The Romanian Theatre in Cluj, now called Lucian Blaga, is such a beautiful building, it is worth going to a play just to see the internal architecture.
According to a guided tour, the building was controversial from its inception. The design was done by an Austrian firm, but local firms complained that the bidding process was not inclusive enough, and so two local firms were contracted in its completion. Avram Iancu’s statue was only built across from there in the 1990s, with Caritas money. At one point, that position had a cannon facing the Orthodox church.
In any case, the ceilings will provoke many people to take out their phones to share a photo. Then you’ll hear an annoucement, in English and Romanian, please put your phones away for the performance.
When the performance begins, you will see actors that you might be familiar with. I recognised a few who starred in quite a few films that showed at the TIFF (Transylvania International Film Festival) or who played roles in Mircea Bravo. It is a treat to see them on stage, to see the actors push their range with the classics.
The English subtitles were adequate. The Romanian might be too fast for some learners, so you might find yourself looking more at the titles than at the stage.
Are the chairs comfortable? That is debated. Some expats feel that they are too rigid, others say they just force you to sit up straight. It might help if you leave your coat in the coat rack outside. In spring, it did seem more comfortable. You could go to see it with 11 friends, and debate for an hour afterwards about whether the chairs were comfortable or not.
Tickets are extremely reasonable. For students or pensioners, a theatre ticket is less than a fast food meal.
Okay, but is it worth your time? Well, the play seemed complete enough. 12 oameni furiosi, or 12 angry men, was based on the American story of a jury who is about to convict a man for murder. While the play has been translated, and some figures of speech are made Romanian, the original setting seems to be preserved. They don’t mention baseball so much, saying instead the match (and we can easily imagine he is talking about a baseball match). We can easily imagine, for most of the play, that the characters are talking about something that happened in Romania, but for one detail.
The death penalty, the details of jury etiquette, those are just slightly more American. While the Romanian court system is similar, the death penalty is associated with communist times, or perhaps medeival Romania. When we see modern ideas like appartments, sports matches, eyeglasses, and so on, perhaps we might associate it with communist Romania.
To Americans and Brits and expats from other English speaking countries, it might be surprising to hear that the jury system is not universal among “democracies.” Trial by jury something people take for granted in much of the world. Perhaps the lack of it is what causes corruption and other forms of injustice.
The play itself seemed to be a good abridgement of the American film. We could follow the story well, see the characters react and grow in a small space. The narrative kept the main Dutch rule of storytelling, “someone trying to do something but something else getting in the way.” Not all plays these days really create this tension, and many abridgements lose it.
The acting was convincing. Everyone seemed to stay in characters, even though the characters grew as the play progressed. The directing seemed pretty good as well, at least someone sorted the play out so it was easy to see what was going on. While it was not always obvious what the OHP was showing, during key points, it really stood out.
The ending was satisfactory. We knew the play was over. It felt the main character earned that ending too, and that it emerged from the story. Okay, so it is based on another play, but I have seen translations and adaptations where they just skip over the details of the plot and throw up an ending.
By the end of the play, people with a1-b2 Romanian might learn a few words, like “Vinovat, nevinovat.” However, if you are trying to learn Romanian, it might take some discipline to look away from the subtitles.
I think it is worth going to see this play. At the end, when the applause came, they seemed genuine.