The performance “Exile” and other premieres of the cultural capital of Europe. Review

In 2023, the Romanian city of Timisoara was chosen as one of the cultural capitals of Europe. In addition to a large program of exhibitions, concerts and artistic interventions in public spaces, the theatrical program of the year included the premiere of the play Expulsion, staged by well-known Lithuanian directors and playwrights Oskaras Korshunovas and Marius Ivashkevičius in Russia. From Timisoara – Esther Steinbock.

One of the most noticeable signs for the citizens that they have become residents of the “cultural capital” for a year is a six-story tower of light metal structures lined with living plants on the central square of Timisoara. Although the square is popular, it is a “passage”, it is usually simply crossed in different directions. The authors of the object came up with it so that people suddenly stop, feel surrounded by nature and, climbing to the sixth floor, see the familiar cityscape from an unusual point, and even in a green frame. The landscape, it must be said, is impressive even without lifting: the square is surrounded by impressive buildings, built mainly in the Art Nouveau style at the turn of the century before last and the last, when the city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some of them have already been restored, some look about the same as it was “under Ceausescu”. The budget of the “cultural capital” obviously helps a lot to ensure that as many quarters as possible move from the second category to the first.

Non-original comparisons with the Tower of Babel in the context of the history of Timisoara have an increased right to exist. Once Hungarian and a little German, then for a century and a half Ottoman, then for two centuries Austrian and Austro-Hungarian, which was in the sphere of Serbian interests and for more than a hundred years now, the Romanian city is a visual aid for “mixing languages”. Take, for example, the National Theater of Timisoara, next to which a green tower has been erected. Under the same roof, not only opera and Romanian drama work here, but also two national theaters – Hungarian and German, and quite competitive, which, generally speaking, is a rarity for theaters of national minorities. And this theater itself is also a symbol of the December 1989 revolution: it was in Timisoara that the first actions of disobedience to the Ceausescu regime began, it was the theater that became the headquarters of the opposition for several days, and from its balcony overlooking the square, the declaration of the Democratic Front of Romania was read to the crowd of thousands.

In addition to being a symbol of revolutionary change, the building of the National Theater can be considered a symbol of cultural heritage. It can be said to be a kind of monumental question mark to the problem of the appropriation and use of this heritage. The theater was built at the end of the century before last by the workshop of two, obviously, the most famous theater architects in history – the Viennese Hermann Gelmer and Ferdinand Felner. Having designed dozens of theaters in Central Europe, they, on the one hand, created an international canon of splendor, beauty and convenience of a theater building, on the other hand, they “planted a bomb” under the future of their own creations: it’s stupid not to use them, it’s impossible to rebuild (by the way, the Timisoara Theater in the 1930s, they were greatly altered, but now the changes are the object of protection), and these architectural monuments no longer meet the requirements of the modern understanding of the theater space. As part of the “Cultural Capital”, an exhibition about the heritage of Helmer and Felner was opened at the National Theater, which, using the example of a dozen theater buildings that are now located in Romania, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, invites not so much to marvel at their work as to subject them to a critical revision.

In a sense, Marius Ivashkevičius’s play The Exile has also become a “legacy”, albeit a modern one. One of the brightest dramatic texts of the early 21st century (in Moscow, the play was staged at the Mayakovsky Theater directed by Mindaugas Karbauskis), it largely summed up the new wave of European drama at the turn of the century. The story of the survival of Lithuanian emigrants, who ended up in London knowingly or by chance, has essentially become a story about overcoming despair, about attempts and ways to save oneself. Oskaras Korsunovas has already staged Ivaskevicius’s play more than once, including at the National Theater of Lithuania, and now the new context also contributes to the success of the next return to it.

Korshunovas knows how to work well with artists and, at 54, is still able to charge with vital energy, it seems, any playing space. In the multi-figure play-saga, he finds both a tough modern drama-journey through life, a kind of “Peer Gynt” of our time, and a carnival of various characters, and simply a fascinating game plot, accompanied by a live orchestra.

At the same time, the new production of “Exile” seems to mark segments of the rapidly developing modern history: its action takes place over a period of a little over ten years, and it itself was written a little over ten years ago. The generational shake-up, described in it as an accomplished process, is repeated at a new round of events, albeit with other participants and in other circumstances. The performance thus becomes an actualized memory, but in no way a teaching aid: the recipes and lessons of adaptation of the former “Exile” are not applicable to the current exile.