This year, upon celebrating 170 years since the birth of the great Romanian playwright I.L Caragiale, Ada Milea reinvents the by-now-classical characters of the ridiculous Romanian political class in a playful and original manner; in her constantly inventive and explosive style, she manages to perfectly capture Caragiale’s sarcasm. The characters are more alive than ever, as relevant as possible for our historical moment and worthy of Caragiale’s deeply critical gaze, as well as his bitter laughter. The eternal party interests, valued above any civic or moral code, the hidden passions and dramatic clashes, the constantly excusable corruption and servility towards those in power, empty patriotism, as well as the idiotic naivety and the constant drunkenness which obliviate the last traces of clear thinking and decency – all of these make up the fabulous score and the monstrously comical panorama of a society which has been with us ever since the nineteenth century.
