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On Thursday 16 and Friday 17 September 2021, at 7.30 p.m., the official premiere of Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner, directed by Răzvan Oprea, is scheduled at the Painting Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest.

The play with the deliberately irreverent title of the American playwright Aaron Posner, winner of a Helen Hayes Prize for dramaturgy, keeps the Chekhov themes in The Seagull, such as unrequited love, shattered dreams or the search for new forms of theatrical art, but places them against the background of the twentieth century.

The author is a playwright, associate professor of acting and directing at the American University in Washington DC, co-founder of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and, between 2006-2010 - artistic director of Two River Theatre, but also an exciting director who has won several editions of the Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director.

With this adaptation, he "transforms a classic writer, often treated with formal respect, into a mirror that shows in clear detail everything that is new in the unhappiness of today's people," writes The New York Times, appreciating the play as "a Chekhov for the 21st century ".

"It brings a fine and modern tuning to The Seagull. We could say that it takes a famous work of art and resizes it, adding many pixels to it. He does not venture far from the base plot of Seagull, and whether you remember the play or not, you can enjoy Stupid Fucking Bird as a completely new play”, appreciates Newsworks.

"The Seagull of A. P. Chekhov explores the complexity of human relationships, especially the cruelty of love, while at the same time being a foray into the nature of theatrical art. With a text that is intelligent and insightful without being pretentious, Stupid Fucking Bird is an entertaining, witty, occasionally pejorative and often dark work of art. A fast-paced, funny, clever and often profound piece," writes Talkin' BROADWAY.

"Moreover his own response to Chekhov rather than a classic adaptation," state other commentators.

The play was first staged in 2013 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and in 2016 at the Arden Theatre Company's, the direction being signed by the author himself. In 2015, it became one of the most frequently staged ten plays; it was produced on 150 other stages outside the United States.

With the new staging at the National Theatre of Bucharest, Răzvan Oprea, NTB actor and graduate of a Master’s in Theatre Directing, proposes on the stage of the Painting Hall a modern, provocative, explosive show, a fresh approach to a classic of universal drama. This premiere is part of the NTB - Open Doors for All programme. 

With talent and artistic versatility, the cast that includes well-known names of the Bucharest National - Cecilia Bârbora and Marius Bodochi, along with their younger colleagues Eduard Adam, Cosmina Olariu, Vitalie Bichir, Alexandra Sălceanu, Emilian Mârnea - simultaneously populates two worlds - that of Chekhov's heroes and that of Aaron Posner's characters.

The show is not recommended for minors aged under 16. Contains nudity scenes.

You are expected at NTB to encounter a different Chekhov, a Seagull closer to the sensitivity of the audience of these times.

We wish you a pleasant viewing!

The next performance will take place on September 24th, at 7.30 pm. Tickets can be found at the NTB Ticket Office and online, on www.mystage.ro.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu