Show not recommended for minors aged under 14

We live nowadays in a world where established values are crumbling: technological advance has deepened the gap between young and old, families are being torn apart by harmful ideologies, democracies are faltering, war is on the frontier, extremist parties are gaining ground, and anarchic libertarianism seems to be paving the way to dictatorship. 

In this context, although written almost six decades ago, Slawomir Mrozek's "Tango", a play presented by Gabor Tompa at the NTB's Sala Pictură, is as relevant today as it was when it premiered in 1964. Because "Tango", an allegory with strong political overtones, dressed in the clothes of an absurd comedy that brought the author worldwide fame, reflects the disorientation of a generation confronted with the void left by the collapse of old values and the establishment of a new order imposed by the brutal and inept masses.

A Polish who was exiled to the West in the 1960s, a connoisseur of communism on both sides of the political divide (in his youth, a partisan of the system, which he later virulently criticized), Mrozek has a great talent for showing that the cyclical nature of power and the failure of ideology are not just the preserve of communism. "Tango" is a parable about freedom and power in any political system, about the avatars of age, about the insurrection of instinct, following the story of a rebellious young man whom critics have not once compared to Hamlet.

In his first collaboration with the National Theatre of Bucharest, Gabor Tompa proposes a brilliantly constructed performance, full of inventiveness, funny and frightening at the same time, supported by a team of scenographers with an impressive track record and an excellent cast that gives birth to a bizarre and fascinating family, exotic characters from three different generations.

Stage rights: Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

Photo credit Florin Ghioca