“This is a performance where Potocean comes, warms up his jaws and gives a monologue"
Alexander Potocean is an UNATC graduate, 2007 class. He is known from the films “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”, “The Paper Will Be Blue”, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, “Silent Wedding”. With the performance “Heads Minds” he makes his comeback to theatre - and not any kind of theatre, but documentary theatre. “Heads Minds” brings up to discussion the Bucharest, June 13-15 event. A one-man show directed by David Schwartz. Text - Mihaela Michailov, video - Cinty Ionescu sound - Catalin Rulea.
You are to be seen more in films than on stage. Still, you recently premiered the performance “Heated Minds”, directed by David Schwartz, on a text by Mihaela Michailov. What made you accept this project?
...The fact that I kept away from theatre the past two years. Then, because it was a one-man show, which I have never done before, and that I was interested in, beyond the fact that it questions history and collective memory. Me and David had this idea for some time, it’s long ago we’ve set our minds to do a one-man show, but on different topics. Last winter David came with this proposal and we started working on it. I wanted this project more for myself; to see how it is to do a one-man show.
How was the atmosphere during rehearsals?
Very good. I worked a lot with David in university as well, we were year colleagues. It took some time to do the interviews for the performance. We kept saying, well, if we make it we make it and if not, then that’s fine. David has not changed much since university, and that's great, because he is the kind of person who puts himself to work and puts me to work too – he is really devoted to working and tries to get everyone in. He knows very well what he wants to do; knows history and has the needed references.
Why did you set up the performance at the Centre for Visual Introspection?
Because Centre for Visual Introspection was running a program on the 1990-2000 times, which also included a Dan Perjovschi exhibition. The performance was somehow related to their program. It was convenient to us, as the space is pretty close to the University and the place where the Mineriad took place in 1990. But we no longer play there; we have to move the performance, still do not know where.
In the performance “Heated Minds” you play several characters. How demanding is the shift from one character to another so quickly - and how did you practice the transitions during rehearsals?
You know, it's pretty complicated. I never thought I would be so difficult. I also spoke to David, whether or not it is a convention, and we concluded that it is. So there was no point in hiding the transitions. This is a performance where Potocean comes, warms up his jaws and gives a monologue. The performance in itself is more demanding, the number of characters, the fact that each has a different look. Eventually, we chose to do seven general feature characters – as the message in the performance must be different than the story of these characters. We tried to bring the recent history of Romania to the foreground.
They characters you play are real. What was you documentation work for the parts?
The parts came after interviews with Ion Iliescu, Miron Cozma, Marian Munteanu... We did 40 interviews with various people who participated in the events at the time... some more, others less involved. We made a selection, and we obviously kept Iliescu as well; his point of view was also needed.
Were people open to answer questions related to the Mineriads for a theatre performance?
Yes, surprisingly open, but I do not know whether that answered for the theatre performance, or for their own need to tell again about how that was. People have their own frustrations. Some you understand, others you don’t, but you’ll listen with interest to the innocents who where taken to prison.
Do you see documentary theatre as an act of art, or as one of recovering the collective memory?
Both perspectives are to be found in this performance, because on the one hand we introduce a large chunk of history and an episode we are concerned with, and on the other hand it is an act of art without necessarily calling it so... As long as there is an actor playing, we are facing an artistic act.
Does the awareness that you are playing in documentary theatre influences in any way your interpretation?
It doesn’t. Theatre is theatre. Here we’re only facing a different convention, but it is performed like a one-man show. It doesn’t influence me at all.
“The Paper Will Be Blue”, “4 ... 3... 2 ...”, “Tales from the Golden Age” are films aiming to question the perception on the old regime. “Heated Minds” does now the same in theatre. Why do you think these issues are tackled in film and theatre after so many years after 1989?
It is an attempt to bring back to collective memory the history that Romanians want to forget. It is a call to memory, an endeavour to put the truth on the table. Romanians have this things that they don’t care, that they don’t feel like remembering – and this is really uncool. If you do not you’re your history, you can’t prevent future events. And this is what our rulers today rely on – and they are the same now as then. The interview with Marian Munteanu speaks more than clearly about it. In 1990, I didn’t care either that miners were using force in Bucharest and slaughtered people; I was six at the time. Now I feel it is of great importance. I care to know that it was a sham, a political game, that people beat other people, that it was an organized movement. This is want we are talking about it in our performance.
Are you happy doing theatre?
I am. If you do it well, then I am. Right now I am happy that I play alone. Doing a one-man show agrees with me. So to speak, I am more satisfied with one way of doing theatre. I don’t fell very positive about the Romanian theatre institution. You should not imagine theatre is different from Romanian Railways. Theatre is not always the cultural thing, a bell jar fostering art. Theatre is a business; people take and give money as they manage to. And personally, I tried to keep as away as I can from institutions. That's why I like independent projects. Even though I have less money, I can choose who to work with, and that gives me a good feeling.
Is commuting between theatre and film consuming?
It is not, because when I want to, I stop doing theatre, and do film, and vice versa. Now I’m working in this performance and other two. I’m not going to do any movies soon, as I see there’s no money. Since last winter, I didn’t get any film offers.
To what extent are you motivated by the theatre stage, the small audience, little money in the theatre, after making yourself known on the big screen?
It motivates me in that I can test myself. I want to see if I can still take a one hour and a half half performance by myself, if I can still play one role or another – such things. And that fact that I am known is not quite so as you put it. It is those who act in TV studios that are known – and that is not my case. And I’m not looking to become a star. If I wanted to be a star, I would have turned to something else.
What did you expect from yourself as an actor when you were still a student with UNATC?
I can’t remember. I clearly wanted to work, to do good roles, and stand in them up to the value I believed I was. I wanted to do both theatre and film, and it happened.
