THE FUTURE IS A PULP STORY

I am not convinced that God has a precise intention for each one of us, but I feel the need to thank him for the fortunate fact of being born in Romania. Had I awoken somewhere in France, Russia, or China, comfortable or miserable, I would have believed there was some sense to the story I had got into. I would have found myself among people who, for better or for worse, partook in something which at least seemed serious. Tradition and, to a certain extent, abstract principles or practical inventions are or furnish things with plausible appearances and give you a thrust forward, on an ample avenue. You listen to political speeches that seem to lead somewhere; you bump into individuals who strongly believe in this or that idea or in their fellow human beings, you occasionally see the faux-pas gesture – solidarity, charity, good will, or at least some politeness. Thank God, I was born in Romania and I was, from the very beginning, vaccinated against illusions. Against any illusion. On the one hand, the social, political and economic disaster, on the other hand, existence in all its nakedness. I couldn’t help myself pushing things to their last consequences, and Romania is precisely that: the limit of the action of simply being. Despite all the lies and the cheating around us, there is a great existential sincerity: nobody gets their hopes high and nobody gives the impression that they might. We are the most honest people. God has chosen the perfect country for me and it would be idiotic for me to immigrate. About 35 years ago I was a child and I remember that a myth was being fabricated about the year 2000. It looked like a science-fiction story: individual flying cars, mysteriously omnipotent waves, and all sorts of wonders. Then, in the ‘70s, futurology became the next fashion. Seemingly earnest scientists were making their drawings on the fairy tale books of the world of tomorrow, which has become today, starting from present-past realities and brandishing infallible principles. I do not recall how much credit I have given to these stories, as I had other things on my mind at the time. It was only later that I understood that, for them, the future was only a prolongation of the present, that they were missing the unpredictable and unavoidable point of disruption. More realistic, mathematicians invented the catastrophe theory in order to describe the evolution of a physical system – and here “catastrophe” is not to be read as Apocalypse. 60 billion years ago, who would have dared not to bet on brontosauruses, choosing instead the tiny mice hiding in the paws of the reptiles? 60 years ago, who would have betted not on the tones of steel, but on the machine developed by Alan Turing to decrypt the messages of the German army? In fact, the future does not exist. There is only a territory of fantasizing, where consciousness takes refuge when it cannot opt for the present. I have heard many sophisticated people saying that they would have rather lived in a different epoch – the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance or whatever, it’s a matter of taste. However learned, these people ignore that paucity of our knowledge of times past and, most of all, this compelling fact: the circumvolutions of their brains and their retinas are condemned to the present. And the present, the only domain of consciousness, is deteriorated in favor of the past or the future. Which, as I said, does not exist.

Vlad Zografi

In a seductive puzzle of tableaux vivants, we arrive in a land where "the devil makes the sign of the cross and goes to church". In tragicomic procession, we see corrupt businessmen, managers of obscure humanitarian aid foundations, thieves, prostitutes, policemen, computer experts, doctors, reporters and TV stars, the familiar faces of our days evolving in a time that is decomposed and insignificant, characters in a dream-nightmare scenario that is human condition devoid of its mystery. For them, God is dead, the world lacks meaning and man lacks purpose. The glass screen symbolizes broken communication, resignation, and fear of life. The show takes us from the moral discomfort produced by these spiritually disabled beings to an elevated stage of self-discovery, alternating clarity and ambiguity. It portrays contemporary Romania but also the world we all live in. The heroes seem to be close relatives of the absurd characters of Beckett and Ionesco. Moral corruption acquires a Surrealist overtone, as the show oscillates between the real and the virtual, using both traditional stage design and video projections. Through the silence between words, a strange feeling infiltrates and pervades the scene. The trivial existence of the characters suddenly opens towards new, unexpected questions.

