To Be or Not To Be

The morning has started with a book lunch, Teatrul Meu and Scrieri Despre Teatru. I have to say the truth, I was still with my heart and mind sinked in the Paysage Inconnu, still feeling the contradiction between Reason and Soul, between what is instantly understandable and what instead need a participation, an effort made by the audience.

The book presentation ended and I recovered in the TIFF House near a coffee, with the intention to tidy up my conflicting ideas. While I was taming my wild thoughts, I realized that everything around me was art. In the other room people were watching Amore Carne by Pippo Del Bono, and everyone who sat in the nearby table was talking about art, theatre, performance; this feeling of being wrapped by a red theatre curtain waked me up more than the third coffee of the day I was having in that moment.

Theatre Theatre Theatre, breathing, eating, reading, listening, feeling....all my senses are involved...in a deep and brave plunge towards the dark side of my soul, stretching my sensation far, towards places I have never walked in before.

Sala studio, 6.00 pm, Diary of a Madman. The scene is delimitated just by two panels, one of which is transparent on a side from this opaque window, and where the shadow of the violinist Alexander Bălănescu can be seen. His music invades the space, cuddling the audience with poetry. Marius Manole interprets the role of Poprichtchine. I have always had the feeling that the use of the microphone has always the effect to keep away the audience, exception made for few cases. There is nothing to say about the work of the actor on this role, he puts all his heart in the play, his body become plastic and his expressions zigzag from one feeling to another. For some reason I felt distant from the play, probably because of my skepticism about the use of the microphone, or probably the repetition of the same music had push me away.

At 9.00 pm, after a quick glass of healthy red wine with the international French speaking critics, I rushed to the Theatre for The New Tenant. This time we do not enter by the main door, but the audience is put on the stage together with the scene, this escamotage gives a big sensation of cosiness. The New Tenant, directed by Gabor Tompa gives the idea of being in an old box, in which there are dusty vintage toys, the same characters move in the scene as they are marionettes. Like a mad carousel the play brings the spectators to an endless iteration of movements, and the audience feel part of the game, not just because of the short distance with the scene, but for the mental idea of being sat on the stage. At one point two words come out Circus – Theatre...I wonder if behind this reiteration was the intent of the director for a hidden message to the contemporary theatre, putting on the plate an important question that like the eternal Hamletic doubt, resounds in all theatre lovers' mind, at least once in ones life, and it is about the identity and consistency of Art.