Rehearsals for the production The Trial, based on Franz Kafka, have begun at the National Theatre, and is expected to premiere at the end of April. The production is directed by Mihaela Panainte, on a dramatization prepared in collaboration with Daniel Ilea. The set is designed by the renowned Helmut Stürmer, back at Cluj-Napoca National Theatre after 16 years.
Born in Timișoara, in 1942, Helmut Stürmer studied at the Art Institute in Bucharest and then worked as a set designer at the Sibiu Theatre and the "L.S. Bulandra" Theatre in Bucharest. Until his departure from the country, in 1977, he had designed the sets for productions directed by Liviu Ciulei, Dinu Cernescu, Sanda Manu, Ivan Helmer, Ion Taub, David Esrig and also the sets for five films directed by Dan Pița, Mircea Veroiu, Radu Gabrea, Alexandru Tatos. He settled in Germany and worked with companies from France, Germany, England, but also Romania. At Cluj-Napoca National Theatre he designed the sets for the famous 2001 production Hamlet by William Shakespeare, directed by Vlad Mugur in 2001. His return to the Cluj stage, after so many years, has given us the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the production he is currently working on.
What are your thoughts upon returning to Cluj-Napoca National Theatre, after more than fifteen years since the premiere of Vlad Mugur's Hamlet a landmark production for Romanian theatre?
Highly nostalgic. I was pleasantly surprised when chief technician Ioan Negrea told me today that they still have all the cues for the rod movement for Hamlet (our note: Vlad Mugur's production). "You know, Mr. Stürmer, we still know them by heart." That for me was an extraordinary surprise. It meant that his presence can be felt not only in my mind, Magdi's (our note: Magda Stief) or the minds of Vlad's closest friends. In Magdi's words "he continues, from where he is, to follow us, counsel us, save us and direct us". So, Vlad Mugur's spirit is my main reason for nostalgia and joy. Because Hamlet was a unanimously beloved and acclaimed production. Having the chance to see or work on a production that you know is going to be a success, proves to be a long-term cure for the artistic depressions that we all experience.
Do you know that the technicians still know by heart lines from Hamlet?
I didn't know that, but I can tell that Vlad is still highly revered in this theatre.
What exactly connects you to Kafka?
Ah, like every child coming from an intellectual family, I too experienced the metamorphosis during puberty. Myself, and later my son, at fourteen-fifteen, we felt like Kafka's cockroach. We all did, provided we have read the book. Kafka has followed me my entire life. He is one of the authors whose shadow has followed me my entire life. Once you have read a little Kafka you begin to understand many things. Political, ideological, but also life related. It's sort of a Bible for understanding life. I realize it is complicated explanation, but I don't think I can be any clearer. I was from the very beginning drawn to the idea of Kafka, of staging Kafka. It has long been a desire of mine and I have managed to make some time for this project among other previously established ones. This means that, unfortunately, I will only stay in Cluj for a short while, but based on my great current collaboration with the theatre, I feel as if I have never left. The staff - the few ones I still know - are very open with regard to the set design. Which is what I am concerned with.
Your name is tied especially to Vlad Mugur's, Silviu Purcărete's or Gábor Tompa's work. How did your collaboration with Mihaela Panainte begin?
From the desire to stage Kafka. But also based on a previous experience with Mihaela Panainte. We did a project in Baia Mare, not in a theatre, but in an extraordinarily beautiful gallery space belonging to the "Baia Mare School". I was familiar with this school ever since I was a student, but I didn't know very much about it. I saw that it is an extraordinary place with an extraordinary history and a multicultural art gallery that we would like to return to if it isn't destroyed by today's politicians. All nationalities were present in Baia Mare and it was a superb Art Deco space-gallery built in the 1800s. And in this space I designed an installation for a text brought by Mihaela and I had the opportunity to tie set designing to gallery art, which is to say to Art. It had long been a dream of mine to create a set design outside of a theatre. just like it has long been a dream of mine to stage Kafka. I have also designed art installations in Bucharest, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. But this was my first collaboration with Mihaela.
How will you shape the space for Kafka's Trial?
I hate talking about my set designs, especially about those that are not decorative. And I recently tend to conceive things that are very different from the concept of set design. From something that is decorative or descriptive, realistic; and I see here a possible connection between theatre set designs and gallery art, which is increasingly modern in Western theatres. So the space is meant to suggest a sort of psychological cage, if you will, which can be a prison, a nightmare, or a grotesque scene from a silent film. This is the area it tries to circumscribe.
Thank you very much. We look forward to the production's premiere.
Written by Eugenia Sarvari