Radu Afrim. The Fabric of Fragility

Cristina Rusiecki, Radu Afrim. The Fabric of Fragility
translated by Samuel W. Onn și Eugen Wohl, foreword by Dieter Topp, president of the German Foundation KulturForum Europa, afterword by Cristiana Gavrilă, graphic design by Nicu Ilie



 
Theatre directors are not rock stars. They don’t have flocks of admirers following them around to ask for an autograph. Perhaps the only exception, the only Romanian theatre director with an authentic fan base is Radu Afrim. For years now, his name on the posters is enough to fill a theatre hall. No matter the performance, the audience is huge. When his productions from different theatres in the country tour in Bucharest, theatre halls are crammed. The Odeon Theatre (that usually hosts these guest productions) is taken by storm. When he directs a performance in Bucharest, his faithful audiences come from Brăila or from Ploiești or... from all over the country to see them. His personal blog or his Facebook account are frantically followed. Radu Afrim remains the favourite director of young audiences, be they theatre specialists or civilians.
 
How can Radu Afrim’s success be explained? In all honesty, he is one of the few theatre directors to change the face of the Romanian theatre of the past decade. Ever since his debut, he has been a creator with a distinct vision. His theatrical universe is always recognizable. The space he creates, with delicate slides outside the real, or “reality supplements”, as the artist likes to call them in his interviews, is unmistakable. His slightly grotesque humour, more often than not, a humour of delay, with infusions of surrealist vapours, is always doubled by the unexpressed vulnerability of the (anti)heroes. His playful theatre, an indeterminate blend of innocence and derision, guarantees an escape from everyday life.
Cristina Rusiecki
 
_______________
 

Radu Afrim is a theatrical diamond whose glitter shines out from Romania towards Europe. He is not merely a Romanian artist. He takes Romanian playwriting and directing across borders. He is a de facto cultural ambassador for Europe. But this fragile Romanian plant must be protected. His is a theatre of the heart, of the intellect and of art. He exorcises the evil from the darkest of things, allowing the positive side to shine.
Dieter Topp, President of the German foundation KulturForum Europa
 

Analysis, yes, but also interpretation and hermeneutics and psychoanalytic touches and aesthetic judgment, and metaphysical argument, and, above all, vision. Yes, Cristina Rusiecki has the nerve to propose an Afrimanschauung, recte an Afrimian perspective on life, and this life, for the Romanian director, is undoubtedly the theatre.
Valentin Protopopescu, “The Book, an Opportunity of Digging Deeply”
in Cultura Magazine
 

Articulated as a fan-portrait of “productions”, a fan which will fully open at the end, the book “is conceived symphonically, reiterating the themes, motives and leitmotifs within various categories of performances”. This exciting journey, through the interstices or through the canvas on which the embroidery, the knots and the point - counterpoint make up a kaleidoscopic drawing, promotes reading in a breath as – to remain in the area of music – the musicians play a score that marked with ATTAC – without a break between two contrasting reasons. 
Cornelia Maria Savu, “Book clichés good ruffled”
in Cultura Magazine
 

Cristina Rusiecki discusses the topics from multiple perspectives, strips the productions in numerous layers, trying a deep plunge into Afrim’s universe, and also one close to visual surfaces that outlines strongly the work of the director until now.
Cristiana Gavrilă, “Radu Afrim, Book Character”
in BeWhere Magazine
 

Radu Afrim, The Tissues of fragility by Cristina Rusiecki is an album-book written with style, competence and much empathy – about a very good theatre director – and I recommend it without hesitation. This is an excellent guide to the world of Radu Afrim before (or parallel to) going to his theatre performances. 
Adina Dinițoiu, “Introduction in Radu Afrim’s Universe”
in Bookaholic
 

Cristina Rusiecki’s book deserves appreciation due to both the graphic quality of the artwork album (integrating numerous photos made by Afrim himself, who is also a talented photographer), and in terms of the analytical construction, describing accurately the Afrim brand: “savoury humour, dizzy-cute characters who have no clue what the world is and in fact they do not even show any grip on it, but who develop, with their serious look, a tireless playful feeling”. The author builds her analysis following two essential coordinates in Afrim’s theatre: the special nature of his characters and the set design which plays an important role in emphasizing the message. 
Silvia Dumitrache, “A Book in Love”
in Bookaholic
 

This type of writing seeks not to lose the directorial process, the humour in contrast with the dramatic tension, the point of a distancing “game” but also one of getting the audience close within the thread of the “story”. 
Ion Cazaban, „Subject: Afrim”
in Theatre Today Magazine
 

Relying on examples from his performances, Cristina Rusiecki’s analysis convinces us that we do not stand only in front of a destroyer with a nonconformist appetite, but also in front of an original artist who replaces some worn-out theatrical techniques with others to express his own outlook on life and on the theatre stage in relation to it.
Doina Papp, “The Performance of a Book” 
in 22 Magazine

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