Only two American playwrights have truly entered the Romanian stage in the past 10 years – Neil LaBute that has almost every play staged here (too bad he doesn’t want to come to Romania, even though he was invited to come a couple of times) and David Mamet with not so many plays translated yet. Recently, one more work of the later have entered the stage: The Woods, 1977, discovered by director Alexandru Berceanu and translated by him together with Ina Izbasescu. Until Mamet will win over LaBute, let’s hope that some other new American voices will be discovered as well.
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“The Woods” was not as lucky as other Mamet plays that were awarded or became screenplays. In fact, it didn’t have the expected success when first presented in New York, so the playwright decided to ban its staging in the city. When he took off the ban and staged it himself in 1982 it got bad reviews and a small public success. The problem seems to be that “The Woods” does not raise to the level of the other plays written by Mamet, who is famous for his powerful, minimalistic dialogues. The play is about a couple – an allusion to the biblical couple – who confronts their feelings and fears in a completely non-aggressive environment, as they are away for a week-end in the cottage of his family. Going back to nature doesn’t help them much in clarifying their inner thoughts, but on the contrary... Despite the presence of natural elements – earth, sky, water – these people perverted by urban existence (“it’s so miserable down there”, he explodes at one point) hardly manage to get over the obstacles in their minds that make them fail to communicate and express what they feel.
The conflict is built in time and it’s coming from the unsaid words, which are left between the lines, hanging over the characters’ heads like Damocles’ sword waiting to come down and cut. This deliberate structure arrests the attention of the audience even though nothing really happens in terms of action on stage – the characters stay on the wooden porch and try to reach to each other without really succeeding in doing so. One can finally become amazed an afraid in the same time by this portrait of the contemporary human being carrying on his/her shoulders layers over layers of culture, information and real stories lived by their ancestors, like a burden that makes one feel incapable to live one’s own story.
She/ Ruth (alike the mother of all men) is stronger and seems to know what she wants, but she gets stopped by the unknown she feels in him and she finally turns against him. He/Nick is afraid of everything, he overprotects himself from noises, from being touched, from the thunderstorm, from confessing his love, from living his life all in one. The characters browse through feelings from pure joy to hate, fear and despise (after a scene involving physical abuse) and the relief brought by stepping over a psychological threshold – when he finally admits he loves her and needs her. The interesting part is that the way they feel is permanently
contra tempor, and this seems to be one of the construction’ s pillars of the play.
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The two young actors, Alex Margineanu and Cecilia Donat, amazingly succeed in run this marathon. They are in close-up all the time, as the performing space is a small one with the audience placed next to them, but somehow offer a precise navigation through different inner feelings, shifting from one to another. Delicately directed by Alexandru Berceanu the two of them seem to experiment all the ups and downs of a relationship under the very eyes of the audience. It is maybe the first important relationship in one’s life, the kind of relationship that one can feel it may not be THE RELATIONSHIP but one cannot put an end to it. Cause one doesn’t know all about a relationship before living through it all. The intervention of the director is also remarkable for it takes off from the realism of the play, enhancing an atmosphere of magic that adds layers to the show – the lanterns running in the night when the two of them search for each other. The unexpected window opening in the middle of the bear’s fur hanging on the main wall of the cottage are only two examples of the kind. The show expresses the need for a new magical realism in a moment when documentary theatre seems to gain more and more ground on Romanian stage.
Placed in the rustic set-design composed by Doru Pacurar with wood, earth, water and a bear fur included, this production elegantly enters a short list of creations coming down from the magical realism of Liviu Ciulei’s legendary works that changed the face of the Romanian theatre in the 70’s, but due to the characters’ profiles and to the particularities of their relationship marked by the lack of communication –it is also very contemporary in the good sense.
