{"id":123,"date":"2016-04-13T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/?p=123"},"modified":"2023-06-03T08:41:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T08:41:56","slug":"shakespeare-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/shakespeare-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare for All"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Z\u0103rnescu<\/strong> [1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova, Romania, 9th<\/sup> edition, April 23\u2013May 4, 2014.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know of what \u201cstuff\u201d The International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova is made. I don\u2019t know when the idea occurred to Emil Boroghin\u0103[i]<\/sup><\/a> to put up this event: whether it was night or summer, whether it was tempest or calm. But it\u2019s certain that his Dream <\/em>has come true and it has been around for over twenty years. He has never given up magic. His own personal sorceries transformed some financial and management nightmares into wonderful stage dreams.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> by William Shakespeare, directed by Edward Hall, Propeller Theatre Company, Great Britain.
Photo by Florin Chirea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a>Produced by The Shakespeare Foundation in Romania and The National Theatre \u201cMarin Sorescu\u201d Craiova, in 2014 the ninth edition of the festival celebrated the playwright\u2019s 450th <\/sup>anniversary. While the previous ones showed a somewhat elitist character, this \u201cShakespeare for All\u201d edition turned towards the larger audience, and the actors literally went down into the street. The event opened in \u201cWilliam Shakespeare\u201d Square, with Much Ado about Nothing <\/em>by Shakespeare\u2019s Globe of London (directed by Max Webster), as a kickoff to their European tour. Almost a fortnight of theatre followed, with productions invited from areas with a strong tradition, such as Great Britain, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary or Ukraine, but also from countries less known theatrically in Romania, including China, Armenia or South Africa.<\/p>\n

The Magic<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my personal top the productions presented by the British companies occupied\u2014indisputably\u2014the first positions. Shakespeare\u2019s Globe was joined by Cheek by Jowl with John Ford\u2019s play \u2018Tis Pity She\u2019s a Whore <\/em>(ca. 1630, directed by Declan Donnellan), and Propeller Theatre Company with A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream <\/em>and The Comedy of Errors<\/em> (both directed by Edward Hall). The experience, the high level of professionalism, the discipline and the special kind of humor displayed by the creators\u2014both obvious and contained\u2014turned the four shows into gems. To be preserved in one\u2019s personal collection, in the box that you open in those moments when you feel that you are losing faith…<\/p>\n

\"A
A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> by William Shakespeare, directed by Edward Hall, Propeller Theatre Company, Great Britain.
Photo by Florin Chirea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> was an all-male show, which is customary to Propeller company. The story is transposed in the world of anywhere and anytime. The lovers quarrel first with the parents and escape into the forest, then quarrel with each other, because that\u2019s what love is about. The leaders do not get along, and the country and the subjects are left to bear the trouble. Titania, queen of the fairies, almost describes to her consort king Oberon the global warming: \u201c… the spring, the summer, \/ The childing autumn, angry winter, change \/ Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world, \/ By their increase, now knows which is which: \/ And this same progenity of evils comes \/ From our debate, from our dissension…\u201d[ii]<\/sup><\/a> Sound familiar?! Director Hall discovers the actuality of these messages, outlining the conjugal animosity, the household storms and their implications, in parallel with the play\u2019s magic element. The world is displayed on several levels (humans and spirits, rulers and subjects), and the performance is directed towards different audiences. Just like in Elizabethan England the spectators of anywhere and of anytime may be illiterates or kings, but each is supposed to find his\/her own Shakespeare. Or, this is the clear and self-aware achievement of this Propeller production, a perfectly balanced mixture of poetry and magic, with updated Shakespearean themes and lots of humor (not gross, not vulgar, in spite of the text\u2019s potential, often taken advantage of by directors looking for a laugh.)<\/p>\n

