Bar Theatre in Iasi…

For a long time, theatre in Iasi was synonymous to what was on at the National Theatre in Iasi, a unilateral vision that disadvantaged both the audience and those involved in theatre creation itself. Creators of the sweet town of Iasi, be they actors, directors, or playwrights, after having complained for years with the perpetual building site in the institution bearing Alecsandri’s name finally  understood that making theatre in no way implies being dependent on a venue, but on the contrary, on the possibility of “mirroring the world” anywhere, anytime. This is why, for some time, we are witnessing a fortunate diversification of the venues where people in Iasi can go ... to the theatre. The actress Pusa Darie was the one to break the ice, calling irony and suspicious glances upon herself when she opened the doors of a few bars interested in more than “consumers”, “orders” and the “ten percentage tip”. She was supported by others, among which the three young actors of whom I am writing below.

Having stepped already into this circuit of the alternative, the Goppo Bar hosts every week an excellent theatre performance given by three young actors from Iasi, all graduates of the class of Dionisie Vitcu. Horia Verives, Bogdan Spiridon and Roxana Marza wonderfully adapted a text by Teodor Mazilu (“The Blessed Torments of Love”) and gave almost an hour of genuine drama. No be noted from the very beginning that the mentioned text is not one of the most staged plays of Mazilu's, but it is legitimated by an unquestionable validity and an exotic charm given by the recollection of the times previous to December 1989. A false cooperative love between the sullen worker Macineanu and a “lady” at the depot, a romance orchestrated by Comrade Sasu, Head of the Cooperative, voicing the omnipresent meddlesome system, as well as the insidious whisper of the interested schemer, and the atmosphere of a certain way of looking at marriage as an institution that has nothing to do with love. Of course, it is a Mazilian comedy, but one with reverberations of bitter revelations of the soul’s foulness.

With no solid elements of direction, with no contribution from the scenography (a table, two chairs, a glass and… a plastic flower), performance creators bet everything on the actors’ (self-directed) interpretation and on the intensity of the text. This is a bet that they win not only because they use valid artistic means with impact on the audience, but also because - and this is the great merit of the performance at the Goppo Bar – they manage to feel the Mazilian spirit, credibly outlining the unmistakable atmosphere that the playwright revealed so extensively. And as a matter of fact, it is widely known by all who have staged Mazilu's texts that when you try to leave behind that specific atmosphere, seeking for updates, or redimensionings, the play no longer helps you, actually losing its advantages, its valences. This is why the choice of leaving the text breath and not stifling it with props, metaphors, symbols or metasenses may be tge recipe for a successful staging of a text by Mazilu.

With Comrade Sasu, Horia Verives builds an unforgettable cooperative Cupid, a swindler who adjusts, matches, forcedly combines pieces of feelings and experiences, with the purpose of obtaining domestic happiness for candid Măcinoiu and his peer in unlove and work. Ultimately, Sasu is nothing but an advocate of the disastrous theory (on which so many marriages were built) according to which love comes… after, just like that, like a food additive, or like a bonus that destiny grants (or not) to those regarding marriage as a, let’s say, military training, a social obligation that needs to be met at any cost. Acting so far mostly as comedian, Horia Verives relies, above all, on his expressive face. He owns an impressive array of grimaces that, articulated in sync with the accents of the text, guarantees his success with the audience. Joined by a deliberately negligent poise (used repetitively in the "Job and the Sanitation", and “The Good-for-Nothings" performed on the stage of the National Theatre in Iasi), these grimaces define a strong character, which stays in the memory of the audience, able to shape relations of authority , complicity, hypocrisy, false understanding, etc. It is very important for Verives that this character is composed differently from one performance to the other, keeping in mind that the possible danger for any functional solution is mannerism. Similarly, the young actor has some tendency to thicken the lines, encouraged by the reaction of the theatre, which I’ve also noticed in “The Star Without a Name”, graduation performance, where he interpreted the Head of the Railway Station. Otherwise, however, as I argued previously, after Dionisie Vitcu, Horia Verives is the best comedy actor that Iasi has right now.

Horia Verives finds a good partner in Bogdan Spiridon, the one turning Comrade Macineanu into an exceptional piece of easy to manipulate, flaccid masculinity (“I’m a suckling and love milk”), a factory courtyard sentimental offering plastic flowers and believing that heaven on earth is to be found in... Azuga Resort. It is the stage relationship developed by the two that impresses with the staging at the Goppo Bar. Spirdon is an excellent line receiver, creates suggestive silences (normally difficult in theatre) and, in general, just as Verives, is advantaged by expressiveness.

Roxana Marzu brings on stage the Communist woman, who understands that even love is a task assigned hierarchically. She constructs her like a woman deprived of femininity, like a future device for making children, with no sense of romance and convinced that plastic flower are fragrant.  With certain Miss Cucu attributes, the character played by the actress in her graduation performance, Roxana integrates quite well in the triangle proposed by Mazilu.

In conclusion, I feel it is beneficial that young actors do not betray their creed and find the enthusiasm to play. It is important for them to do it whenever they have the opportunity, whenever you feel like it. Theatre is in their hands much more than it is in those of their peers employed “indefinitely”... As for Goppo Bar, we will definitely be hearing of this location where theatre is at home.