Between the NTF and Adrian Păunescu

More than ever, the flagrant ignorance of Romanian television for a major event such as the National Theatre Festival has shown a certain radical inability for the survival of genuine culture on the telly. Frankly, I wasn't expecting any live broadcasts, feverish accounts from the Bulandra or National, any extended interviews of Warlikowski or Garcia, studios in the foyer of the Metropolis Theatre, or to theatre critics invited in prime time to tell us about what they saw. I have to admit, however, that the disappointment of almost unanimous silence on the issue surprised me. I would have expected at least a certain dimension, that of the glossy and fashionable, or tabloid to get the interest of the so-called commercial TV stations. If it is not the NTF, then what is it? If not even this concentration of spirituality, able to provide a mirror of the current state in Romanian theatre, is able to move some of the idiotic inertia program directors, it means that this "little girl with the matches" called culture should definitely resign. To my knowledge, only TVR Cultural had a show throughout the Festival, something within the evening news, a sort of concise summary as of the events during the previous day. This was, of course, made in the well-known style, with a few shots, two-three random statements, out of duty and, by no means, faith: "We are a public television, and cultural too, so we must mention these guys"...

I was filled, even more intensely than other times, with the feeling that mediocrity, superficiality and frivolity are so characteristic to us that is would be in vain to try and say, do anything or hope to be able to change something. In a hotel in Bucharest, between two performances, I was watching in shock how Romanian televisions, in a sort of common and irrational hysteria, continuously broadcast information (breaking news, since the performance "Breaking the Waves" wouldn't have brought then any rating, isn't it?) on the last days in Adrian Păunescu's life. Followed, of course, by the voluptuous live transmission of the funeral, and the satisfaction of the endless discussions touched by the sickening smack of a praising requiem. A sort of Adrian Păunescu delivered in full equivalence with Mihai Eminescu, treated for a genius, hyperbolically like no other. This appears to be the true Romanian culture! This message, and not another, was sent to us by opinion makers, the presentologists and cassandrologists specialised in erecting statues and adorning the dead, nauseating appearing either on Realitatea TV, any of the Antena TV stations, or the Pro TV. "Literary Club in Heavens", "A Genius Passed Away", "The Fallen Star", "Culture in Mourning" - titles in which sugary Romanian sein took delight. And culture is in mourning not because a poet of all our epidermicalities passed away, but precisely because critical sense, ability to acknowledge value and health of reason and feelings went to ashes.

On the day of the funeral, Andrei Cornea a guest of the Romanian National Television proved to be one of the very few intellectuals who had the "guts" to take a stand in front of the ideational bluster on our every day televisions. "He was a mediocre poet, with genius for one thing, for the histrionic, the evil, for mass manipulation, and he instituted the cult leader, giving it mystical values that grew to nationalistic delirium, of great success, becoming a mystical surrogate in a country where everything was a surrogate. Because he was teaching this delusion to teenagers who were brought up into the spirit of chauvinism, nationalism and mental reductionism of the new man...." Well, shortly after these public sincerities, the Social Democratic Party found appropriate to aggressively demand a parliamentary hearing of the TVR management on the grounds that, by failing to broadcast live the funeral and by inviting Cornea's, they denigrated the memory of Adrian Păunescu.  What a glaring Central Committee plenary reflex! There's vivid proof to how little these two decades of post-communism are worth!

Most likely accustomed to such attitudes of the televisual Cristina Modreanu did not rely on the responsiveness of the rating scorers. She focused on other means of promotion, and full theatres, sincere enthusiasm of the audience, the fact that young people were talking about Afrim and Purcărete in metro stations show that she was right to do so. We're left, however, to bitterly meditate on the inability of so many to overcome literary club bottlenecks, to take risks and provide the smallest opportunities to major events.