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Two major productions of the "Mihai Eminescu" National Theatre from Chisinau, at NTB!

The Trap and Leaves of Longing, open the 9th edition of the Romanian Theatre Tour in Bucharest, Iasi and Chisinau, 2023

The National Theatre from Bucharest is hosting again this year, in January, two of the most recent and most appealing premieres of the Mihai Eminescu National Theatre (TNME) from Chisinau, presented as part of a new edition of the project "Romanian Theatre in Bucharest, Iasi and Chisinau".

With one performance each, the "Mihai Eminescu" National Theatre (TNME) from Chisinau presents:

Saturday, January 21, 2023, at 7 p.m., Studio Hall - The Trap after The Flight by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Sunday, January 22, 2023, at 7 p.m., Studio Hall - Leaves of longing after Ion Druță.

The Trap, written and directed by Petru Hadârcă, is a performance about a great Russian author and an eternal theme: tyranny and human destiny.

"The idea of the performance arose in the context of some discussions about the Russian culture and the responsibility of the authors and the impact of the works created on the mentalities and the formation of social opinion, discussions generated by the war in Ukraine. I believe that not banning, but on the contrary, reading, re-reading, accompanied by cold analysis, discussion and reflection on the details, would help us understand what is happening today and perhaps we would understand why we have once again come to a confrontation between two worlds, between two such different models of organizing life and society. For an exercise of this kind I have chosen the fate and work of Mikhail Bulgakov. After the 1917 revolution, Mikhail Bulgakov remained in Soviet Russia. It was not his choice: because he was ill with typhus and unconscious, he was unable to flee abroad, where his brothers and sisters had gone. When he recovered, he regretted missing this opportunity and tried to adapt, to integrate into the life proposed by the Bolshevik regime. After several attempts to obtain a passport to go abroad and several publication bans, Bulgakov writes letters to the Soviet leadership asking for permission to leave the country. To his astonishment he was contacted by telephone by Stalin himself. Bulgakov did not have the courage to repeat the request over the phone. He was seduced by Stalin's offer to become the dramatist of the Moscow Art Theatre. This time it was a conscious choice. What were the consequences for the personal destiny of the intellectual Bulgakov, how did this affect his texts and to what extent does it provide us with a key to answer the questions that hover over us a hundred years later - we try to launch a discussion through this stage version, entitled "The Trap" after the play "The Flight" by Mikhail Bulgakov."

The Trap launched the 101st season of the "Mihai Eminescu" National Theatre, "which is equivalent to an artistic & intellectual Manifest of Petru Hadârcă, the director of the show & the director of the theatre", noted writer Emilian Galaicu-Păun. "What do you mean, to put up a Russian writer when Russia has just unleashed a war in Ukraine?!" I recall that Mikhail Bulgakov is a native of Kiev, and the most important thing is that the Russian-speaking author of The Flight was also one of the victims of the Soviet regime (which he portrayed in The Heart of a Dog), even if he did not end his days in the gulag (...) Now, the choice of a text by Bulgakov, produced on the stage of the Chisinau National Theatre, is our director's response to the Ukrainian war theatre." (Emilian Galaicu-Păun)

The set design of the show is signed by Adrian Suruceanu together with the costume painter Stela Verebceanu, and the choreography is by Cătălina Budu.

Why should we not miss this performance? According to the young journalist Corina Moisei-Dabija, The Trap is "a brave, formidable performance, which requires a wide-ranging opening and historical perception. You have to see the play "Capcana", because it is an interweaving of symbols, ideas, figures in a dramatic and comical narrative, at times, of the highest order. It's the kind of impressive and remarkable theatrical experience, sad and joyous, in perfect antithesis."

The play Leaves of longing, after Ion Druță, directed by Alexandru Cozub, was nominated and awarded at the UNITEM 2022 Awards Gala, where it was considered the Best Dramatic Performance, and Corina Rotaru, as Domnica - the Most Valuable Debut. Also, two important nominations highlighted the performances of actors Rusanda Radvan, as Rusanda, nominated for Best Actress and Dan Melnic, as Trofimaș, for Best Supporting Actor.

Ion Druță, the author from whose work this staging was inspired, is, according to Mrs. Monica Babuc - former Minister of Culture, Vice-President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, a strong pillar for the understanding of the Romanian spirit in these lands. "If we want to get as close as possible to understanding the phenomenon of "Basarabian Romanians", we should read Druță like the Old and New Testaments together."

Presented at the recent Meeting of Romanian Theatres in Chisinau, the performance Leaves of longing is, in the opinion of journalist Vasile Botnaru "the apotheotic performance of the 2022 edition of the Romanian Theatres Meeting, built by director Alexandru Cozub a la Gaudi, with a parade of mini-plays, autonomous, conclusive like episodes of a Netflix series, loaded with the most diverse methods of translating the message of the writer Druță, of the period but still offering an X-ray of the mythical land of the Basarabians who are searching for their identity."

"The director Sandu Cozub and the team of actors, helped by the scenography (Iurie Matei), costumes (Stela Verebceanu), soundtrack (Alexandru Târșu), have lovingly told us stories from the village of Valea Răzeșilor - indigenous realities after the Second World War, says poet and publicist Irina Nechit. Why did the performance move us so much? Because it brought back details about the grandparents, the great-grandparents, about us as we were as children. Because it showed us how much we have become estranged from the land where we were born. Because it told us how easily we gave up on ourselves and scattered into the world, sent our young away from us, and scattered our souls. The play also tells us that there are bits and pieces of us left, and that it's good to hold on to them so we don't lose ourselves altogether in nothingness. We miss ourselves - that's what I felt watching the show."

In the numerous casts of these performances you will find a number of beloved actors of the National Theatre from Chisinau, including Alexandru Leanca, Emil Gaju, Ghenadie Galca, Diana Decuseara, Margareta Pântea, Angela Ciobanu, Ana Tkacenko, Doriana Zubcu-Mărginean, Draga-Dumitrița Drumi, Iurie Focșa, Anatol Durbală, Dan Melnic, Alexandru Pleșca, Nicu Suveică.

The two one-off performances, on January 21 and 22, 2023, will take place on the stage of the Studio Hall of the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre from Bucharest.

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at the NTB Box Office or online at www.tnb.ro.

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu