The year 2026 started off with three new productions enriching the repertoire of the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca: 9 DISGRACES and other scandalous scenes from Romania’s recent past, Shadow on Paper and A Different Kind of White-Moor.
Produced in partnership with Texte bune în locuri nebune [Good Texts in Crazy Places] and Create.Act.Enjoy, 9 DISGRACES and other scandalous scenes from Romania’s recent past comes in the context of a critical need to reevaluate our recent history, especially from the point of view of the new generation. An exercise in critical thinking, the performance demistifies and challenges the certitudes of the past, bravely exposing the failures of Romanian society at various turning points in its history.
Each of the nine disgraces under scrutiny is expanded upon in an episode that captures, with humour, empathy, but also with sharp discernment, historical ambiguities that official discourse is still striving to gloss over. Thus, the performance raises topics such as the loss of Romanian territories in World War II, collectivization and the deportations during the communist period, the traumas of transition and privatization after the 1989 revolution, the economic crisis, various confrontations between civil society and the political class. The texts are written by Cosmin Stănilă, Sașa Ceban, Ionuț Caras (who is also the director of the performance) and Diana Buluga. All the shows will be followed by a facilitated discussion with the audience and the creators of the performance.
Written and directed by actor, director and stand-up comedian Dragoș Pop, Shadow on Paper deals with the past-due review of a life wasted between the lines.
Known for his acid wit and nuanced humour, Dragoș Pop explores the tragicomic potential of failure. The author constructs an entire protective world around a life lived half-heartedly, against one's own potential, and which now, under the pressure of its imminent end, is subject to introspective reevaluation.
The show centres on the artistic personality of Miriam Cuibus, an iconic actress of the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre, who brings Anna to life – a heroine without a story, a writer without an oeuvre, and a professional ghostwriter. After dedicating her life to the success of others, and finding herself at the end of the road, the protagonist chooses to make a series of critical observations rather than lament, in a brave attempt to preserve her dignity and self-awareness. Thus, the audience will witness this one last effort of a human being who has wasted her chances to assert her uniqueness, value, and talent, always having diverted them in the service of others.
Supported by Zsófia Gábor's stylized set design and the pensive music composed by Paul Tonca, Dragoș Pop’s show invites us to reflect on the responsibility of the individual in relation to their own gifts, to question how we define human value, and to experience the poetic lucidity that precedes the final word. The result is a performance in which humour and sarcasm are used as tools for deep understanding.
A Different Kind of White-Moor invites its spectators to accompany White-Moor, Romanian literature’s famous hero, in a new and atypical adventure in the contemporary mythosphere, populated by familiar figures, driven by heroism or, on the contrary, by their vices, which we know all too well, but often choose to ignore. Armed with satire and the traditional structures of the fairy tale, writer and director Ionuț Caras aims to entertain us, but also to awaken a vital form of civic disobedience in relation to our day-to-day reality, that we often choose to simply tolerate, translating the eternal struggle between good and evil into the language of digital natives. All this results into an engaging show, irresistibly funny, but with a stake that goes beyond mere entertainment. Humour here serves as both a wake-up call and a vehicle for collective transformation, and the fairy-tale elements become pretexts for critical commentary.
Supported by an impressive cast and artistic team, set in a minimalist décor created by Adrian Balcău and featuring the expressive costumes designed by Zsófia Gábor, White-Moor’s story gets a playful and ironic revamp. Of course, there are political allusions, a range of amusing puns, and dance numbers (choreographed by Andrea Gavriliu) set to the rhythms of Anca Hanu's songs. The nostalgia of dear old tales meets the youthful exuberance of the present in a charming plea for solidarity, courage, and friendship, even in a world seemingly overwhelmed by the vapid, the frivoulous, and the ridiculous.
We look forward to you joining us for a comedy in which essential truths find concrete expression and allegory is updated in tune with the times we live in.
