25. 11. 2019

PERFORMANCES BY SILVIU PURCĂRETE, MICHAL DOČEKAL AND GÁBOR TOMPA AT UTE FEST

On Sunday, November 24, Botond Nagy’s staging of A Doll’s House ventured into the world of Ibsen, followed by August Strindberg's guilt-ridden world, with Intoxication, presented within UTE Fest by the National Theatre of Luxembourg. The festival continues with three intense days: with stories about a vanishing village; of Jonah being swallowed by a whale and an everlasting and heartbreaking love story being merely some of the themes presented.

On Monday, November 25, at 5 pm and 9 pm, respectively, the Sfumato Theatre Laboratory from Sofia will present Yordan Radichkov’s Crazy Grass, directed by Margarita Mladenova, at the Studio Hall. Recommended age: 15+!

“Crazy Grass is a theatrical saga for a handful of people from a village intended to become the bottom of a dam. For their final attempt to prevent civilized barbarism, to stop the destruction. It portrays their last day and night before the water comes. As they awake from their dream, as they do − for the last time – the small rituals of their everyday life; repeatedly expressing their thoughts and questions anxiously; the dead and alive gather the “crumbs of their lives” together and fill the hold of their Noah’s Ark. They are working on storing memory, fighting forgetfulness. ” - notes Margarita Mladenova, the production’s director.

On the same evening, at 7 pm, the Main Hall will house the Radu Stanca National Theatre’s rendition of Oedipus, staged by Silviu Purcărete.

“Oedipus is one of the most beautiful texts of dramatic literature. As others have noted, after many years, I have returned to Greek tragedies, an opportunity for me to exercise my desire to create the same images again and again. In fact, I work with a very limited inventory of images and it has been a while since I last worked with these types of images. So it’s great that I did this production without having to hide the use of the same 1970s aesthetic, which was very close to my heart and to my generation. What can I do?! This is my age and my destiny. And I thought we need to create a truly 1970s performance… (...) It’s a more problematic performance, because the play itself is problematic. The work contains problems that have never been unraveled…" - writes Silviu Purcărete about Oedipus.

On Tuesday, November 26, Marin Sorescu’s play Jonah will be the protagonist, a piece staged by Gábor Tompa in a coproduction of the Nottara Theatre of Bucharest and the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj. The performance will take place in the theatre’s Studio Hall at 6 pm and 9 pm, respectively.

“I'm interested in Jonah both from a religious standpoint and from the point of view of the condition of the artist in the world today. The appearance of Jonah and even that of the actor Gabriel Răuţă often made me think of Brâncuşi's image, namely of the artist struggling with the material. And there is a line in the text: He did nothing good in his life except for this wooden bench, putting the sea around it. A wooden bench in the middle of a sea... A superb image that makes me think of The Table of Silence. Well, this is the famous motif of the work devouring the artist.” - said Gábor Tompa, the production’s creator and director of UTE Fest.

On Wednesday, November 27, Klim Kozinsky’s staging of the musical performance I / Fabre by the Russian Stanislavsky Electrotheatre will take place at 5 pm and 10 pm, in the Studio Hall. Age recommendation: 18+!

““[Jan Fabre] is a coach. He played soccer in the past, and he puts his people in very difficult situations, pulling the natural ground of existence out from under them. This is also what his theatre is. It goes without saying that they possess a type of initiative which is associated with a certain zone of ‘the imaginary’: they have their fantasies, they try to understand, and to be present. At the same time, his theatre can exist only in the mode of the wand and the artist. I do it differently, in any case I / Fabre is arranged quite differently, because what we did was to compose and create. We fantasized, we talked at length, and, as a result, some of our fantasies came together on stage.” - stated Klim Kozinsky.

Also on Wednesday, at 7 pm, festival audiences can rejoice in viewing Shakespeare’s and world literature’s most famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, directed by Michal Dočekal for the Prague City Theatres. Age recommendation: 12+!

Michal Dočekal stated the following about the performance: “Romeo and Juliet… What to do with that? Everyone knows the story, everyone knows its outcome… To try to tell the story so that the Prince’s final words touch our own hearts as well: ‘There has never been a story more tragic than the story of Romeo and Juliet.’ To try to tell it so that we feel disgusted by the hatred that murders love. So that we’re compassionate with the victims of this hatred. To try to play the old love song as it deserves: in all its beauty and all its pain."

The UTE FEST's detailed program and more information about the performances included can be found at www.utefestcluj-huntheater.ro.
 
The main financier of UTE FEST is the Ministry of Culture and National Identity, the Government of Hungary, as well as the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and City Council.
 
Tickets for the festival’s performances can be purchased at the theatre’s ticket office or online at www.biletmaster.ro. In the November 19 – 30 period, during the UTE Fest, the theatre’s ticket office will be open daily from 10 am until the beginning of the day’s last performance.