Premiere of „Disappearing” at the „Sava Ognyanov” Theatre in Ruse, Bulgaria

From the premiere of „Disappearing” at the „Sava Ognyanov” Theatre in Ruse, Bulgaria

The story of the Romanian-German writer Elise Wilk „Disappearing” deals with a Transylvanian Saxon family from 1945 until today, the consequences of war, loss of home, emigration, in a not only typically Romanian-German sense.

In the production of the „Sava Ognyanov” Theatre in Ruse, Bulgaria, in the immediate vicinity of Romania, the Moldovan director Dumitru Acris interpreted the plot in three episodes of this history now in a Bulgarian premiere. „Disappearance” here meant the dissolution of a society, as it were. The focus was on three women from three generations of a family. From 1945 and deportation to Russia until 1989, flight from the Ceaușescu dictatorship, then shattered dreams of a rich Germany even after Romania joined the EU around 2007.

Six actresses and actors slipped into the roles of the respective family members on three different time levels. In three winters at times of great historical upheaval, we saw them love, quarrel, fight for their dreams, despair and start anew. To leave or to stay?

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Dumitru Acriș pune pe scena Teatrului Sava Ognyanov din Ruse spectacolul ”Dispariții” de Elise Wilk

Director Acris dramaturgically embedded the story and play about the trauma of the society of the Transylvanian Saxons (Romanian Germans) in numerous scenic images and elements of awareness between misery, frustration and brutality, deliberately omitting the comedic aspects of Wilk’s original text. This ultimately prevented the protagonists from finding inner resources. The tragedy of history could not and probably should not be coped.

„Eastern Europe is more than ever in the public focus in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine, which has now become an anniversary. Without looking to Eastern Europe, addressing the upheavals of the past and present, the picture of our world and current developments remains an incomplete one.”

With „Disappearance”, the Theatre Ruse brought a very special production of Eastern European drama to the stage.

Every generation asks itself this question anew. Flight and expulsion are themes that once again play a major role. Historical upheavals and insecurities are experiences that are likely to be familiar to many people, especially in Eastern Europe, and which also have a current explosiveness here in Ruse.

Citește și: Mihai Constantin Ranin semnează scenografia spectacolului ”Dispariții” montat în Bulgaria

In the fitting minimalist stage and costume design by MC Ranin, Dumitru Acris forced the actors to extreme top performances. As a „Stanislavski” connoisseur and expert, he conducted them all down to every single „blink of an eye”, forcing the protagonists into a corset that did not allow them any acting attitude of their own. In this stage show, everything interlocked like precisely timed cogs in the clockwork of his direction, from the struggle for life, despair, new beginnings and almost no hope.

The director added a topical component to the constant repetition of disappearances. While signs from the Nazi, Ceausescu and EU eras visually illuminated the progress of the story to the right and left of the stage, Ukraine and Russian flags flashed at the end to the sound of sirens. The actors disappeared after their stories were told and the audience was successively released into the hopelessness of another war. Again the question: stay or go?

„The audience can expect a lot of moving stories and psychological theatre from this show, which is unfortunately rarely performed in Bulgaria anymore. It is a foreign form, but in the beautiful sense of the word and in any case it is exciting,” attested theatre director Boian Ivanov.

Citește și: Boian Ivanov, Teatrul Sava Ognyanov din Ruse, despre spectacolul Dispariții, regia Dumitru Acriș

„This performance is a challenge and a pleasure. I think that more and more people are looking for the human in this world of digitalisation, where we have access to all kinds of things. The audience wants to feel real human emotions, the warmth of our bodies, the tears in our eyes, real laughter. I believe that this is the most valuable thing that can happen to an actor: to return to the essence of the acting profession and meaningful theatre,” added actress Kristiana Tsenkova.

Just recently, the German premiere took place at the Uckermärkische Bühnen Schwedt/Oder. The theatre „Sava Ognyanov”, Ruse, is invited to the International Babel Festival in the Romanian town of Targoviste in June with „Disappearance”. The topicality of the subject is likely to lead to performances in other countries.

Autor: Dieter Topp, german journalist Kultur Forum Europa, board member in Babel Festival

German Version: https://www.kfe.de/news/mitteillungen.php?mitteillung_id=184

Romanian version: Premiera spectacolului „Dispariții” la Teatrul „Sava Ognyanov” din Ruse, Bulgaria

Foto: Stefan N. Shterev