A Lost Letter

April 19, 2019 Theater for Adults

Director: OVIDIU LAZĂR

Date: 21 APRIL 2019

Run time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Director’s foreword:

“Exactly 33 years ago, I was making my debut in theatre. My professor at the “I.L. Caragiale” Theatre and Cinematography Institute in Bucharest, the great director Cătălina Buzoianu, sent me to the National Theatre in Iaşi to stage A STORMY NIGHT by Caragiale. I was in my senior year of college. The show was considered “a masterstroke”. It caused a commotion. I had set out to de-Balkanize Caragiale, and I succeeded.

Now, after this interval, equal in years with Christ’s age, I return to our national playwright. First of all, because I discovered that Caragiale’s slums are no longer a physical space, but a human space. We each have our own inner slum. More or less visible, more or less obvious. Aggressive or latent, refined or rough-cut, loud or polite, the intimate slum has become a daily reflex of the Romanian individual.

Caragiale is more than current, it has become astringent, so much so that walking among his Romanian characters will make your mind and soul pucker. It is as if you were walking through yourself, with family, friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbours, …

Secondly, I find it fascinating to see how some people come out of a letter, live among letters, newspapers, notes and telegrams, struggle fanatically and betray one another copiously, only to eventually re-enter the same letter through a “spiritual” consensus that stinks of shameless compromise.

The show has a socio-political level and an erotic-sentimental level. The former – because we are witnessing an election campaign that makes everyone behave in a wild and incoherent manner, and the latter – because we are participants in a labyrinthine and sinuous plot, with sometimes adulterous accents, other times with romantic ones, of a love story.

There will be laughter in this show. But it will be different. I challenge you to join in.

Part of the novelty of my current directorial approach consists in the staging solution of two characters: Zoe and Dandanache. A pragmatic, intense and almost arriviste Zoe, seconded by a rigid, military and almost concupiscent Dandanache and a chlorotic, bovaristic Zoe, immersed in a world of her own, seconded by a shy, mannered, intellectually dilettante Dandanache. There will be practically two different shows, because while on the surface the form is the same, the content of relationships, reactions and human nature will be visibly different.

I challenge the spectators to see A LOST LETTER in two successive evenings, in order to fully enjoy the seductions of the theatrical act.

I truly love the crew I have worked with. Its artistic side, as well as its technical side. They get involved intelligently, participate constructively in putting on a show, work hard, with fruitful and unassuming devotion. They are supportive and know what teamwork means.

During my rehearsals, the Iasi Athenaeum became a National Athenaeum. I am sincerely glad that the opening night under this valuable name is a staging of the masterpiece of Romania’s national playwright.

And I am glad I am the author of this premiere.

VIVAT. CRESCAT. FLOREAT.”

Cast:

Ștefan Tipătescu – Codrin Dănilă

Agamemnon Dandanache – Iustin Căuneac/Ștefan Molnar

Zaharia Trahanache – Daniel Onoae

Tache Farfuridi – Liviu Smântânică

Iordache Brânzovenescu – Gelu Ciobotaru

Nae Caţavencu – Dumitru Florescu

Ionescu – Florin Pascariu

Popescu – Daniel Popa

Ghiţă Pristanda – Ionuţ Gînju