Finally, I came to Constanța, to see Afrim's show, in which I have an old story. Of course, at Afrim you go ready for anything and that's exactly how I went. This is a new show, played at the Dichisita Studio room, of the State Theater in Constanța. As you open the door you meet a mermaid, then take a step and you are directly on stage.
No photograph no to be able to capture the essence of the decoration, which takes you to the core of the forbidden world, in the boiler in the minds of each man, of course introduced by the unconscious annexes of a standard daily: kitchen, salon and invasion of virtual worlds. The show is called the Teatro Lúcido at the bank of the Infinity, warning from the head of the place that if you still came there, it is better not to throw yourself into interpretations, there is no point in walking with hermeneutics or glasses. The Lucid game could fall, via Camil, in pure drama, but this does not happen, in a case on the banks of the infinity, where the ridiculous and general pleasures live, as secretly known, blamed and excluded from the aesthetic canons. Pretext, Afrim starts from three stories, namely Visit to a man's house in the absence of his wife by Adriana Bittel, Dostoevsky variable by Bogdan Răileanu and an ancient prose of my, entitled by unspoken.
I admit, I went first and foremost to see what Afrim did with my story (I don't tell the title anymore), ready for any type of game. Although I was expecting a dialogue in the underground of the text, I did not anticipate its proportions.
The show being a afrimian, of course, is not a staging, but a complex construction, a story written by Afrim himself, as usual, in which the three prose texts become not so much illustrations, as the author's exits at the window, to find out what the rest of the world does, at a time defined as reflection on the infinity.
What is it about? About the theater as a primordial will and instinctual representation. It's a replica show at the tram in Clown hiring of Vișniec, carried out in the register of buffet comedies, with periodic inserts and the obvious intention to ridicule the classic moments of the drama, especially the finished end. But all these intentions are only shadows, the game passing into the foreground and immediately conquering through an unusual creativity of the whole team, from the vision, the Afrim brand, to the choreography focused on details, refined through the actors' game.
Two loser-summer that remind you of En tătendant Godotescape with talent from the Beckethian scheme, organize a workshop, for money, of course, a small business, on account of artistic megalomania, entitled The banks of the infinity. The two characters, in fact, keep the show in hand, gradually becoming the author's faces, the masters of the game. Massimo (interpreted by Andrei Biire) and Dutti (Teodor Șoptelea) give the fingerprint of the show on the scene that is related to their artistic personality. Massimo convinces through the initiatives without hesitation, and the empathic capacity, both of which are interpreted by actors who you know will always be a poster. All the other characters are ordered according to the will of Masimo and Dutti, an inseparable couple, and he came in reply to the great comedy couples, with play, as commercial, as comic.
Of course, the other characters of the two-headed author (Massimo-Dutti), are students, aspirants, megalomani and fraudsters. But above all this, there are couples, who carry in their game all the efforts they have made to create the long dream, that is, normality. Although defective and dying, each couple has a splash of social magma, a drop of its ridicule, but, paradoxically, euphoria, however short, of human aspiration. With a wide interpretative range, Stefan Mihai is constructed by a type of Loser (Michi) pressed by the awareness of his devaluation, as a half of an accountant, Milfa, Ina, obsessed with saving the oceans – interpreted with understanding by Cristina Luca. If this couple is responsible for the epic development, in the matter of the conflict is the couple made up of a lifeguard (played by Cătălin Bucur) and Güzel, played by Anais-Ali, an actress with a memorable scenic movement.
Finally, there is also a couple, which is only through the confession of Mioara (Dana Dumitrescu) and a couple of the inner and secret world, Sabina-Ginel. Here I will have more to say, because this part starts from my story.
Sabina is played by Ecaterina Lupu, a talented and creative actress, who brings a character only of her, almost unrelated to my character, that as I was watching her, although I knew what it was, I was waiting with my soul to the outbreak of chance. I was impressed by the choreography, the ability to recreate the narrative plans and especially the art of not falling into the vulgarity that any abuse revokes. The whole scene had Afrim's imprint, but still something, coming from the artistic intuition of Ecaterina Lupu. Besides, nothing was as I wrote. Mature Sabina no longer keeps the shadow of the early event, Ginel, excellent played by Iulian Enache, is here much older, etc. There is another story there, which took me back, at the moment when an publisher asked me to write an erotic prose, and I had nothing to write, until a day when I passed a round of the Pan, in a Summer Bucharest, good to make the memory. And to end with this scene, I will say that Ecaterina Lupu could make a show alone, which is also proven by her impressive repertoire, but you do not realize from the first replies that she has the rare vein, of the tragedy.
Between these couples the rest of the characters move: a very credible witness, Antonel (Costinel Antone), Sirena Anelise (Liliana Cazan) or an appearance Deus ex MachinaNineta, the unraveling of the conflict (Nina Udrescu). And above all, as a kind of voice of Moire, Lana del Mar (Lana Moscaliuc), the author's inner voice.
In this carnival with many characters, the game is carried out, a sufficient one, despite the length (the show has a duration of over 3 hours), you do not get bored for a moment. He has many scenes that may be missing, he has compositional undeciation, and even a superflu final monologue, but it doesn't matter anyway, because the show transports you into the subtle world, as part of it and you will not permanently end, so that the changes of direction you like, making you not aspiring.
Through the waves of smoke, with the ghost ships on the background, in the licentious darkness of your world, you hope, just as in Afrim's show, in a general justice, in an order, no matter how unlikely, to connect you to the known hierarchies.
The Teatro Lúcido at the bank of Infinity It is an excellent comedy, which takes over all the comic clichés and gradually transforms them into a living story, of undeniable originality.
At the end of the show I was so cheerful that I took a picture with Iulia Pană, just to keep the auristic decor and impossible to reproduce in its essence.
- Director: Radu Afrim
- Scenography: Irina Moscu
- Choreography: Flavia Giurgiu
- Lighting Design: Cristian Niculescu
- Assistant Directed: Tudor Cioboteanu
Duration: 3h 40min, a break of 16 min.
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