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The European premiere of Alexander Hausvater's exciting and comic "noir" musical opens the season at NTB.

A co-production of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest with CREAS Association*

In the opening of the new season 2022 - 2023, NTB presents, in preview, on 10 and 11 September 2022, at the Studio Hall, at 7.30 pm, a brand new show by director Alexander Hausvater: The Machine. The Musical.

The show is based on Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine, considered at the time "the most original and intelligent play ever written by an American, the most hard-hitting, yet the most visionary play about modern society, ever seen on Broadway." In 2007, Joshua Schmidt transformed the play into a musical, giving the original text, as Michael Billington put it, "a comic and joyous wildness", supported by a soundtrack that blends many styles, from choral pieces to pop rock, from opera to 1920s and 1930s music, with influences from gospel, jazz and rock and roll.

A satire on the enslavement of human beings in the machine age, the play presents the life, strange death and then afterlife of a dull accountant, Mr. Zero. When Mr. Zero, a mere cog in the wheel of a business, learns that his work is to be taken over by a machine, he snaps and kills his boss. For the first time in his life, Mr. Zero takes his destiny into his own hands, an act whose consequences will send him to the next world, where he is offered a new chance at love, life and redemption.

The performance by Romanian-Canadian director Alexander Hausvater has a profound relevance to today's world where technology, electronic communication and automatization have led to an unsettling conflict between man and his morality. The more modern society has advanced technologically and scientifically, the more the relationship between one human being and another within a community has deteriorated and increasingly falls under the banner of selfishness and materialism. Ultimately, a story about the price of the human soul…

The protagonists of this show are exceptional performers, combining acting with music and dance, according to the requirements of this kind of performance: Ioan Andrei Ionescu, Natalia Călin / Oana Berbec, Florentina Țilea / Medeea Marinescu, Istvan Teglas / Petre Ancuța, Tomi Cristin, Monica Davidescu / Iuliana Moise, Fulvia Folosea, Silviu Biriș, Silviu Mircescu, Mihai Munteniță, Daniel Burcea.

"The show is meant to be a lesson in song and movement - says Alexander Hausvater. It emphasizes the need for modern man to fight against the temptation of technology in order to reach a deeper understanding of the self, the individual's capabilities and potential. It's a wake-up call. It is an apocalyptic vision. What happens to the protagonist could happen to any of us."

Alongside the director and performers, the following contributed to the production of the show: Adina Mastalier - set design, Florin Fieroiu – choreography, Alexandru Burcă - musical direction, Vlad Vedeș - music production, Bogdan Golumbeanu, Ion Vlașcu - Lighting design, Mădălina Ene and Andreea Dobia - musical training.

More than two decades ago, Alexander Hausvater staged another masterpiece of the American expressionist drama at the National Theatre, Sophie Treadwell's Machinal. Many of the actors from the cast of Machinal reunite with Alexander Hausvater in this new stage adventure.

For over three decades, Hausvater's nonconformist style has broken many patterns both in the Canadian theatre - where he has been perceived as "a volcano full of color, charm and energy" (cf. Lorraine Pintal, Montreal) - and in Romanian theatre.

The official premiere of the show will take place at the Studio Hall on September 28, 2022 at 7.30 pm; the tickets for the performances on September 10 and 11, 2022 at 7.30pm are on sale at the National Theatre Box Office and online at www.tnb.ro.

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu