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The Titanic Orchestra

by Hristo Boytchev

Translation: Livia Nistor

The Titanic Orchestra

by Hristo Boytchev

Translation: Livia Nistor
Director:
Felix Alexa
Sets:
Andrada Chiriac
Soundtrack:
Felix Alexa, Cristina Giurgea
Lighting design:
Felix Alexa, Andrada Chiriac
Video concept:
Răzvan Pascu
Technical Director:
Laurențiu Andronescu

Premiere: 21.12.2017

Duration: 1 h 30 min / Pause: No

Dates
02 Feb 2025 19:00
Tickets

50 lei

30 lei

A philosophical and absurd comedy about the desire to escape into illusion. In a decommissioned railroad, four outsiders, four burlesque characters are waiting for a train that never stops. In this respect, the play refers to Beckett’s text, Waiting for Godot. But, unlike this, here we are faced with Harry’s appearance and his taking the train. But, beyond this concluded waiting, a new expectation commences. Where shall they head? Towards what realms? Maybe towards a Europe of prosperity? Or an Eden of eternal bliss? Or, actually, towards the grand finale? A painful question raised by Hristo Boicev, the most well-known and enacted Bulgarian playwright of our days.

At his second encounter with the Boicev’s dramatic oeuvre (after The District Hospital from Metropolis Theatre), Felix Alexa creates a universe of a magical realism, also enhanced by the excellent stage set of Andrada Chiriac. Some of the best-known actors of the National Theatre impersonate tragic madmen, endowed with a sharp sense of humour. A tragicomic show where musical moments resonate like the tunes played by the orchestra of the Titanic, while the ship was sinking. And what can be more ironic and more absurd than hearing, in the last moments of one’s life, the vibrant sonorities from Ode to Joy?

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu  

 

Photos by Florin Ghioca

 

Partners:      logo matcha        logo felix 

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Sunday
2
02
2025
The Painting Hall 19:00 Buy tickets

"Four characters, four spectres of failure and inadaption, haunt a station of desolation. Brief stop before the great adventure. Guided by Harry, a fantasy agent, pseudo-Ariel, a demon of imagination, a magician of the spirit, the four shall take the only train that stops at their station, for whom they have exclusivity, the one who ensures them the ultimate escape, the exit from the routine of promiscuity and boundaries, the exit from reality, disappearance, death. (...) Felix Alexa exploited this philosophical and poetic universe, adding a touch of mystery, tension, unpredictability, the shrouding cloak of dream about to become a nightmare. The result - an atypical thriller in which humor and lyricism make place, a symphony of agony in the process of assuming, a spectacular survival training in the face of the unknown. To dream = to know that everything is relative ".

Răzvana Niţă, Radio Theatre Magazine - The Illusion of Escape  

"Staged at the Painting Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest by director Felix Alexa, who is not at the first encounter with a text by Hristo Boicev (he enacted a few years ago at the Metropolis Theater, the" Municipal Hospital "), "Titanic Orchestra”, in his interpretation, is loaded with a profound poetry. And even if in Bulgaria, for example, the train station where four beggars are waiting for a train to stop has received a rather political interpretation - the station could be any former Communist bloc waiting for the train to Europe - Felix Alexa exceeds this first level of the text and his show speaks for something much deeper. About the fact that in our world, where theatre is often a propaganda tool, there is (also) a need for illusion. That theatre, for the most, still means salvation through illusion. That the two hours of the theatre are the necessary journey towards something else. "

Monica Andronescu, Yorick.ro - At the station with illusions 

"Director Felix Alexa illustrates theatrically with fantasy, the text on the line of approaching the features of the surrealist trend. The characters are living the illusion of salvation, initially rehearsing obsessively and mechanically like in a theatre of illusions, the dream scene when the train stops at the deserted station, then in front of the magician they experience the same illusion. The scenography created by Andrada Chiriac perfectly serves the directorial vision. The scenery features a station on the verge of collapse, loaded, suffocated by objects indicating the place of refuge of four people coming from different social areas with a train track in front of them; it is the disastrous picture of the lives of losers for whom drinking becomes a solution to live in the dream world. "

Ileana Lucaciu, Spectator Blog - Bitter comedy about ... dreams and ideals  

 

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Grand Prize of the Brasov Drama Festival, 2019
Award for Best Actor within the Brasov Drama Festival: Richard Bovnoczki

Participation in the Stories International Theatre Festival of Alba Iulia, 14th edition, 2019
 
At the International Festival of Studio Theatre and New Forms, 22nd edition, Pitesti, 3-11 November 2018, the show Titanic Orchestra was awarded the following prizes:
Best Show Award
Award for Best Director: Felix Alexa
Award for Best Scenography: Andrada Chiriac
Best Actor Award: Claudiu Bleont, Richard Bovnoczki

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