Conferences

Accademia di Romania in Rome, in collaboration with the “Ion Luca Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest, presents to the Italian audience the project Conferences of the Bucharest National Theatre. Launched almost eight decades ago by Ion Marin Sadoveanu, the Conferences of the National Theatre returned to the stage of the Black Box Hall starting with 2006 with the lectures of some outstanding personalities of Romanian culture on the most diverse and exciting topics.

The conferences selected for this first series will be available, in Romanian and subtitled in Italian, on the Facebook page Accademia di Romania in Rome and on the YouTube channel of the National Theatre of Bucharest:

March 27th, 2021: Matei Vişniec - Theatre and journalism. Mutual influences / Teatro e giornalismo. Influenze reciproche  

April 29th, 2021: Gigi Căciuleanu - L'Om Gigi: Lines_Tracks_Signs_Meanings/ L'Om Gigi: Linee_Percorsi_Segni_Sensi  

May 29th, 2021: Ioan Aurel Pop - Romanian culture between the Latin West and the Byzantine East / La cultura romena fra l'Occidente latino e l ' Oriente bizantino

June 30th, 2021: Andrei Pleşu - About the Heart / Parlare del cuore

July 27th, 2021: Bogdan Aurescu - The National Interest and the Topicality of Sovereignty. Romania’s Foreign Policy and the Paradigm of the Winner / L'interesse nazionale e l'auttualità della sovranità. La politica estera della Romania e il paradigma del vincitore.

The first conference, Matei Vişniec - Theatre and journalism. Mutual influences/ Teatro e giornalismo. Influenze reciprochewill be presented on March 27th, 2021, on the occasion of the International Theatre Day.

In recent years, playwright Matei Vişniec has come to the attention of audiences and creators in the Iberian Peninsula, where the strength of the dramatic text, the timeliness of the topics addressed and the unusual character of his poetic style are highlighted by translations and stagings in many Italian cities.

The conference is an exceptional cultural opportunity and an extraordinary chance to learn about the story of journalist Matei Vişniec and the playwright Matei Vişniec and how they coexist and influence each other.

Matei Vișniec studied philosophy at the University of Bucharest and became an active member of the Eighties Generation, which left a strong mark on Romanian literature. As he has stated on several occasions, he is a firm believer in cultural resistance and the ability of literature to demolish totalitarianism. Above all, Matei Vișniec believes that theatre and poetry can denounce manipulation through “big ideas” and brainwashing through ideology.

Before 1987, Matei Vișniec had made a name for himself in Romania with his clear, lucid and bitter poetry. Since 1977, he has been writing drama; his plays have circulated widely in the literary world, but their staging has been banned. In September 1987, Vișniec left Romania for France, where he was granted political asylum. He began writing in French and collaborating with Radio France Internationale. Today, his plays are staged in more than 20 countries and are a constant presence at major European theatre festivals. In Romania, after the fall of communism, Matei Vișniec became one of the authors with the most staged plays.

Accademia di Romania in Rome thanks the "Ion Luca Caragiale" National Theatre of Bucharest for the generous donation of the National Theater's Conference Collection, which is now part of the patrimony of the Romanian Library in Rome.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu