"All actors from the cast deserve a curtsy. Thus, I thank Ana Ciontea and Gheorghe Visu, Mariana Mihut and Victor Rebengiuc, Mircea Rusu and Gavril Patru, Alexandra Salceanu and Emilian Marnea. Above all for the generosity, joy, faith and responsibility with which you understand to assume and exercise your profession. In a world overwhelmed by imposture and egos, it is almost miraculous and in any case laudable. Furthermore, I congratulate you on your remarkable resources of freshness, authenticity and refinement. And, not lastly, for your tenacity, courage and discretion. Certainly, this show would not have been so „great” if all of you would not have given it so much."

Razvana Nita, Blog - All’Alba Vincerò!  

"Vlad Cristache creates this time an extremely credible illusion, a show worthwhile registering and keeping in the golden sound archives of the Romanian dramaturgy. Because he surpasses by far the traditional barriers of a stage adaptation."

Madalina Ilis, The Bucharest Journal - Shadows, another stentorian success of N.T.B. 

​"​Shadows is a gripping alloy, of a perfect balance between text / author, actors, director and the entire team, the equal submission of all these values to the flame of the stage, their cancellation as independent entities, in a perfect osmosis, in a single moment of pure art."

Madalina Dumitrache, Webcultura – The Infinite Nuances of the Shadows​ 

"​The country-wide premiere of the show„Shadows” at NTB is above all a stroke of genius, in the classical meaning of the phrase. A stroke of the season; of the National Theatre, which has chosen to enact the exceptional text of Marilia Samper, Brazilian-Andalusian playwright adopted by the Catalans; of the ridiculously young Vlad Cristache, jack of all trades in the choice of the staging and expression modalities of this play, in which he signs the direction, stage design, musical illustration, lighting design and I would add, with his permission, the consecration.​

Horia Ghibutiu, ​Blog - „Shadows” at NTB: a masterful stroke of genius 

“The text has two mirroring narratives: the main thread, with young Alba (the absent character is the only one with a name, the present ones are anonymous, because the suffering believe themselves invisible, according to Joan Didion) and her parents, a happy family, maybe even unnaturally happy, which collapses after the girl’s disappearance, and another secondary thread, in symbiosis with the first one, with a family, father (Mircea Rusu) and son (Emilian Marnea), which has been undergoing a dissolution process for a long time, after the mother’s death. The two experiences of suffering, the new one and the old one, follow the same path of decay. The absence destroys the presence.

In the couple on stage, characters from a show, a „reality“ from the actors’ personal life thus insinuates itself. But all these pertain strictly to the audience’s perception, without being explicitly assumed – and explored/exploited – in the show. Thus, an ad-hoc symbiosis is created between a construct and the image of a reality. It is interesting how this part of the show becomes a show per se, autonomous and with the own interaction with the spectator, a double performative perspective with two inexhaustible actors, Mariana Mihut and Victor Rebengiuc.”

Oana Stoica, Dilema Veche - The ones who become indivisible   

“In the show „Shadows” by Marilia Samper, the new premiere at the National Theatre, the anatomy of the human soul faced with misfortune, loss and despair is investigated; and from the edge, it is as if one looked at living bodies shaped by pain, like a tree’s crown structure is modified during a violent storm.”

Oana Bogzaru, Yorick - Life built from shadows and the light of bliss  

“As he has accustomed us, for a while now, Vlad Cristache leads with a secure hand the progressive evolution of the events on stage and beyond the exemplary work with the actors, he also creates the scenery – a fascinating and terrifying world at the same time.”

Gabriela Hurezean, Muses and Arms - NTB premiere: 'Shadows' - what it is like to appreciate a show seen under catastrophic circumstances  

“A premiere-show which produces moral traumas, subversive emotions one does not wish for, but one needs to take into account and one must live, because this is real theatre – honest and moral, authentic and touching. It is little what I have written. I do not know why, but I cannot write anymore. Maybe because many of my thoughts about Shadows cannot be written, but only experienced. Or maybe the shadow of my words was eclipsed by the other shadows.”

Dragos N Savu, Dilema Veche - The shadow of shadows  

“I want to draw your attention to another aspect: love in the old age. Victor Rebengiuc plays the role of the Old Man. Mariana Mihut is the Old Woman.

Unlike so many other shows and especially the shows from life, they are the serene characters. They talk about the great passage, about snoring, about pain, about the past and wait every day, wait to see if it shall be bestowed upon them.

They have defeated time and have resisted together until the end, they even live until death shall do them apart. Does it seem insignificant to you?

And it is not only that Victor Rebengiuc and Mariana Mihut are the actors they are, although it is also that. It is about them living their roles so well, as if they performed them – as also the cliché states – on the stage of life, which is, of course, not at all excluded.”

Andrei Craciun, Metropolis Newspaper - Love in old age  

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Presented within the National Theatre Festival, October 2017

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu