London Life Archive

Ashes Afar By Andreea Borţun

Romanian Cultural Institute

 Wed 12 April 2017

"Following critical acclaim at Edinburgh 2015, ASHES AFAR had a Spring 2017 one-off performance at The Romanian Cultural Institute’s new performance space in London’s Belgrave Square."

Read the rest of Shaun Traynor's review here:

https://bestoflondonlife.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/ashes-afar-burns-romanian-cultural-institute-london/

THEATRE REVIEW

Şi cu violoncelul ce facem? / What Shall We Do with the Cello

By Matei Vişniec

Directed by: Vasile Nedelcu '

'What Shall We Do With The Cello?' is one of many of the writings by Matei Vişniec to be banned by the Ceauşescu regime in Romania, causing the playwright and poet to seek asylum in Paris in 1987, where he still lives and writes. And one can see why- it is the most absurd and wonderful, dangerously surrealist metaphor depicting how a nation deals and/or attempts to deal with - brutal oppression.

I had the great privilege of seeing it last night in THE CAGE which is within the vaults of London’s Waterloo – an appropriate enough setting, since the rumbling of trains overhead- heard unexpectedly and randomly - were like the muffled, menacing, underground sound of tanks advancing, or bombing.

But the play is more about the nail-bombing destruction of the mind. How does one deal with an oppressor, a serial abuser?

The plot is simple enough – people are in a “waiting room”, waiting for a train or waiting for a storm to pass; there is amongst them, a cellist playing his instrument; he goes on and on –finally and politely the people in the waiting room ask him to stop playing, it is driving them crazy; until he stops the people in the waiting roomcan’t be at peace.

He doesn’t stop.

When they go crazy, it’s a serious business … but because this play is of the absurd and surreal - it is also very funny and very acrobatic - there is a lot of well-choregraphed slapstick. So, given that the play is about a brutal regime and with such terrible and shameful connotations for today – how is it that I leave the theatre uplifted? Well, that is the nature of art: it is always uplifting; optimistic, joyful, even.

As I leave the theatre, I leave a play without which my life would have remained all too normal.

The cellist was Nick Allen, the music’s composer, Iancu Dumitrescu; let me name the cast - Simona Armstrong, Mihai Arsene and Tudor Smoleanu, ensemble acting of the highest order; director,Vasile Nedelcu, choreographer Mălina Andrei.

The Vaults, Leake Street, Waterloo, SE1 7NN

Wednesday 8 – Sunday 12 February 2017, 7.15pm

Matinee on Sat 11 Feb, 4.45pm

General admission: £12

Review by Shaun Traynor

www.shauntraynor.co.uk