News
With The Forest of the Hanged, Radu Afrim Extracts History from the Museum!
A powerful and modern text, revealed otherwise by a director who does not shy away from challenges: The Forest of the Hanged, after Liviu Rebreanu's novel, in the vision of Radu Afrim, is ready for the first encounter with the audience, on Saturday, December 15th, 2018, on the grand stage of the National Theatre of Bucharest.
Radu Afrim's show after The Forest of the Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu, uncovers a tremendous poetry of a powerful and modern text and aims at addressing first of all young people of nowadays. Reinterpreting in his own key a major work of Romanian literature, the director transposes it into his imaginative universe, so specific, he uncovers new meanings, starting from the premise that Rebreanu's novel is not a war novel, but a psychological one.
„I do not wish to enact Rebreanu's book, I want to question a little what happened to us in these one hundred years and where we stand ... It might be ambitious, risky, kitsch, wrong, but I wish to face those soldiers who fought for something then, although many did not know what they were fighting for, with young people of nowadays, with dialogues and questions… What did you do in 100 years, who were we at your age, what have we done… It seems to me that we are talking too much about our recent history as something of a museum. I want to extract these soldiers from the museum, and this book, and see if there is a dialogue between nowaday’s people and those of yore. It is actually a Centenary commission, Caramitru suggested me to make The Forest of the Hanged, and Caramitru has a good hand, he suggested I should also do Scourge... It is the only time a theatre manager tells me what to do and it helps me ... But far from me this exaggerated festive feeling around the Centenary ... " explained in a recent meeting with the press, director Radu Afrim.
Far from any form of nationalism, the show provokes a lucid reflection on the state of the nation, a clear confrontation with our historical past, a dialogue between the voice of the present and the voice of history. A deaf, whispered or blunt, insinuating or reverberating voice through which the events of a world torn by massacres spell their true name in time, a voice that bears the specific tonality and intonation of director Radu Afrim.
Using the entire surface of the huge stage of the Great Hall, stage designer Cosmin Florea and his team create an acting space of a rare spectacularity, in line with the directorial vision.
The following actors give a soul to the novel, but also to Afrim’s universe: Alexandru Potocean (in the role of Apostol Bologa), Marius Manole, Richard Bovnoczki, Ciprian Nicula, Raluca Aprodu, Istvan Teglas, Vitalie Bichir, Natalia Calin, Ada GaleĹ, Florin Alexandru SÄlceanu, Emilian Mernea, Liviu Popa, Cristian Bota, Alexandru Chindris, Octavian Voina, Andrei Atabay, Vlad Galer, Flavia Giurgiu, Cosmin Ilie, George Olar, Ciprian Valea, Tiberiu Enache, Silviu Mircescu, Bogdan Iacob, Vlad IonuĹŁ Popescu, and Lenutza Purja, Teodora Purja, two popular folk song performers. The choreography is signed by Andrea Gavriliu. Video mapping: Andrei Cozlac.
The Forest of the Hanged is a comprehensive, profound, restless enactment, signed by a special artist, whose talent has long exceeded the country borders, and who is said to have no grandiloquence or other attributes of origin, simply Romanian.
And the disturbing question underlying the dramatic events evoked in the show is one that, defying festive exaggerations, requires a deeper reflection: How do we, as contemporaries, relate to our countrymen 100 years ago! ... A reflection addressed to an audience of all ages.
The premiere of the show will take place on Sunday, December 16th, 2018, from 7:00 p.m., in the Grand Hall. The next performance is sold out for December 19th.
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
