What was shown at the International Theater Festival in Sibiu in 2023

In Romanian Sibiu, the traditional International Theater Festival is taking place – this year it turns 30 years old. Among the dozens of performances included in its program, world-famous directors showed their work – the British Katie Mitchell and the Swiss, the new artistic director of the Vienna Festival Milo Rau. Went to Transylvania Esther Steinbock.

Today, the experience of the National Theater named after Radu Stanca from the city of Sibiu and its director Konstantin Kyriak is studied in many art management courses. For three decades, they have turned a little-known town in Transylvania into one of the theatrical centers of Europe. And even today there are many people who are distrustful of reports that one of the largest theater forums in the world is being held in the Romanian province and that the theater has changed the fate of a small city that has become an exemplary cultural and tourist center. But the festival booklet speaks for itself: a good kilo of pages filled with small print, a large international program of performances of all genres, street performances at several venues daily, a theater market, a festival of student performances, readings, forums, discussions from morning to evening. Sometimes it seems that everything has become “that match”, that elegant Sibiu is about to burst from the density of events, but so far the city is somehow coping with the irrepressible energy of its honorary citizen, Mr. Kyriakos.

One of the ideas that once seemed like a somewhat naive attempt to become “like in Hollywood” was the Walk of Fame – a promenade along the fortress wall of old Sibiu, in which stars with the names of celebrities who took part in the festival are mounted. But ten years have passed – and the road leading from the old theater building, the oldest theater site in Transylvania, to the place where the new theater building should soon be erected, has turned into the history of the newest theater, lasting right under the feet of the audience. One thing only confused many guests of the festival in this undertaking: on more than fifty stars decorating the alley (there are the names of Lev Dodin, Evgeny Mironov and Rimas Tuminas on it), by the current festival there were only two or three female names. This time, it was decided to correct the ethical mistake at once – four women appeared on the Walk of Fame at once, three choreographers and one director – British Katie Mitchell.

By the way, Mitchell is the only one of the four ladies who was not personally present at the ceremony: the entire theatrical world knows that she is so concerned about environmental issues that she basically does not fly on airplanes. And getting by train from London to Sibiu is a so-so idea. The performance, which Mitchell was presented in the festival poster, is also dedicated to environmental issues. “(Not yet) the end of the world” staged at the Berlin theater “Schaubühne” based on the play by the Englishman Chris Bush. The first and most important thing to know about this performance is that all the electricity for it is produced right on the stage by two cyclists, pedaling tirelessly for an hour and a half (it must be said that Mitchell tried this technique long ago, back in the famous performance ” Breath” of the same theater). And the fact that the entire decoration was created from a selection – for the sake of “(not) the end of the world” no new materials were purchased or used.

However, the design is the last thing to focus on here. The play plays out the same situation: a young scientist wants to work for a well-known climate change researcher, but every time something goes wrong: either she is late, or she chooses the wrong type of transport, or the scientific luminary is just in a bad mood. Three actresses take part in the performance, there are three doors on the stage – and dozens of identically structured episodes, each, it seems, no more than a minute long: the actresses simply go out, start playing the episode and leave, moving backwards, interrupted by sound and light signals. In fact, nothing happens on the stage, except for this gloomy, stupefying movement, but from the third participant in a rather exhausting experiment for the average viewer, the public learns a lot of information about the deplorable state of the environment through the fault of man. Capitalism and colonialism, as they say, have not received such resounding as well as on-duty slaps in the face for a long time, as in Mitchell’s fresh production. This is the case when the actual “agenda” defeated the unconditional talent of the famous director and activist.

Director Milo Rau, like Mitchell, who was marked with a new star on the alley in Sibiu, is also one of the directors concerned with the problems of society and all sorts of injustices in the world order, among the apologists for documentaries and “reenactments” of real events. In Sibiu, he showed, though not new, but very strong his play “Family”, staged at the Belgian theater NTGent. In part, this is a kind of artistic “re-enactment” of the widely known collective suicide – in 2007, an entire family, a mother, father and their two children, hanged themselves in the city of Calais. The motive for the suicide was never understood by the investigators, the note left behind was only “Sorry, we’re confused.”

On the stage, the audience sees through the house, where the family spends a seemingly ordinary evening – the father is preparing dinner, the mother is talking on the phone, the two daughters are watching videos or just being bored. And the house is life-size, and the evening itself too. Only by the credits, dividing the action into chapters, we understand from the very beginning that something is being prepared, and then we understand that something terrible is being prepared. Milo Rau skillfully “poureds” horror that appears from nowhere into everyday rhythms and words. The decision to leave life is presented as a calm statement of the meaninglessness, exhaustion of life, and we see everyday preparations for death – as if people are going to go to sleep, and not into non-existence. Rau’s strongest directorial move is that in front of the viewer on stage is a real family, actors An Miller and Philip Peters and their two daughters, Leons and Louise. That is, each performance becomes not just a performance, but a kind of test for a particular family. Indeed, in the finale, four, having put nooses on their necks, really jump off the chairs together and sway, hanging themselves, in the middle of the stage. How this is technically done is not clear. But none of the spectators who saw the play “The Family” will surely never forget it.