 So welcome everybody to the Martin E. Segal Theater Center here at the Graduate Center. My name is Frank Henschka, I'm the director of programs and the executive director of the Segal Center. We do bridge the academia in professionals, the international and American theater. We are close towards the end of the season, but like in every good production in theater, you have to have something really good at the beginning and you have to have something really good at the end. So something in between doesn't completely work out, people will forgive you. Now we come in closer to the end and we just had a great evening with the Italian players and now we have something again very significant I think in the great evening store. We have tonight the channel with us and here she is. Fluid from Bucharest, where did you come? The day before yesterday. The day before yesterday, just truly to be here with us. We have a history with her, we had her as a guest eight years ago, and I had a reading of her play, one of her plays and also we published it in our volume, which was outside and we will also have it later on. And it is my great pleasure to also have Christina with us tonight who came to us with the idea we are friends, was in a camp to our program. She likes to have a prelude festival and other things we do. So we are in a constant dialogue as with so many other supporters. And tonight we will hear a truly extraordinary play directed by Tamela, who also has a long history with us. So it's a wonderful, in a way a family evening but also a very global presentation of things we always do here. So thank you all for coming to the structure of the evening will be introductions. A few words I ask her, about ten minutes to our contemporary theatre in Romania, of course it's not enough, it's a fantastic culture in Romania, it's a great theatre culture for a long time. Also actually having a Yiddish theatre, one of the few really working Yiddish theatre which is still on its own across from the National Theatre in Moshe Azor often who is here and directs and works there a lot. And even so, one of all the actors comes from a Jewish European background where people learn Yiddish language and perform. And the audience also in Romania is not really a part of the Jewish community but they do come in for over 40 years or 50 years now. They created something incredibly special. He wants to do the evening about this here. So after the reading there, after the introduction, we'll be reading 40, 50 minutes of medieval Q&A and some questions also with you and then a reception here in this very, very home. So again, thank you all for coming. The holiday season and most of our colleagues have folded their tents and so that's it. And we think if we have a great programme, so many things, we really want to show them, want to make it happy and we want to say yes instead of no and thank you for Marvin Carlson who is here with us tonight. It's a great way to support all the Seville Centre but also Professor of Theatre here at the Gwadar Center. We're a significant force in international and globally and we're one of the leading Professor of Theatre, Bonnie Marangha from P.J. Art Journal, Stacey Brown from ArtsLink, so and many, many others. So really it means a lot to us to have such a great, great audience as we always say it's good to have a good important theatre and we also need a really, really good audience so thank you for being here with us tonight. My last note is about the phone. Just take a moment, I'll do the same. I'll take it out, please, and check that it's off. So it doesn't ring. Okay, mine is off now. And then before I hand it over to Christina, it is my great pleasure to say in deep gratitude, our thanks to the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. Can you raise your arms over here? From the Romanian Cultural Institute. That's exceptional work, I think, for the courses of the Cultural Institute in the city also over a long period of time, also with your former colleagues. So thank you for being here and supporting us. Christina. Thank you so much, Ren, for this kind introduction. And thank you. It's kind of formal here, but yeah. Thank you for being so open to the idea of introducing the Romanian Theatre in your series of International Theatre. That's a very important step for us. We were just talking with Janina earlier on that we were here eight years ago when you published, Marty Siever Center published a volume in the Romanian New Place. And here now that's the next step. It's going to be a very, very short presentation because of course there are a lot of things to say of Romanian Theatre, but just to raise a little bit of a background to understand how this new generation emerged, I'm going to divide the recent history of Romanian Theatre in before 1989 and after 1989, the moment when the political regime changed in Romania and we started our long and very complicated transitional journey from communism to capitalism. It's a very interesting journey, especially for playwrights. They have a lot of things to pick up from these changes and so they do. So before 1989, next slide, just a few words about the Romanian Theatre was very text-based. So directors were engaging classical texts, mostly less new plays because the propaganda was using the playwrights of the time, so directors were afraid, sometimes they were avoiding taking on the new plays because they were commissioned by the regime. So what happened was that the directors were engaging in our conversation with the audience using these classical texts and building a metaphorical language full of illusions and forcing somehow the spectators to read between the lines. So it was a game of cat and mouse, mice and in a way, and the public enjoyed it very much. After these illusions were called the lizards because the ability of the small animals, it was a comparison with the ability of the small animals to sneak around. So it was a conversation outside the classical texts followed all the time by the censorship. Next slide. The censorship commissions were those who were always coming to the last, which rehearsals, to check if everything was according to the rules of the regime. Of course, sometimes it was not enough, even if they allowed the artists to go on with the rehearsals and the opening night. After the opening night, sometimes they stopped the production, they banned it. This happened with a lot of productions, especially one of the most well-known scandals in Romania that time in 1961, was the banning of the inspector general, a production directed by Lucian Pintilier, who is also a famous Romanian filmmaker. And because of this, Lucian Pintilier was not allowed to direct him to theater anymore, and he left the country. Of course, this was followed by a wave, an entire wave of theater directors and artists leaving the country in exile all around the world. And that was a gain for other theater movements, of course, and a loss for ours. Radu Panceles, UwS, Rigu Cianju Kies, Andrei Sherman, now teaching at Columbia University, and many, many others. In the next show, we will see you today, who at that time was the manager of the Gulangra theater where the inspector general was aged, and he also lost his position as manager, and he finally also left the country. He also ran for a while in the Gafri theater, and then he taught, he taught at New York University and then Columbia. And of course, the same happened with Andrei Sherman. They, all of them, they came after 1989, they came back in Romania, and they fortunately connected with the next generation, the younger generation, and this was a very important phenomenon in Romania because young theater people, they had the chance to reconnect with these amazing theater people, theater artists. That was before the next one, please. After 1989, the 90s was a decade of theater mixing with politics very much, sometimes too much. They were very troubling years. A famous actor, Jung Haramit, was one of the faces of the Romanian revolution, and he toured a lot because of that. He was very famous back then, and he's still very influential in Romanian theater, some even say too influential. I'm saying that because you have to understand that dictatorship model that we inherited from the communist regime is still working sometimes in Romania, in many fields, not only in theater. Next, please. In the 90s, also a very important director emerged, Zilvio Polkarete. You can see him here together with Helmut Sturmer, his favorite set designer. Polkarete toured a lot in the 90s, and he was really very famous. I started going to international festivals in 1996, 1996, 1997, and every time I was saying I'm from Romania, someone would come and say, Polkarete, like it was hello of that time in theater. Next, please. He toured all over the world, first three productions from the National Theater in Kayoba. Most of his productions were based on weak tragedies, not all of them, but most of them, and then he staged a lot of opera productions in opera houses all around the world, and for a while he was the manager of the Limoges dramatic center in France. Here, this is a picture from the Atomaposis based on Ovid's lyrics, produced by the Civil National Theater. Next, please. And here, this is a picture from France, an adaptation that he made, and he presented a lot on tour, including in Edinburgh in 2009, and the picture shows Ophelia Hopi. She's an amazing actress, and I chose her because she's also one of the actors working with Daniel Herbunian of the Institute of Theater. Next. The most interesting things started to happen in 2000, starting with 2000, when non-conferential performing spaces were starting to be used and a wave of new drama emerged. And next. One of the things that happened was that the parallel culture started to emerge and they used non-conferential spaces, especially underground cafes, not the public theaters. Even though we have a lot of public theaters in Romania, this is also inherited from the communist regime. Public theater sponsored by the state, but still, the younger generation, they didn't have the place. There was no place for them in these public theaters, so they started to use all kinds of spaces, mostly underground, small cafes, like the most well-known one is Greenhouse Cafe, where all the Disney's coming with the new generation, they all started their productions there. Then they formed kind of a parallel culture. It was like, if you compare to New York, the off-movement, in a