The timetable of the 22nd International Festival in
Sibiu (FITS) is proof of the pledge made by the institution’s director, actor
Constantin Chiriac to carry on developing the festival, not only in terms of
events, artists, audiences but also in terms of raising quality. For ten days
the city of Sibiu turned into a huge stage for 2673 artists and invitees out of
70 countries, who gave 427 performances and brought together 65 thousand
spectators per day on an average.
One of the events marking the festival was ‘Nathan the Wise’ a
co-production of the Radu Stanca National Theatre and Schauspiel Stuttgart,
directed by Armin Petras. But the piece is not a mere staging of Lessing’s script,
as actress Ofelia Popii has observed: He deals with very
topical issues and it was a surprise for me the way in which he read the text
without manipulating or changing it in any way. He brought to the forefront
ideas that we are actually facing nowadays, related to religion, politics, but
also human issues, such as: what it means to be a parent, what love really
means, what human relationships mean. It’s a show I’d like to watch from the
theatre hall as it raises a lot of questions and won’t leave you unchanged.
The cast includes Romanian and German actors playing in
Romanian, German and English, as the show is going to be performed in Stuttgart
and Oslo too.
A theatre production that kept the audiences attention for three
hours, late into the night was George Tabori’s ‘Mein Kampf’, which is an
anti-Nazi farce staged by Alexandru Dabija at the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre.
The author himself was a victim of Nazi terror.
Ionut Caras is playing Shlomo
Herzl, an old Jew, who welcomes in his hostel a young man named Hitler, who
wanted to study at the Fine Art Academy: The text helps you a lot
because it’s a good one. It’s a dark comedy, tragic-comical at that. Tabori
lost almost all his family in concentration camps and believes the only way to
pay back for this tragedy is by humour. Then director Dabija took over Tabori’s
script and as everybody knows, he isn’t a sober, rigid guy, on the contrary,
he’s young and playful. Then we, the troupe from Cluj, stepped in. We are in a
very good mood now and well-trained in comedy playing and I didn’t have much
work to do. When I read the text, knowing nothing about Tabori, I found the
script jaw-dropping. I remember bursting out laughing over the script, then
stopping…then laughing again. I actually enjoyed that roller-coaster sensation.
I think such a play has the potential to change the actors and spectators
alike. It was a pleasure to work on the script and really enjoyed my part. I
try to keep to this thin line, the balance between comedy and drama.
Three women, three generations, three lifestyles: a grandma, a
mother and a daughter. What did it mean to be Jewish 50 years back in the
communist Germany and what does it mean now? Questions about identity,
belonging and homeland are being featured in ‘Mother Tongue Mameloschn’/
Muttermale Fenster blau’ performed on the festival’s first day by the Deutsches
Theater Berlin. Here is Ulrich Beck, a playwright with the Deutsches Theater
Berlin.
Ulrich Beck: We’ve been
lucky to have this script because we believe the script is very important to
Berlin and to the history of people living in this city. And that’s not only
because of the Jewish history here, but also because of the Wall’s history. I
believe that both the Berliners and Romanian spectators really enjoyed the
jokes, the mother-daughter-grandmother relationships. We have the feeling that
the problems they were facing, as well as the communication and feelings they
shared were well understood by the spectators. I believe that political and
social connections between people and the political system represent a very
important topic for contemporary theatre. The political situation is deeply
felt by people, it’s influencing their lives.
Dance shows have for quite some time been one of the main
attractions of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu. ‘Dervish’ – created
and performed by Ziya Azazi was one of the most beautiful dance shows this
year. Although a contemporary dancer in the beginning, Ziya
Azazi got back to traditional dance later on, when he was 30. And although
it looks traditional, ‘Dervish – the hermit’s dance’ is more of a universal
show. For Ziya, when he dances, the most important thing is the way in which he
makes the connection between interior and external realities.
Ziya Azazi: If you
unblock the channel between the two worlds, all inner information goes out and
the other way round. If you can do that, now you have what it’s called freedom
of movement. For this reason, when I dance I am seeking that kind of spirit. I
try to clear my mind, my body trying to get ready for the audience. When I go
out on stage I have this goal in my mind. Of course it is important to show my
abilities, speak about my own vision and choreographic approach…. But the most
important thing is to be real on stage…to connect the two worlds. And I believe
it is actually working in the show, because of the trance, the mystical
direction, rehearsal and the progressive variations of certain moves. All this
helps me become even more real and transcendental. That’s why the venue is
unimportant, the audience will understand and the effect is always a positive
one, as you could see in the show here in Romania.