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Premiere Helver's Night
Premiere at the end of the year at NTB: Helver's Night by Ingmar Villqist
At NTB, an electrifying staging, an extraordinary text and a brilliant acting tandem: Amalia Ciolan and Andrei Huțuleac.
Years ago, one of the shows presented at the NETA International Theatre Festival organized in 2015 by NTB aroused the unanimous enthusiasm of the spectators. Presented by the VF Komissarjevskaia Academic Drama Theatre in St. Petersburg, under the signature of a renowned director, Aleksandr Bargman, with two exceptional performers, the show was based on the text Helver's Night, written in 1999 by a little-known playwright Ingmar Villqist (the literary pseudonym of the Polish playwright and art history teacher Jarosław Świerszcz), a text meanwhile performed in many theatres in Poland and Europe.
Today, the extraordinary play Helver's Night returns to the attention of our audience, in the interpretation of an exceptional duo: Amalia Ciolan (who, impressed by the quality of this text, proposed it in the NTB programme "Open Doors for All") and Andrei Huţuleac, a young actor with multiple resources, recently co-opted into the NTB troupe, who has already successfully established himself as a film and theatre director in the Romanian cultural space.
If for Andrei Huţuleac, the role of Helver is the green card of his first premiere at NTB, for Amalia Ciolan, established actress in the theatre troupe, performer - among others - of the disturbing recital "20 Years in Siberia", in which her dramatic temperament encounters a matching score, Karla’s rolein "Helver's Night" represents the fulfillment of a dream and, at the same time, a reconfirmation of her virtues as an actress of great dramatic power.
The show is directed by Matei Lucaci-Grünberg, a young artist with successful performances staged in the independent theatre and a series of short films selected in numerous film festivals, a rich record that includes several awards for directing, for dramaturgy, rewarded being also some acting creations from his shows.
The plot takes place in one night and stars a young man with disabilities who sees the world through the eyes of a child and a mature woman, hard tried by fate, who are united by the same need to be loved. A single night, full of unimaginable drama, in which the terrible events that threaten from beyond the windows are intertwined with painful memories now brought to light… The tenderness between the two, the games of truth, the dances by the light of torches, all seem to keep the violence at a safe distance. The fanaticism at Helver is just an opportunity to do gymnastics exercises, the angry chants - an opportunity to greet his friends, extremism - a simple role play. Everything seems to be just a convention…, until the march of history reaches their door and the play of defenseless people turns into a helpless cry for salvation.
The play was also appreciated for the force with which it arouses interest in some of the most acute problems of our reality.
The audience is invited to an electrifying staging, in which the life scenes collide with the convulsions of society, in an intense emotional rollercoaster.
Preview on December 17th and 18th, and the official premiere on December 19th, 2021, from 8.00 p.m., at the Black Box Hall.
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
