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Power games, with spectacular upheavals, in The Blizzard, the new NTB premiere!
The historical drama The Blizzard by Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea, directed by Alexandru Dabija, starring Marius Manole in the role of Ştefăniţă Vodă shall premiere on the days of 6th and 13th March, from 7.00 p.m., in the Black Box Hall of the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest.
In The Blizzard, Alexandru Dabija reverses the historical discourse and its mythological load and achieves a „chronicle” of the times about the power games, the weakness and uncertainty of the state, about the way good and evil end up usurping each other. The show is a direct challenge to look at history with lucidness, beyond the depiction of the drama of neurotic Ștefăniță ‒ the image of a deplorable present in relationship to the haloed past ‒ and his cursed rule. Taking the side of a discrete and subtly ironic raisonneur, the director notices the imperfections which have eroded the mentalities and societies in search of identity. Dabija’s Blizzard is a witty recount on the state of the nation.
With a vivid and uninhibited appearance, detached by the typical traditional enactments, the new show captures the essence of drama, and the scenery, reduced to few stage design elements, leaves a generous space for the characters and the acting performance to unfold.
For impersonating one of the youngest and most controversial rulers of the Romanian Principalities, the director has chosen Marius Manole, beloved by the audience thanks to the sensitive and luminous characters which he has enacted. Faced with a true challenge, Marius Manole believes that this role does not resemble anything he has accomplished so far.
About Ştefăniţă Vodă, the chronicles of the time record that he took the throne at a very young age (11years). After attaining the age when he could have effectively taken over power, he stumbles upon the decisional slowness of the elders of the Country Council. Impatient to become more famous than his predecessors, the unleashes the wrath against his opponents. After the victory however, as in romantic dramas, his turn to be punished is coming and his life is taken at the young age of 21.
One of the bloodiest pages from the Moldavian history is regarded by Delavrancea on a Shakespearean note, the drama focusing on the games behind the scenes, on hidden motivations, most of them personal, with spectacular upheavals. Unlike his grandfather, Stephan the Great, to whom the ones around him never cease to compare him, deepening both his complexes and frustrations, Ştefăniţă ignores the advice of the experienced noblemen, surrounds himself with merrymakers of his own age, whereas the royal palace ends up resembling a pub. The generation conflict becomes loaded with dramatism when, vain by nature and dominated by despotic ambitions, Ştefăniţă decides to eliminate his adversaries from the country Council or the younger heroes. The threads of his sentimental life are also tangled up and shall bring about his end. The moment he decides to listen to the wise advice of his spouse, Lady Tana, descendent from the Basarab family, who feels responsible for the wellbeing of the country, the latter decides to put an end to the series of iniquities committed by Ștefăniță.
The cast of the show features, alongside Marius Manole, further sonorous names of the NTB troupe, as well as younger colleagues. Ana Ciontea, Afrodita Androne, Ilona Brezoianu, Alexandra Sălceanu, Rodica Ionescu, Dorin Andone, Dragoș Ionescu, Marius Rizea, Alexandru Voicu, Emilian Mârnea, Mihai Calotă, Eduard Adam, George Piștereanu, Ionuț Toader, Mihai Munteniță are expecting you at the premiere. The choreography is led by Florin Fieroiu.
Alexandru Dabija, the director of the show, also signs the scenography and video concept. This is the fourth show enacted by director Alexandru Dabija at NTB, after Duel, Lottery Tickets and Requiem.
The historical framework of the second play, composing, alongside The Sunset and The Star, the well-known Moldavian Trilogy, is replenished by texts by Dimitrie Cantemir, Ion Neculce and „The Physiologist” (folk book).
In the Centenary Year, celebrating also a hundred years since the death of writer Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, one of the major fighters for the political unity of Romanians, the National Theatre of Bucharest proposes you a new approach of the play, which came into the limelight 108 years ago on the stage of the important cultural institution located in the vicinity of the Telephone Palace, the first headquarters of the National Theatre of Bucharest.
In March, the new show from the NTB Black Box Hall shall have 4 representations which are already sold out: 4, 6, 13 and 24 March 2018. You are welcome to The Blizzard!
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
