If anyone counted the types of stories they knew, they would reach a surprisingly small number. Our equivalent for “King Lear” is “Like salt in dishes”. And we keep hearing about the true love of youngsters, the hands of which their parents had promised to God knows who in exchange for some hugely profitable business, and we are moved each time by their passionate way of defending their love, ready to make any sacrifice.
Andrei Gonczi (Truffaldino), Ana Sivu Daponte (Beatrice), Alina Crăiţa (Smeraldina), Ana Turos (Clarice), Aurel Sandu Sorin (Pantalone), Valentin Mihalache (Doctor Lombardi), Bogdan Angelescu (Brighella), Răzvan Teodorescu (Silvio), Ionuţ Ghenu (Florindo), Laura Dumitraşcu and Andrei Drăgulescu (the two Zani) are the people who embody the characters in such a story at MASCA Theatre. Carlo Goldoni’s „Servant of two masters” is the show that opened this season. An old story, but always up-to-date, which the director Mihai Mălaimare has chosen to place in an era of music and poetry, of ideals of peace and unconditioned love: the Flower Power era. „The performance of this young crew is absolutely exceptional”-, admits even the super harsh executive and director. They are all complete actors, and I say that without a doubt. They sing, they dance, they jump in the air like Prince Charming to become the main characters of an essential plot, they stand on their heads and speak perfectly. They have an impeccable posture and a diction to die for. All of them are happy to be part of a show full of fantasy, but which is perfectly controlled by Mălaimare who, even though he created an original show, knew how to make a real face from a mask, able to react and deliver the oh so strong emotions of the human nature, always in love. The heartbeats, accelerated by the lover’s name, precipitate the gesture, avarice is only signaled by the tremble of a muscle, social accomodation is described in ample movements… In a theatre review, the cast is usually left behind, the actors receiving each a more or less flattering attribute. We have changed the habit because, for the last few seasons, MASCA Theatre has induced paradox.
I have had the great chance to watch, in eleven years, two essential shows of the almost legendary Giorgio Strehler, the founder of Piccolo Teatro di Milano in 1947: „Slave island” (presented in Bucharest in 1995 at Bulandra Theatre) and Carlo Goldoni’s „Arlecchino. Servant of two masters” (the last of the six versions, dating back to 1997, was dedicated to the semicentennial anniversary of the theatre and closed, almost symbolically, the director’s life. ) The refined theatrical sign is the marking of a both inquisitive and playful spirit; the signature of the master jeweler who, for four decades, has not ceased to reinvent the mounting of the diamond.
Goldoni surpassed the commedia dell’arte just as Fellini came out of the Italian neorealism with “La Strada”: the next step makes any interpretation possible. Loyal, Strehler preferred to distance himself through quotes, but also by involving the viewer in the theatre inside the theatre. Because the masks of the commedia were changed in public.
I’m not making a parallel here, I just happened to think of the show I saw more than three years ago, in Bucharest. It happened because, as they say in stories, great was the joy of listening the music I like, to identify the markings of the years I loved the most, to watch quickly over the Venitian street, a different one to each change of lights, and to be part of a story on full display, right here and now. and to paic. bolically, the director’has induced prs of an ese Sanda Mitache’s scenography (more essentialized rather than minimalistic) confirms again the artist’s impeccable style, and Ioana Macarie’s choreography and Răzvan Alexandru Diaconu’s music increase the full professionalism of his show.
What is it like to induce paradox? Here’s how:
You are MASCA and you were born on May 24th, 1990, as a theatre of gesture, pantomime and body expressions. (The concept belongs to actor and director Mihai Mălaimare, doctor in theory of the theatre and student of Jean Lecoq; also, a very stubborn man who has fought for years – almost literally – for a center. A center he managed to build – in Militari neighbourhood -, but which he certainly won with much more difficulty than the thousands of fans in the tours MASCA went on to France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, USA, Luxembourg, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Turkey, Albania, FYROM etc.)
You represent a young crew of professional actors, trained in a spartan style to meet the surprise of a MASCA show offered to the citizens of Bucharest in parks, subway stations or on the street: medival theatre, clowns, commedia dell’arte, big puppets or living statues.
You are the Actor/Actors with a capitalized professionalism, that/those who approach acrobacy and jugglery as seriously as they would take “an indoor, elaborated, inspired by great authors (Gogol, Marquez, Valeri Briusov, Borges…) show, bringing it near, stylewise, to the theatre-dance genre, with no or few words, the actor being the main pillar of the show, the unique contributor to the theatrical mistery”, as the project develops.
What is it like to induce paradox?
It is like being trained for a somersault and have the diction a national theatre requires (and not one like in the National Theatre).
To turn 20 and celebrate your birthday throughout a whole season (2009-2010), with a few touch of class premieres and well-known shows, but always pleasant to watch again and again. Shows for which you sell tickets at your theatre in the… non-residential neighbourhood Militari, but don’t forget your “street theatre” project – for the many people who can enjoy truth and beauty -, theatre for which actors who play in parks or subway stations only get the good money: the sincere applauds of the viewers. And among these viewers are those who happened to be present at the only show they have ever seen.
Happy birthday, MASCA dear!
Translated by Iulia Vieru, MTTLC, 2nd year
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