\"A
A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> by William Shakespeare, directed by Edward Hall, Propeller Theatre Company, Great Britain.
Photo by Florin Chirea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through the set and costume design (Michael Pavelka), and the lighting design (Ben Ormerod), the different levels are defined\u2014so simply, but so elegantly\u2014by a row of chairs hung up along the back wall. From the forest\u2014which is a white net with green trees projections\u2014voices spread out or sounds dribble (sometimes sweet, sometimes menacing). The sound universe is completed by the music of the fairies, celestial at times, sharp at other times, as if coming from harsh mouth organs. The sorceries emerge… as if from a magic box, or they just happen under the white veils that are waving and whirling under the flashes of lightning. White as a mask is the characters\u2019 make-up; white are the fairies\u2019 pajama-costumes. In contrast, black elements as tokens of the night in the attire of fairy queen Titania and king Oberon. The lovers Demetrius and Lysander resemble each other very much, as a proof of Jan Kott\u2019s theory concerning their interchangeability. On the contrary, the \u201cgirls\u201d Hermia and Helena are very different in stature and nature. The only character who is spared love\u2019s traps is Puck, seen as a clown-ballerina, a trickster androgynous, agile and in charge of the fulfillment of his master\u2019s nightly pranks. The actors quickly interchange parts, and there are huge surprises when we discover which of them is actually playing one particular character.<\/p>\n

The Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat think you of falling in love?\u201d is the slightly na\u00efve, slightly playful question of Rosalind (the banished Duke\u2019s daughter) to her cousin Celia (the usurper\u2019s daughter). And this is exactly what happens in the pastoral play As You Like It<\/em>, which tells the story of the two girls fleeing the Court and seeking refuge in the forest. The \u201cspell\u201d of various forms of love in which Shakespeare seems to be the expert is unbound by the Romanian magician-director Silviu Purc\u0103rete, who takes the road of deciphering the text together with the actors of The Budapest Hungarian National Theatre. In order to offer the complete labyrinth of disguises, he goes back to the Shakespeare\u2019s Renaissance time and assigns all the parts to male-actors. Almost all.<\/p>\n

\"Zsolt
Zsolt Trill (Rosalinda) and Tibor Feh\u00e9r (Celia) in As You Like It<\/em> by William Shakespeare, Budapest National Theatre, Hungary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The plot begins in a theatre dressing room, since \u201call the world\u2019s a stage.\u201d The actors prepare their masks; the human beings become characters in the three-fold make-up mirrors. The mood is gloomy, somber and ominous at the Court of the usurper Duke. Men in black (the eternal classic outfit of the security services) keep a lookout for a possible political conspiracy. Or is it just a theory of conspiracy? A quick explosion of fireworks shell on the roof changes the plans. In the background, behind the closed doors of the lofty palace, the forest emerges, not as a space of miracles, as in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, but a sanctuary, a place where laws are re-written. The exiled Duke lives in the woods like Robin Hood, surrounded by a bunch of jolly young men of noble descent who are seemingly spending their time without a care in the world. However, this is only the appearance, since it is snowing in Arden, the cold is gruesome and the wind is wicked and harsh. The conclaves take place in the dim light of lanterns watching over reed-bordered lanes or in the village pub. It is the alcohol and the music that beat the cold.<\/p>\n

\"As
As You Like It<\/em> by William Shakespeare, directed by Silviu Purc\u0103rete, Budapest National Theatre, Hungary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are more songs in As You Like It<\/em> than in any other of Shakespeare\u2019s comedies. Menacing at the beginning, then graciously dribbling, Vasile \u015eirli\u2019s music welcomes different performers according to the respective location. In the forest, a look-alike of Queen Elizabeth II is playing the piano, accompanied by a saxophone player. The famous \u201cseven ages monologue\u201d is the hit in the pub, well-known by the customers and highly in demand. \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage\u201d is what the melancholy Jacques is crooning into the microphone, to the applause of the humming audience. Everybody knows the lyrics, since \u201cwe are not all alone unhappy: \/ This wide and universal theatre \/ Presents more woeful pageants than the scene \/ Wherein we play in.\u201d In the (almost) all-male cast of the production, the role of the cynical philosopher is played by the actress Dorottya Udvaros.<\/p>\n

