After a long period of suspense, the national theaters invite the public to new plays put on in times of a pandemic. Even if the new restrictions are rather harsh, the theater directors are glad that they reopen the doors to spectators and will bring back life to performance halls.
The permission to resume work on May 2 gladdened a lot the actors who missed the public’s energy. “The spectators’ return to the theater is welcome and is necessary for working that miracle needed by the actor - energy, communication – as theater is the nicest vaccine for society,” director of “Mihai Eminescu” National Theater Petru Hadârcă stated for IPN.
He noted that even if the capacity of the halls must be only 30% filled, the actors are ready to comply with all the restrictions and safety measures and meanwhile prepared new surprises for the public. “Next week, we will have a premiere in the studio hall – “Valeriu Cupcea”, “Stricere” directed by Mihai Fusu, scenography by Irina Gurin. It is a unique project to which by only 10 couples will have access and the play will be staged two times a day,” stated Petru Hadârcă.
To recover the lost time, the actors of Satiricus “Ion Luca Caragiale” Theater also modified their program. “The presence of only 30% is regrettably. Therefore, we will present plays throughout the week and will rest on Monday only. Our hall has 300 places and this means by three plays for one play. But this is the reality,” said the theater’s director Sandu Grecu, noting they will premiere “The Inspector” on May 6 and “The Neighborhood Princess” on May 7 and also other plays later, such as “The Billion” and “Parliament”.
The little spectators are awaited by their preferred heroes at the Municipal Puppet Theater “Guguță” to premieres on May 15 and 16 and to the plays “Night Guguță”. The theater’s director Gabriela Lungu told IPN that to better use the time, their theater will work more in summer. “Many employees went on leave in April so that we could work in summer. The previous summers, we had Sunday plays only, but this year we will stage plays on Saturday and Sunday,” stated Gabriela Lungu.
Evidently, the enthusiasm of the reopening cannot cover the needs and losses suffered by the theaters during the pandemic. The actors will have to work more to cope with production and maintenance costs, but they hope they will soon see the halls packed and will enjoy tours and international festivals so as to fill the gap witnessed in the theater industry.
