Homage paid to legendary generation of Luceafarul Theatre

On Thursday evening the stage of the Centre “Ginta Latina” in Chisinau hosted the first performance of the play “The Actor Carp” by Nicolae Negru, about the life and death of the outstanding actor of the Luceafarul Theatre Dumitru Caraciobanu. The play is staged by the Municipal One Actor Theatre and stars Igor Caras in the lead role. Director Mihai Fusu told Info-Prim Neo that the play is first of all a homage paid to the legendary generation of the Luceafarul Theatre, whose member was Dumitru Caraciobanu. Secondly, Mihai Fusu wanted very much to stage a play with Igor Caras in the lead role, as he is considered one of the best actors, who has a very similar destiny with Dumitru Caraciobanu. The author of the play, Nicolae Negru, said he accepted gladly the idea of Fusu and Caras of writing a drama about the great actor Dumitru Caraciobanu, whom he saw playing while a student. Working on the play, he interviewed people who knew Caraciobanu personally, travelled to his native village, wandered the places of his childhood, and boated on the ponds of the Danube Delta. However, the play is not a biographical work; it is a fiction story portraying the actor’s drama, which reflects the destiny of any great artist entrapped by his own nature, Nicolae Negru said. The theatre and video-art show depicts 3 days in Dumitru Caraciobanu’s life: one day in the beginning of the 60s, when he was young, in love and full of hope; the second – in the beginning of the 70s, when the deceptions start, the first sign of alcoholism, troupe breaks up; the third day – in 1980, when the actor, a chronic drinker left by his wife, excluded from the theatre, dies in solitude. The video film that separates the three parts is build up from photos of the time and represents an animated drawing with ironic and suggestive elements, connecting the actor’s life with the political, social, cultural life of Moldova and beyond. Dumitru Caraciobanu, alongside Ion Ungureanu, Ecaterina Malcoci, Dumitru Fusu, Sandri Ion Scurea, and others, was part of the generation that founded the Luceafarul Theatre. The play will be performed again at the Culture & Art Centre “Ginta Latina” on September 28, 29, 30 at 7:00pm.