Outrageous images of Minister Demeter Andras Istvan, in “dialogue” with the actors. “The Minister of Culture confuses dialogue with monologue and respect with slum lines(…)”
A video shared on social networks shows the Minister of Culture in a position that does him no honor. He came to “discuss” with the actors protesting in front of the National Theatre, defies them, encouraged by Gabriel Fătu.
On Tuesday, February 10, the actors of the “IL Caragiale” National Theater in Bucharest (TNB), together with the institution's technical and administrative staff, organized a protest in front of the theater, starting at 2:30 p.m. Their grievance was about the implementation of a pilot program received from the Ministry of Culture, designed at the request of the Court of Accounts, which would have required artists to work eight hours a day and record their attendance, including preparation time.
The Minister of Culture, Andras Istvan Demeter, appeared on the scene accompanied by the actor Gabriel Fătu to hold talks with the protesters.
Although he later announced, on Facebook and on several television stations, that the controversial project was withdrawn, his defiant attitude towards the actors and his inappropriate comments, captured in a video shared on social networks, did not go unnoticed. Nor the encouragement of such behavior from Gabriel Fătu, himself an actor, once a faithful collaborator on Dan Diaconescu's OTV television.
“When the Minister of Culture confuses dialogue with monologue and respect with slum lines, it's no longer drama. It's farce.
In this video, Mr. András Demeter is not acting. Play who-who-who-who.
And, bonus, he makes some memorable faces with Gabriel Fătu, as if he were rehearsing for a New Year's sketch, not for a dialogue with artists.
Reply? Hard to forget. Hard to explain. Indefensible.
When you get to talk to the actors like that, the problem is no longer theirs. It's in the text. And, above all, in directing.
Sometimes, culture is not “in the van”. It's taken from above”, Dan Andrei sent on Facebook, along with the images that capture the unforgivable behavior of the Minister of Culture.
During the evening, Demeter Andras Istvan participated in several TV shows to announce that the pilot project was withdrawn and that the purpose of the initiative was not a classic legislative one, but a test, developed with the support of colleagues in the guild, to meet the requirements of the Court of Accounts regarding the record of the artists' working time.
The minister emphasized that the activity of artists is specific and unevenly distributed, but the legislation requires proof of working time, including for the individual study of instrumentalists or the vocal and technical training of actors.
“The work is irregular, the work is unequally distributed, but those parts of the work that are not carried out in the institution – the individual study of the instrumentalist, the vocal and technical training of the actor – should somehow be shown, proven, because this is the request of the Court of Accounts”, he specified, claiming that the need for work standardization also comes from within the actors' guild.
“It's also the need of the guild, to get along well, because we also point the finger at each other that I work more and you work less. Everyone needs that, but we can't agree on the form”, András István Demeter also said.
