Three reasons to go to the theater in May, with Vanner Collective

Despite the false starts, spring seems to have settled down. This is especially so if you take after the light filtering through the trees. It seems hard to believe, and the weather people are each one of a kind Cassandra who kept calling “wolf” until he was speechless. But it’s enough to take a deep breath lungs and, among the molecules of doubt, fresh air will make its way. In response to the heat, now that we have passed the cruelest of months, Vanner Collective invites the public to three thawed performances.

Komorebi. The light filtering through the trees it’s a show about masculinity caught between normativity and authenticity, between the expectations of others and those born from within, and especially about the balance between the two, to which the path is like a labyrinth of lights and shadows.

“We chose to speak through a show, to highlight the subject through story, through song, through dance, through visual installations in the form of masks. Best tip: let’s talk. Let’s not hide anymore. Let us fear no more. Let’s tell stories to others more often about what makes us feel afraid. Every trade should learn to speak. To do it more often and without fear. I repeat, we do it through stories.”

Vanner Collective understands theater as a mirror of the most pressing and convoluted challenges that modern life throws at us. Komorebi tackles the thorny subject of male identity today with empathy, but above all else, it approaches it with hope. The show will take place on May 10starting at 19:00at The Small Hall of TNB. Tickets are available on billet.ro.

Text: Raluca Manescu. With: Denisa Nicolae, Liviu Romanescu, Teodora Velescu. Scenic movement: Teodora Velescu. Musical composition: Mihai Dobre. Scenography and costumes: Elena Gheorghe. Musical preparation: Oana Pușcatu. Sound universe and light design: Alexandros Raptis. Concept: Denisa Nicolae and Liviu Romanescu.

Cassandra it’s a complementary show in many ways, because it talks about femininity in the same deep and assumed way that Komorebi leans on masculinity. A writer becomes physically speechless just before she has to give her mother’s funeral oration. Identity, with good and bad, with victories and disappointments, is subordinated to a process of transmission from mother to daughter, and this uninterrupted dialogue over generations, which leaves the titular character without a voice, is treated with sharp humor, with a lot of courage and with honesty .

“Sexy, strong, fragile, vulnerable. 2 almost empty bodies, same woman. Stripped of prejudices, they look for an outline of the woman she has become in the connection with her mother. Cassandra is adorable, she teases you, she amuses you, she rejects you, she comforts you. Cassandra you want to keep.”

The show will take place on May 12starting from 20:00at Apollo 111. Tickets are available on Eventbook.

Text: Norah Sadava & Amy Nostbakken (“Mouthpiece”). Translation: Denisa Nicolae. With: Denisa Nicolae; Mihaela Velicu. Director: Leta Popescu. Scenography: Tudor Prodan. Music: Mihai Dobre. Stage movement: Ștefan Lupu. Musical preparation: Oana Pușcatu. Sound: Daniel Octavian Nae. Lights: Marius Nițu.

May’s secret challenge is to understand the three performances proposed by the Vanner Collective as a kind of trilogy, in which LONG concludes the meditation on (gender) identity with an exploration of the experiences of a couple faced with the fears and insecurities that come with modern life in this turbulent time. Is it still ethical to make children, in full climate decline, in the global political heat, on the threshold of changes impossible to control and predict? Vanner Collective’s longest running show, LONGdoes not assume answers to these questions, but opens a discussion that many of us have within ourselves, more and more often.

The text LUNGS was nominated in the year 2012 “Best Contemporary Text”, Off West-End Awards and nominated in the category “Best Theater Text”, Theater Awards UK (2012).

The show will take place on May 19starting at 19:30at Theater Act. Tickets are available on MyStage.ro.

Text: Duncan Macmillan. With: Denisa Nicolae and Liviu Romanescu. Director: Nicolae Constantin Tănase. Scenography: Adeline Andreea Bădescu.

Each of the shows is a journey, but together they represent a route – one road trip among ideas in which we are all caught, sometimes without realizing it.

Media partners: Radio Guerrilla, IQads, Spotmedia, Zile și Nopți, B365.ro, Observator Cultural, Ziarul Metropolis, Liternet, Bookhub, Semne Bune, Revista Golan, Happ.ro, Litera 9, AIVI Media Hub.

Vanner is a collective of theater creators from Romania and Ireland, formed in Great Britain in 2014. Growing innovative ideas and artistic projects, Vanner speaks to people through provocative, fresh, current, accessible theatre.