Director’s Intent
From the beginning I wanted to create a bizarre and playful world where we could talk about failure. I chose Mihaela Michailov, Peca Ștefan and Elise Wilk, whom I joined as a playwright and we built a shared world. Our texts have characters who never meet, but all pass through the same places, watch the same sunset, listen to the same radio and watch the same vlog. They just relate differently, just as we all relate differently to the proposed theme. I’d say the direction, set design and lighting bring all 4 different styles of text to a common denominator. Together with Oana Micu and Lucian Moga, we created a space that suits everyone: it has a bit of mystery (inspired by Elisei Wilk’s scene), a bit of poetry (inspired by Mihaela Michailov’s scene), a bit of technology (from Peca Ștefan) and a bit of bizarreness, of absurdity, from me. The story is relevant to the viewer because it creates more avenues for interpretation and retelling. You can easily mirror yourself in a situation because it’s not presented with a single grain of truth. It’s important for the audience to feel the tenderness with which we worked to create these characters.
Synopsis
The action takes place in an imaginary city, in an imaginary time. Somewhere near us, sometime close. We are in an atypical future. It’s not a rigorous one in which things work perfectly. It’s one in which television is off the air and we listen to the world’s turmoil on Radio One. In this time we watch a Vlog of people like us being watched. The future is one where humanity doesn’t disappear. Only our way of relating to ourselves is different. But very possible.
InCREDibil, through its stories, fixes in time and space 11 variations on the theme of individual and collective fulfilment and failure, and proposes a moment of reflection on responsibility in the evolution – or involution – of the world we live in. Four stories, four micro-stories, written by four authors, Mihaela Michailov, Peca Ștefan, Leta Popescu and Elise Wilk. The show is a fresco of the present world in which failure is solely the product of our vulnerability. The characters in this bitter comedy seek to increase their level of happiness in the most convenient way, namely by lying and lying to each other, because lying is a unique, contemporary drug.
Artistic Team
Directed by Leta Popescu
Set design: Oana Micu
Light design: Lucian Moga
With: Paula Maria Frunzetti, Ion Rizea, Cristian Szekeres, Romeo Ioan, Ana Maria Pandele,
Photo credit: Virgil Simonescu
Reviews
“The subtlety with which she mixes different motifs and leitmotifs remains the director’s most savoury asset. (…) It is a difficult task for the director to unify texts written by different authors, with different themes, different styles, and unrelated characters. For the most part, the gamble succeeded.”
„The Incredible (IN)Credible is a labyrinth of happiness, which thoroughly examines from countless angles and an infinite number of perspectives this intangible feeling: you are “not alone”. Happiness seems to be, paradoxically, both the primary goal and the ultimate fear (…). Malice, envy, frustration, duplicity and lies are the main destructive factors of both ourselves and those around us, ensuring our path to destruction, frustration and failure. All of this is presented through a screamingly colourful packaging, where the ever-present playfulness is added, laughter being the eternal salvation of existence, which never betrays.”