THE STAR CAPE
by Milorad Pavic adapted by Nona Ciobanu
Astrologic guide for amateurs
A horoscope of love in a time and space of a dream, in a poetic universe where mythical, astrological and religious elements intertwine.
The dream is the vehicle that allows the access and transfer of five love stories on several floors of time and space.
Nona Ciobanu
A young woman wakes up one morning in a foreign bed, speaks a strange language, on the bank of a large river, in a different sign than the one in which she was born, Cancer. Thus begins her psychotic odyssey in different existences and hatreds, her journey between the boundaries of six dreams, which traverse the inexhaustible reincarnations of love. .."The choral autobiography" of the heroine consists of five love stories, five dreams in which the soul-mate follows the path determined by the stars. The lovers from the first dream live on the banks of the Danube in the 15th century: Filipa Avranezovic, the Scorpio woman who can kill with a poisoned kiss, and a handsome Aquarius. The dreamer wakes up as a Capricorn man in the second story, in love with a beautiful woman with eyes like gall from the sign of Aries. The third story reveals from the correspondence carried by Teodora, the one born under the sign of Pisces, with her teacher the strange experience of time and a mysterious connection with a blind Sagittarius, the one who steals her time in the 18th century. In the fourth story, Archondula Nehama is a Greek-speaking and intoxicated Virgin, and at the border between life and death she meets her Gemini lover. In the fifth story, full of spells, despair and dangers, the Minotaur forgets himself and the love that binds him to a Libra.
MIC Theatre
APRIL 2009
Directed and adapted by
NONA CIOBANU
Set and light design, multimedia
IULIAN BĂLŢĂTESCU
Sound universe
NONA CIOBANU
Costume design
DOINA LEVINTZA
Foto Gallery
Cast
Minotaurul, Ţigan, Războinic la curtea lui Kir Jeremija, Student, Bărbat fără cap
CRISTIAN IACOB
Domnişoara cheală, Dionisia
VALENTINA POPA
Dionsie Areopagitul
MIHAELA RĂDESCU
Teodora, Spălătoreasă, Călugăriţă, Ţigancă, O doamnă exotică de pe iaht
SIMONA MIHĂESCU
Profesorul, Războinic la curtea lui Kir Jeremija, Un domn exotic de pe iaht, Bărbat fără cap
ION LUPU
Dimitris, Ţigan, Războinic la curtea lui Kir Ieremia, Catîr, Bărbat fără cap
BOGDAN TALAŞMAN
Doctorul, Călugăr, Un domn exotic de pe iaht, Bărbat fără cap
RADU ZETU
Kir Jeremija, Kir Spiridon, Un domn exotic de pe iaht, Bărbat fără cap
AVRAM BIRĂU
Celjadin Avranezovic - tatăl Filipei, Ţigan, Un domn exotic de pe iaht, Bărbat fără cap
PETRE MORARU
Arhondula, Spălătoreasă, Ţigancă, O studentă
ILINCA MANOLACHE
Dalona, Agata, Călugăriţă, Spălătoreasă, O studentă
RUXANDRA ENESCU
Cerşetorul, Ţigan, Arhitectul mexican de pe iaht, Bărbat fără cap
RADU IACOBAN
Capricornul, Războinic la curtea lui Kir Jeremija, Un student, Chelner, Bărbat fără cap
VIOREL COJANU
Prohor, Catâr, Chelner, Bărbat fără cap
ŞTEFAN LUPU
Filipa, Catârgiul Jupiter, Ţigancă, Prietena Dionisiei
CLAUDIA PREC
Mrs, Chelner
CUZIN TOMA
Spălătoreasă, O studentă
CAMELIA VLĂDUŢ
Spălătoreasă
FLOAREA STĂNOI
Bărbaţi fără cap
BOGDAN ANGHELESCU
LIVIU ŞTEFAN
ADRIAN DIMA
ADRIAN LASLO
VASILE ENACHE
RADU MARIAN
MIRCEA NIŢESCU
Awards
Reviews
The Stars Cape,a beautiful performance
by Marina Roman -Yorick
Eros and Thanatos, heaven and hell, dream and reality ... Or about freedom ...
As absolute premiere, Nona Ciobanu's show opened for me this book that I will keep at hand: The Stars Cape- Astrological Guide. A novel to be read again and again – for the playfulness of composing and decomposing the Zodiac maps and because of the correlation net in which the characters are interwoven – and philosophical poem (the writer Milorad Pavić, 1929-2009, graduated from the Faculty of philosophy of Belgrade University and has a doctorate in comparative literature in Zagreb) that creates a universe in which you, take part as an active reader. "I tried everything humanly possible to me to remove or destroy the beginning and the end of my novels" – confessed Pavić. "I tried to avoid, at least until now, the old way of reading, which means to browse a book from the traditional beginning to the traditional end." Thus results, a non-linear approach, a close interactive writing (as for multimedia).
I saw the show, then I read the novel. I admit, I was impressed by the clarity of the text cut by Nona Ciobanu and how she knew to maintain its poetry and mystery. Because the story contains several stories: one night of our time, a young French woman sleeps with her boyfriend in a hotel in Paris, but "I dreamed – tells the girl whose name, the only true one was forgotten - a kind water above me. I woke up in the XVth century not knowing a single word in French. Now I speak a strange language that serve the fishermen from a large river. My name is Filipa Avranezovic, I am fifteen years old and I am ready to kill someone. I am not a Cancer, but a Scorpio, my boyfriend which was Lion, is not the one from Paris, - now I'm deeply in love with a boy who is Aquarius. A boy who is wearing on his phallus a seal ring and with whom I lost my virginity for the second time ...
The dream is a reality updated story. Every love story is interwoven with mystery and death, with mythical suggestions or biblical symbols ...
For decor, light-design and multimedia, the director collaborated again with Julian Băltăţescu. Together they create the video signs strewn by Pavić in texture of the novel. The fountain and the tree-axis mundi of the "astrologist" Dionsie Areopagitul (Mihaela Rădescu) or in which you see, just for a moment, the Minotaur (Cristian Iacob) into a position with reference to the image of Jesus on the cross, remain the weight of the scenes. The men without heads and the bombs which are born instead of children, augment the approach of Nona Ciobanu's staging.
The Stars Cape an undertaking, even more complex than of Canterbury Tales (another successful performance of Nona Ciobanu), is, first of all, a beautiful performance that creates for the word (homogeneous distribution of the entire alleged) a straight road to the spectator.