THE INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS IN CLUJ
12th edition: MIRRORS
12-15 October 2023
The 12th edition of the annual festival of the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre - the International Meetings in Cluj (12-15 October 2023), will be focusing this year on the rich and provocative theme: MIRRORS.
Going beyond the lasting metaphor of theatre as a mirror of life, unfolding under different shapes and forms all throughout the history of theatre, capturing the plurality of contemporary reality is a complex endeavour. The most recent productions of the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre cast a fresh eye on the many questions raised by the world of today, kaleidoscopically playing upon texts, chronologies, spaces, and identities.
Thus, the relationship of young director Leta Popescu with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is refracted in alternate interpretations, duplications, and metatheatrical searches for Another Taming of the Shrew, which will be playing on, with and around the Main Stage.
A mesmerising game of mirrors in which identity is lost and regained, reality is unravelled and recomposed according to the gods' desire, is brought forth by Molière's Amphitryon, directed by Silviu Purcărete.
A Main Stage performance also, George Ciprian's The Drake Head, directed by Alexandru Dabija, pulls the spectators into a surrealist vortex - a distorting, carnival mirror, of an upside-down world, comically framed by the author and his band of colourful characters.
Mirroring and theatrical duplication are also the common thread running through the performances hosted in our Euphorion Studio: between Eros and Thanatos in Radu Stanca's Dona Juana, directed by Tudor Lucanu, or embodied in the self quest and journey of overcoming one's limits in Shamanic Songs/The Quest, after The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar, performance created by Çağlar Yiğitoğulları.
Then, whereas the monodrama The Black Mirror, based on short stories by Pirandello, directed by Roberto Bacci and featuring actor Ionuț Caras, shines a light on our deepest fears and desires, George Lungoci's The Stagehands, directed by Dragoș Pop, goes and pulls away the curtain, exposing the backstage - both as an incomplete mirror of the theatrical dream, and as the main engine of the theatrical structure.
The festival programme will conclude with a very special concert: The Best of Balanescu Quartet, transporting us to places full of emotion within ourselves.
Thursday, 12 October
5 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Euphorion Studio
THE BLACK MIRROR, based on Luigi Pirandello's short stories La Carriola (The Wheelbarrow) and Soffio (A Breath) Luigi Pirandello | directed by Roberto Bacci
7 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Main Stage
THE UNTAMED SHREW, after William Shakespeare; script by Leta Popescu from the adaptation by Maria Manolescu| directed by Leta Popescu
Friday, 13 October
11 am, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
PERFORMANCES IN DIALOGUE, with Maria Zărnescu and the creative teams and cast of The Black Mirror and The Untamed Shrew performances
12 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
EXHIBITION OPENING: MIRRORING PERFORMANCES
5 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Euphorion Studio
THE STAGEHANDS by George Lungoci | directed by Dragoș Pop
7 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Main Stage
THE DRAKE HEAD by George Ciprian | directed by Alexandru Dabija
Saturday, 14 October
11 am, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
PERFORMANCES IN DIALOGUE, with Ion Bogdan Lefter and the creative teams and cast of The Stagehands and The Drake Head performances
12 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
BOOK LAUNCHES: DaDa se dă-n spectacol (DaDa Putting on a Show) by Ștefana Pop-Curșeu, Ioan Pop-Curșeu and Ion Pop | Școala Ardeleană Publishing House, 2023; The Shakespeare interpretat (Shakespeare Interpreted) series by Adrian Papahagi | Polirom Publishing House, 2021-2023.
5 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Euphorion Studio
DONA JUANA by Radu Stanca | directed by Tudor Lucanu
8 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Main Stage
AMPHITRYON by Molière | directed by Silviu Purcărete
Sunday, 15 October
11 am, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
PERFORMANCES IN DIALOGUE, with Marina Constantinescu and the creative teams and cast of the Dona Juana and Amphitryon performances
12 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Foyer, 2nd level
BOOK LAUNCHES: Hamlet la imperativ (Hamlet in the Imperative) by Olivier Py | translation from French into Romanian by Anca Măniuțiu and Ramona Tripa | Mari regizori ai lumii (Great Directors of the World) Series | Teatrul Azi Publishing House - The "Camil Petrescu" Foundation, 2023; Sângele făgăduințelor (The Blood Promises) by Wajdi Mouawad, translation from French into Romanian by Sorin Gherguț | Dramaturgi de azi (Playwrights of Today) Series | Teatrul Azi Publishing House - The "Camil Petrescu" Foundation, 2023.
5 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Euphorion Studio
SHAMANIC SONGS / THE QUEST, inspired by The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar | directed by Çağlar Yiğitoğulları
8 pm, Cluj National Theatre, Main Stage
BEST OF BĂLĂNESCU QUARTET
