Iasi National Theatre, Season Report (I)

It's been over a month since the end of the 2009-2010 season at the Iasi National Theatre, and despite the blowing scorch, a “cold” analysis is now possible, especially since, unlike in previous seasons, reviewers cannot say that there’s nothing to analyze. No less than ten premieres came to light in Vasile Alecsandri’s “hall”. A large number if we were to consider the small company (thirty-two actors), but also the technical personnel, sometimes not enough in number to cover the performative inflation at the National Theatre in Iasi. But let us proceed systematically!

The Game of Directors and Hazard

Although National Theatres are traditionally repertory theatres, I believe it is now legitimate to ask whether the idea of a repertory, of repertory consistency, still has any meaning in a landscape dominated by directors and their (more or less personal) projects. The synchronicity between directors’ intentions and management’s intentions is completely incidental. Possibly, after the first two or three stagings, the profile of the ongoing season can be configured “in the process”, although it may easily be questioned by some unexpected performance, emerged ex nihilo. So that older times, when the season program was known a year before is not only difficult to be credited now, but also absolutely ridiculous. Beyond the long sigh of some actors in the old guard, or the irritated pen of some critic holding strong on the past, the concept of a “repertory” needs, if not redefined, then at least taken in a relaxed manner.

It is precisely what happens in the Iasi National, where the season in question can be defined by bursting variety. In terms of “Romanian playwrights vs. foreign playwrights” there was quite a balance: the first category included four plays (“Merchant of Time” by Matei Visniec, “Sun on the Chest”, by Nora Vasilescu, “Youth Without Old Age and Life Without Death”, with a script written by Teo Corban, and finally, “Still Life with Obese Grandson”, by Ion Sapdaru). On the other side, with the “stranieri”, we find Max Frisch (“Biedermann and the Incendiaries”), Ronald Harwood (“Qvartet”), Leonard Gershe (“Butterflies Are Free”), John Murrell (“Requiem for a Star or Crawfish Scream” ), Yasmina Reza (“God of Carnage”) and Euripides (more specifically, a script after the Euripidian tragedies, written by Michael Măniuţiu).

The relation between the contemporary and the classical is more problematic, as the imbalance is glaring. The only classical author, which is anyway treated in a contemporary key (Euripides, of course), places the repertory in a frame of the twentieth century drama. A so-called repertory strategy based on “whatever comes” shows its weakness at this point, and the game of directors and hazard deprives the audience of an elements a National Theatre should not, however, neglect so easily.

A paradox thus arises: “calumniated” for decades for its manifest conservatorism, the Iasi Theatre Iasi is now in a position where it completely abandons precisely those plays that, once, rose irony and disdainful sneer. Good-Bye Shakespeare in Iasi, good-bye Ibsen or Strindberg, no one will touch ancient theatre, with the exception maybe of the Măniuţiu style updates, Chekhov has become outdated and Caragiale got so much laughter that it requires a break. This may just as well be boredom of the directors, who are no longer willing to tread on paths so trodden, and prefer to explore a contemporaneity that seems much more attractive to audience today.

Performance Spaces

Given that the Big Hall continues to be in under repair (it is already the third year of scenic unavailability!), the Iasi National bet this season again on the so-called alternative solutions: first, the Cub Hall (the building opened in 2008, in the court yard of the theatre, as provisory); five out of the ten premieres were staged here: “Biedermann and the Incendiaries”, “Merchant of Time”, “Youth Without Old Age and Life Without Death” (later moved to Uzina Hall), "Still Life with Obese Grandson” and “Here at the Gates of Darkness”. Although designed to support different stage arrangement, none of the directors could part with the convention of the classical stages. Currently, this performance space has the greatest capacity, of approximately 150 seats.

Four performances were staged in the Studio Hall (about 100 seats): “Quartet”, “Sun on the Chest”, “Butterflies are Free” and “God Carnage”. For certain technical problems only one premiere was scheduled for the third hall, the Uzina Hall (also 100 seats): “Requiem for a Star or Crawfish Scream”. Spaces such as the one in the Romanian Literature Museum in Iasi (“Pod Pogor” Hall), or in the Tatarasi Athenaeum were no longer employed during the 2009-2010 season, and they only relied on those already mentioned.

Communication- ITN Achilles’ Heel

Apparently, the reduced capacity of these halls seems to be absolutely dramatic, if we were to believe the rumours about Iasi's cultural city reputationa, and if we were to assume the existence of a solid theatre audience. Unfortunately, after the premiere performance and possibly the following two representations, the interest of the audience in Iasi dramatically drops, so that some plays are performed in front of twenty to thirty spectators. The situation reveals the fact that there’s a set audience, limited in numbers, which is exhausted after a few performances of the same play. The total number of performances (over thirty) played monthly thus becomes questionable, as it overburdens the technical staff, forced to run between the three performance areas and manipulate the sets for each separate performance. One of the written laws of any economic system is neglected: anything too much is overdone, or becomes trivial and boring. The performance is no longer an Event and it turns into routine, into an insignificant cultural gesture.

It is equally true is the indifference of the management at this chapter is significant. No marketing strategies able to turn a performance into a marketable product were identified so far. Communication is rudimentary and remains a real Achilles’ heel for the Iasi National.

The Theatre has no publication (which is absolutely unacceptable if we remember that it is here that one of Romania's leading theatre magazines was once issued – “Arlechinul”, led by Val Condurache) to act as an image vector. With no affinity with the letters whatsoever, manager Cristian Hadji Culea disregards anything that does not take place on stage.

The poster display is still mediocre and owing to some insufficient spaces dedicated to it. The screen was so mounted on the Cube Theatre, that the promotional videos go unnoticed. The banners on the same building promote performances out of the repertory (“Macbeth” and “Made in the East”), leaving recent productions uncovered. The programmes are not always at the adequate level, sometimes including glaring typing errors, incorrect placement of photos or simply a terrible colouring, which indicates the presence of... the wrong people in the wrong places. Then, the Iasi National never organises “events” related to performance itself (book launches, exhibitions, conferences, debates, etc...) that would place the institution into an active flow of cultural events. It completely ignores such a possibility of attracting a different audience, the shortcomings of a literary secretariat that is more than inept and which has forgotten its mission and has no curiosity to look into the “yard” of other theatres in Romania. If the aforementioned repertory relaxation may have good consequences, the relaxation of some idle and unprofessional clerks is really harmful.