hall shall host the play The House on the Border by Slawomir Mrozek, whose premiere took place in the opening of the National Theatre Reunion from Chişinău, in the autumn of 2015. The play of the well-known Polish contemporary playwright, interpreted as a tremendous caustic fable, is a dangerously real prophecy in the millennium haunted by wars and calamities, this being also one of Mrozek’s debut creations, which, unfortunately, proves its timeliness increasingly, from one decade to another. The House on the Border depicts the situation of a family receiving the news that the borders were retraced for historical reasons, so that the new border would pass right through the centre of their home, through the living room. „An absurd situation, in which diplomats command our destinies, depriving us of intimacy. It was my aim to make everything happening on stage seem as real as possible”, declared the director. The House on the Border is also a successful Modavian-Polish project and an outstanding fusion of artistic forces. The producers of the show are coming from Poland: Agnieszka Korytkowska–Mazur for direction, Pawel Dobrzycki, for scenography, and Maciej Zakliczynski – stage movement and musical selection. The show features actors of the National Theatre of Chişinău: Petru Hadârcă, Silvia Luca, Iurie Negoiţă, Ninela Caranfil, Draga-Dumitriţa Drumi, Igor Babiac, Petru Oistric, Valentin Zorilă, Iurie Radu, Iurie Focşa, Ion Mocanu, Anişoara Bunescu, Lilia Bejan, Mihaela Damian-Oistric, Doriana Zubcu-Marginean, Ana Tkacenko. The second show of the tour shall be performed on Thursday January 21, at 8 p.m., in the Studio Hall, with the play Filumena Marturano or Divorce in Italian Style by Eduardo de Filippo, the adaptation and direction being ensured by one the most appreciated Bessarabian show producers, Alexandru Vasilache. The topic of the play is also well-known from the famous film with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroiani, but the lovely duet of the Moldavian protagonists (Petru Hadârcă - Silvia Luca) is investing it with new depth. The characters are mature, and their wayward, stormy love generates succulent dialogues, sprinkled with juicy details. “There is much passion in the show, nerves laid bare. Filumena and Domenico rethink their deeds, clarify their feelings. In the end, they realise how important family is, how lasting love is, says the director. I dedicate this show to all those who maintain the feeling of love in the couple, in the family, for decades”. The story conquers through honesty and culminates in an expected happy-end. This is in short the visiting card of a great crowd-pleaser.                           The Bucharest Tour is supported by the Capitol Hotel        Translated by Simona Nichițeanu