Purc\u0103rete\u2019s \u201ctrademark\u201d images\u2014apparently familiar, recognizable\u2014are, in fact, brand new. Drago\u015f Buhagiar\u2019s costumes are timeless, with distinct features for each character, and Helmut St\u00fcrmer supplements the two planes of the set with a very personal third one, in the background: projections of his mind\u2014in video displays\u2014pure space poetry. Finally, it is there that the make-up mirrors will end up, facing the audience, so as to leave the stage mise en abyme<\/em>. \u201cOne man in his time plays many parts\u201d seems to be the key-line by which the director deciphers the play\u2019s mystery. The gender reversal, the change spiral of the characters seems endless. And no mask seems to be the ultimate. The epilogue pronounced by the ever-changing Rosalind (man-woman-man) in a sad voice confirms the perpetual seeking, of the never to be completely found \u201cself.\u201d Animus <\/em>and anima<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Apocalypse<\/em> by Shakespeare<\/em>. Macbeth<\/em>, directed by Janusz Wi\u015bniewski, National Theatre Craiova, Romania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Evil<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prophet is not without honor save in his own country. The Pole Janusz Wi\u015bniewski came to Romania\u2019s Craiova National Theatre to stage Macbeth<\/em>. In fact, The Apocalypse by Shakespeare<\/em>, a stage version of his own. In spite of his lifelong artistic rebelliousness, the director is marked by the inevitability of his Catholic substratum. The evil exists and comes from somewhere. In the show this assertion is confirmed by all the quotes that complete the original text, excerpts from the Bible or from other Shakespearean works, but also from W.H. Auden\u2019s Advent<\/em>, Adam Mickiewicz\u2019s Forefathers\u2019 Eve <\/em>or Max Ehrmann\u2019s Desiderata<\/em>. No matter how much we would like to deny it, Evil exists and sometimes drives our lives. All the tragic themes that are present in the tableaux of this visceral show display the inevitable canvass of the evil. The specters\u2019 cavalcade moves rhythmically, at a dynamic pace, following the ironic pulse of an apparently cheerful music (by Jerzy Satanowski). The mechanism of the movements emphasizes the energy and the inevitability of the saraband of an absolute evil. Blood, lust, thirst, hunger, fear, envy are all passions that punish the same desires, leading to criminal acts.<\/p>\n

\"Adrian
Adrian Andone (Macbeth) and Gina C\u0103linoiu (Lady Macbeth) in The Apocalypse by Shakespeare. Macbeth<\/em>,
National Theatre Craiova, Romania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The text becomes a pretext, and so do the protagonists Macbeth (Adrian Andone) and Lady Macbeth (Gina C\u0103linoiu). In an imperatively Christian mystical setting, with the constant reference to Redemption, the crowd of ghosts defies the priest\u2019s power, sets the cross on fire and once again acknowledges that sin is a reality. It is only in the delayed cantilena, after the first roar of applause, that we are shown the way to Salvation. We are left to enjoy the pictorial approach to the characters, the inventiveness in the use of archetypes (from the Wandering Jew to the Widow Bride), sustained by the remarkable synchronization of the soundtrack with the inspired actors\u2019 choreography. The Apocalypse has now been explained, since the one that was prophesied some time ago did not deign to happen.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[i] Emil Boroghin\u0103 (b. 1940, Craiova, Romania) is an actor and theatre director, manager and initiator of The International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova, and also the president of The Shakespeare Foundation in Romania. He is the one who gave The National Theatre in Craiova a new face, while working as a managing director during the time of Silviu Purc\u0103rete\u2019s productions and their international tours (Titus Andronicus<\/em>, Ubu Rex with scenes from Macbeth and Phaedra<\/em>).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[ii] All quotations are from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare<\/em>, Wordsworth Editions, 1999.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

<\/a>[1] Maria Z\u0103rnescu<\/strong> is a Romanian theatrologist and critic, PhD teaching associate at The University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography \u201cI.L. Caragiale\u201d Bucharest. Her theatre and music reviews, studies and essays have been published in Critical Stages<\/em>, Time Out Bucharest<\/em>, Yorick<\/em>, Teatrul AZI<\/em>, Concept<\/em> and Theatron<\/em>. She has long experience as a radio journalist and manager, television editor, and events producer.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2015 Maria Z\u0103rnescu
\nCritical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under the
\nCreative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maria Z\u0103rnescu [1] International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova, Romania, 9th edition, April 23\u2013May 4, 2014. I don\u2019t know of what \u201cstuff\u201d The International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova is made. I don\u2019t know when the idea occurred to Emil Boroghin\u0103[i] to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews","","tg-column-two"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2016\/04\/Maria-Zarnescu.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7rA5b-1Z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}