News
NTB, between seasons, with a luggage filled with projects and invitations to festivals in Romania and abroad
The curtain of the 2017-2018 season has fallen, on a pleasant summer evening, on Sunday 1st July, over the halls of the National Theatre of Bucharest, where the audience could applaud, for one last representation, Magic National in the Grand Hall, Little Hell – in the Studio Hall, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, on the stage of the Painting Hall, Fool for Love at the Black Box Hall and, on the morning of the same day, in the Media Hall, The Magician of Stories, the beloved actor Marian Râlea and his assistants have wished the children Happy holidays through a highly appreciated Summer Carnival.
Although already on holiday, the state of febrility, of preparation of the new season, can still be perceived inside the theatre. One of the best internationally acclaimed directors, Yuri Kordonski, who has worked at NTB on a far-reaching show, Heart of a Dog, has returned for a new ambitious project, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, starring Crina Semciuc and Ionuţ Toader in the roles of the famous lovers of universal dramaturgy. An enactment announcing itself one of the most exciting productions of the future season, with a team of first-rate producers, including scenographer Dragoş Buhagiar.
The premiere scheduled for the season opening has already had the first encounter with the audience and has reaped the first appreciations. Loose Knit, this being the play of the American Theresa Rebeck, cherished in Romania as well, called by the New York Times „one of the most intelligent comedy of manners”, is a proposal advanced within the programme Open Doors to Everyone, with a masterful stage coordination by Ion Caramitru. Cast in this … knit web executed with special talent and acting nerve, were Irina Cojar, Costina Cheyrouze, Lamia Beligan, Brânduşa Mircea, Raluca Petra, Tomi Cristin, Marius Bodochi. Between humour and tear, the play unveils the flaws of the contemporary interhuman relationships, as difficult to develop, as rapid to loosen.
Other famed directors have announced their projects in the Centenary Year at NTB, counting the original script by Radu Afrim, based on a novel by Liviu Rebreanu, Forest of the Hanged, enactment where we shall find alongside the famous characters of the novel, characters who seem to be detached from the yet unwritten chronicle of the year 2018… The project is due for work in autumn, with Alexandru Potocean in the role of Apostol Bologa.
A play in 30 tableaus is the proposal of well-known film director Nae Caranfil. The Mute Parrot shall enter rehearsals at the end of September, enactment which shall benefit from the scenography of Dragoş Buhagiar and the choreography of Florin Fieroiu, the cast featuring popular names of the theatre, such as Claudiu Bleonţ, Magda Catone, Alexandru Bindea and many others.
Another opportunity of discovering a wonderful cast is also the staging of a tragicomedy, The Rebels by Edna Mazia, translated from Hebrew by Etgard Bitel and bearing the directorial signature of Ion Caramitru.
The month of August shall add to the track record of the show Magic National, recently presented at the International Theatre Festival „The Myths of the Citadel”, from Constanţa, further two invitations, the first participation being scheduled for 6th August 2018, at the International Theatre and Jazz Festival of Nishville, Serbia, and the second, at the Caragiale’s Bucharest Festival, 7th edition, event organised by the Bucharest Municipality through the Ion Creangă Theatre, scheduled in the time frame 29 August - 2 September 2018.
The selection of the National Theatre Festival (NTF 2018), recently announced, includes two of the most valuable shows of the 2017 - 2018 season at NTB, Exit the King by Eugène Ionesco, directed by Andrei and Andreea Grosu and Titanic Orchestra by Hristo Boicev, directed by Felix Alexa.
In the immediately following period, the foyers of the Studio Hall shall remain open, at the audience’s request, for visiting the exhibition of Japanese prints, according to new opening hours - from 12.00 to 8.00 p.m.
You are welcome to return to the halls of the National Theatre of Bucharest upon the reopening of schools, in mid-September, and we wish you most pleasant and relaxing holidays, also brightened by the memory of the shows you have witnessed at the National Theatre of Bucharest during this season.
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
