Classic texts and creations from contemporary Romanian and international literature meet this week on the stages of the “Toma Caragiu” Theatre, in an artistic dialogue between past and present. Each performance offers the public an excursion into diverse dramatic universes, where established stories and modern voices intertwine harmoniously, providing varied perspectives on the human condition. They bring before spectators essential themes of existence, equally valid yesterday and today: love in its many guises, confrontation and reconciliation with the past, the beauty and fragility of the lives of ordinary people, faithfulness to oneself and to others, as well as the power of solidarity in moments marked by challenges.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA – Thursday, 19 February, 6:30 PM, Imaginario Animation Theatre hall
“(Vlad Trifaș) approached the Shakespearean comedy with a fresh eye, connected to the present, and re-read it in a refreshing directorial key, exploring its timeliness, its universally valid human themes and, above all, its relevance for young audiences. (…)
Simply and ingeniously, he recontextualised the play’s subject, adapting it to our days: a few high-school students spend their break at their favourite playground, and as if from nowhere, the literature teacher appears and proposes that they play (and play at) … The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare. (…)
The theatrical convention proposed by Vlad Trifaș captures the magic of theatre and its astonishing capacity to merge with reality, in perfect agreement with Shakespeare’s own vision. (…)
Framed as theatre-within-theatre, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is no longer (just) the story of young people from another time, but one that brings to the forefront today’s young people, whether teenagers or near-adults, with one foot in childhood and the other in ‘serious’ life. (Oana Medrea, Teatrul azi magazine)
UNDERWATER – Friday, 20 February, 6:30 PM, “Toma Caragiu” Theatre hall
A disturbing scenic meditation, Underwater is a psychological drama that takes the form of a visual elegy on human fragility, the burden of memory and the unspoken desire for reconciliation with the self and with the past. The performance proposes an excursion into the deep layers of consciousness, where silence acquires the consistency of an abyss, and forgetting becomes impossible. Here, unhealed wounds and a secret desire for inner liberation come to the surface, revealing hidden tensions and repressed truths.
Inspired by the legend of Lake Secu, near Reșița, Underwater unfolds in a fluid space, where the boundaries between the real and the fantastic blur, and proposes a moving exploration of the relationship between a father and his son, marked by absences, regrets and the deep desire for reconciliation.
AT FATHER’S HOUSE – Saturday, 21 February, 6:30 PM, “Toma Caragiu” Theatre hall
At Father’s House belongs to the series of texts written by Mimi Brănescu with humour, tenderness and resignation about everyday problems, the small but painful dramas of ordinary people, always in search of happiness, always in a race at the end of which no one reaches the podium. (…)
The performance leaves the spectator the freedom to position themselves as they wish between drama and comedy. The director-playwright’s message does not impose a line, preserving the balance in this duality which is, in fact, the essence of life. Be careful what you flee from, lest it be the very thing you long for. Beware of yearning ardently for something, lest it be exactly what will set you running. The truth is hard, unforgiving and sometimes quite useless, at father’s house, at home within yourself, in London, anywhere. (Alina Maer, scenesicuvinte.ro)
A BRILLIANT IDEA – Sunday, 22 February, 6:30 PM, “Toma Caragiu” Theatre hall
An engaging comedy full of plot twists, “A Brilliant Idea” introduces us to the lives of Arnaud and Marion, a couple looking for a new apartment to move into, who turn for help to Cedric, a charismatic real estate agent who awakens in Arnaud suspicions of infidelity on Marion’s part. Determined to verify his suspicions, Arnaud devises an ingenious plan: he convinces a stranger, Cedric’s perfect double, to play his role and behave deplorably in front of Marion. The plan gets complicated when the real Cedric and his double, Thomas, accidentally meet at Arnaud’s house. The situation becomes even more confusing with the appearance of Jules, Thomas’s twin brother. Thus, identities mix, and the boundaries between truth and farce blur in a carousel of ambiguities and humour-filled moments. This performance is Sold Out.
THE THREE LITTLE PIGS – Sunday, 22 February, 11:00 AM, Imaginario Animation Theatre hall
The well-known story of the three little pig brothers who try to defend themselves from a hungry wolf by each building a house from various materials – straw, wood or brick – returns to the stage of the Imaginario Animation Theatre and offers both children and grown-ups alike a lesson about the importance of solidarity in overcoming a common challenge.
Throughout a cheerful staging full of musical moments and audience interaction, colourful characters representative of various typologies encountered in everyday life will be the protagonists of a performance that will delight everyone present.
Tickets are available at the Box Office of the “Toma Caragiu” Theatre Ploiești, telephone 0244.522.774, or online by accessing the Performance Programme section on the website www.teatruploiesti.ro.