Last night, the Tony Bulandra Theater in Târgoviște. Preview with the play “Omul bun din Seciuan”, by Bertold Brecht, directed by Dumitru Acriș. The scenography created by master Mc Ranin.
The hall, full of eyes of the public. The scene, shrouded in a mysterious smoke that, lightly, smoothly, sweetly, imperceptibly, had connected the spectators to what was going to happen in that perimeter. The minimalist decor. Panels with mirrors, plenty of space to unleash the acting game.
You start. In the background a black and white projection. The heavy steps of a bare-footed man treading heavily on marshy ground. Actually, a rice field. It comes from somewhere, it goes somewhere. Undefined. Important, as usual, in this show staged by Dumitru Acriș, the music and the lights that entered into a pleasant symbiosis with the choreography, with the expressive gesture used in abundance by the actors to create feelings, characters, moods, situations.
A play about the human condition, about sin and faith, about evil and goodness. About love and hate, hope and despair.
During more than two hours, the actors from Tony Bulandra were as if caught in a real marathon of aesthetics, creating a living picture of a society, of an existence. An amalgam of characters and characters in a pagan but also divine ritual.
A story of an unfulfilled life, fulfilled through the imaginary involvement of the Divine, collapsed, in the end, from too much love and trust. Like a crucifixion.
The piece begins with a prayer and ends with a prayer. Sacagiul asks those in the community who were living their lives in ignorance, debauchery, carelessness, to host God, the savior of mankind awaited for over 2000 years. No one cares about the prayers of the young man who sells water, hope.
The director knew how to show excellently this state of indifference shown by the community through the complex gesture, through a dance containing elements easily decoded by the audience.
In the end, a young prostitute, Shen Te, responds to the pleas of the sackful Vang, a girl kneeling by destiny, by life, but in whom, it seems, kindness, hope, trust still shone. God rewards her with money for opening the doors of his poverty and receiving him to rest. He urges her to change, to lead a different life.
Shen Te, caught in this new mirage, becomes a different person. Invest the money in a store. A tobacco shop. The community, hypocritical, profiteers, changes its attitude, seeking, after ignoring and detesting her for so long, to get into the graces of the one rewarded by God, to take advantage of her money, of the goodness poured out, as it happens usually, uncalculated, blindly, naive.
A society of corruption, of profiteers, of heartbreakers ingeniously reflected by Acriș’s directorial conception. A complex plot written by Brecht, staged even more complexly, as in a ritual, as in a biblical story.
The aviator also appears, tied by an unseen cord to his mother. Dependent. An individual left as if prey to childhood and naivety, impeccably interpreted by Liviu Cheloiu. Saved by Shen Te when, in despair, he wants to hang himself, later he penetrates his naive, open heart and takes advantage, pursues his interest, the almost pathological desire to fly, to become an aviator. The influence of cousin Shui Ta who, in the first phase, wants to help her, to support her in his small business, to protect her from the harmful influence of those around her, but, in the end, he too is infested by the forces of society, by fake, of corruption, of the desire for aggrandizement. Shen Te, the good man of Seciuan, becomes easy prey. A benefactor in a world that only wants to profit…
The water seller, transformed as it were into a seller of illusions, is oppressed by the community. Beaten by the barber, the most prosperous and influential man. When it comes to society’s intervention, finding out the truth, punishing the guilty, everyone backs down. Nobody wants to take responsibility. Cowardice is an existential condition.
Good, through a contest of circumstances created by the corrupt, lying world, turns into evil, into suffering. Managed by Shen Te with only love and trust becomes bankrupt. A spinning wheel. It ends where it left off. A game of life in a circle.
Tiresome, exhausting the actors’ game of showing the audience, using as effects only the gesture and the well-chosen music, the downfall of a society, the ordeal of a defeated love. The hopelessness of a world that does not live beyond the present, that prefers to leave the future in uncertainty, to chance.
The ending is original. Everything disappears. Nothing. Nothing remains. The young water seller ends with his prayer to the Divinity, this time said painfully, as if he too was disappointed by what had happened, by the love he showed to Shen Te, but which remained unrequited by her. The projection. Footsteps of the barefoot man through the rice paddy swamp. And then quiet. Ingenious ending. Symbolic.
The audience applauds. The appearance of the actors on the stage is expected, as usual. But they don’t come back… The void remains. The complete, deep calm, like after a storm.
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