Ludmila Patlanjoglu -  Adevarul

With Zografi, The Future Is Not A Pulp Story

Mihai Dinvale and Ion Lupu sketch in aqua forte "the president" and "the expert" of a humanitarian foundation, two sleek businessmen, unscrupulously chasing personal gain, trading in compassion on a national and international level. A diversified picture of anguish does wonders for one's export, so they are doing their best to deliver the goods, scouting society for all kinds of squalor.

It could be said that, whereas the Swiss are almost exclusively focused on the present, Romanians are obsessed with their past. Trapped in their attempt to embellish it, they mutilate their present and future. Seen as a confrontation between two mentalities, "The Future Is A Pulp Story" allows comparison with another play by Vlad Zografi, "Peter". The mentality clash acquires universal relevance thanks to Zografi's writing and Nona Ciobanu's directing.

Irina Coroiu - Contemporanul

The Future - A Pulp Story?

The universe the play describes is instantly recognizable for any Romanian, yet this geographical specificity does not affect the general relevance of this show about reigning chaos and our chances in confronting it.

Cristina Modreanu - Adevarul

A Hundred per Cent Romanian Thriller

…the play blends the tonalities of a political pamphlet, of a philosophical writing, the resonance of poetry and prayer.

Insults (a country of idiots and thieves, a people without an identity) are hard to take, so Zografi counterbalances verbal abuse by introducing the character played by Gheorghe Visu: an IT expert manipulated by unscrupulous employers, a feeble man, living beyond good and evil, in the virtual world of his computer, with his back turned to life. His tragedy inconspicuously underlies the entire show, because he seems predestined to redeem the sins of the others. "I want to break the screen, I want to hurt!", he exclaims. His awakening is a sublime moment.

The scene of his institutionalization is an ambiguous one. Here, Nona Ciobanu moves to an abstract, highly suggestive level of her show. The mental asylum looks like the space of ghosts. The work of the devil has been accomplished.

Doina Papp - Observatorul Cultural

One of the merits of the show is the authentic and energetic performance of each actor. Innocence, arrogance, cunning, pretense, derision, emptiness become detached from our daily reality and step, through wonderful acting, on stage, where subtle changes of space are rendered through projections, significantly diminishing the role of traditional set design. The virtual set is the perfect backdrop for the appearance of the statistical man, played with cynicism and irony by Florin Calinescu.

Marina Constantinescu - Romania literara

The Devil Is Speaking Romanian

If someone dared you to choose between Romanian chaos, where any attempt at rational comprehension is thwarted, and, on the other hand, punctilious Swiss order, wouldn't you hesitate? There is an irresistible attraction to Romania. Where can one find such genuine and ingenious thieves and beggars? Romania shapes one's mind on paradox, on ambivalent structures and oxymoron. And one feels like chanting: How fortunate for me to be born in Romania. The playwright Vlad Zografi admits that, seeing in his country the most fertile source of inspiration. "God has chosen for me the perfect country and it would be idiotic to immigrate." One can find anything here, provided that one's gaze lingers around long enough, with humor and integrity. Zografi and Ciobanu portray a country in eternal, agonizing bedlam, pervaded by an evil that has become banal and spontaneous. On the devil's playground, even the devil is powerless and has to resort to a stratagem - he will save people, assault them with revelations of the truth, so that their falling will be more disastrous.

Nona Ciobanu's show renders very accurately this dystopic world, integrating the audience through some remarkable directorial solutions in the dangerous game of salvation. The past is counterfeit, the present succumbs to deprecation, while the future builds in successive strata of projected stories.

Mihaela Michailov - Observatorul cultural

The Future Is A Pulp Story - What a beautiful country!

With this story about us and our failures, we laugh a lot, yet the shadow of despair lurks and grows menacingly. Directed by Nona Ciobanu, a remarkable talent of the new generation, the show avoids closure. Evil can be distinguished with more and more difficulty from good, as is madness from normalcy. One of the strong points is the soundtrack written by Ada Milea: powerful, thought-provoking songs that will disturb complacent minds.

Mariana Cris - ABC-Cultural

The Present Is the Only Domain of Consciousness