way, and some of them, in time, they were invited by the public theaters because they had success and they had a new audience, which is something that public theaters are also interested in. The small performing spaces forced the actors to play in a very minimalist style, and this is very different from the old acting story in Romania. That's one of the things that developed because of these small performing spaces. Next, please. One of these... I think this one, maybe the most relevant production played in Greenhouse Cafe, was Stop the Temple, by Ted Ritten and Lorette, by John Hampton Mario. The play included poetry, signed by a young poet, and it was declared the 2000th generation performance because it was very representative for the new vibe that this generation had. The play was speaking about the revolt of this new generation against the society very caught up in the capitalist trends. She now was using very few things, three anchors with fresh lights, and she left the audience in the dark. That was a very powerful series of choice and a very powerful production. Actually, Stop the Temple is included in a volume that the Martins River Center published. It's one of the places in this movie that you can find outside. Next, please. The most important project of the 2000s was the Drama Coom Project, started by four young theater directors. They were still studying in the University of theater and film, and their professor, Nikolai Mandia, they started to search for new material. They simply said we don't want stage classics anymore. We are not interested in the playwrights that we have because they use this metaphorical language. They are still caught up in the past and we want to speak about our new realities, about our new world. So how can we do that? They initiated this animal contest and they managed in a few years to gather a lot of new playwrights, new voices, and to commission translations of new plays from other cultures because we were at that point still very isolated, even though they were more than 10 years past after the 1989 moment. Next, please. The Drama Coom Project was very successful, fortunately, and this kind of changed the face of the Romanian theater because new audiences came to theater and I see Janina laughing because here she's in a picture. I'm to this picture in Berlin. We were all there invited by Shalbina Theater and Thomas Ostermaier. He helped a lot in making her relevant for the European stage and Shalbina represented their productions, Janina's and Pekka Stefan's production. Pekka is one of the new voices that Drama Coom Contest had to become very well-known for younger generations and he's already familiar to theater audiences in New York because he's starting working with Anna Modinano and Tamila for a pop-up theater company and I hope you will hear more about him and their work. Next, please. Meanwhile, Janina, her play went on writing her own text and directing them. Sometimes her plays are staged by other directors all around Europe and not only. And in 2014, Janina was invited to Avignon 18 years after the last Romanian director, Silvio Porcareta, of course. So, last year she had great success in Avignon Festival with a production of national theater interview called Solidaritate which is a crossword between solidarity and solidarity because Janina is very, she's talking a lot about lack of solidarity in our Romanian society and I couldn't agree more. That's one of the phenomenons that we have with us there. But lately, I think that's going to be changed. I don't know who knows. Next one. So, I'm brought to introduce Janina Pergunaio, one of the leaders of the new generation in Romanian theater. Not only for her plays, which are already translated into many languages all around Europe, but also because she's an advocate and she's a voice speaking up for the improvement of the working conditions in Romanian theater in general for depoliticization of the theater environment. Politics are still very present in theater and in arts in general which is not very healthy. And she speaks up for equity and respect for younger artists so she's using her capital and her visibility to speak about the general problems and to advocate to change them. So, yeah. I think that's about it. I don't know if it's not. We will now hear the reading and we will be in the panel afterwards and if you have questions we are here to answer them. Thank you very much. Since there is no stage manager we thought it would be a good idea to tell you a few things. This play is Mihaila the Tiger of our town. It's by Janina Pergunaio hopefully I didn't put you the best pronunciation. Chris is here. He's translated by James Christian Brown who has an easier name so of course he's not here. We three are the actors. We'll be playing the documentary makers. There are a couple of scenes and we'll be playing in scene one taxi driver, scene two homeless person one, homeless person two, scene three Japanese tourist, French tourist translator, scene four representatives of the population of pigeons crows and sparrows, scene five is cup, scene six school, scene seven owner of the car, car of the owner scene eight of doctor, scene nine bank branch manager and employee, scene ten new zookeeper, scene eleven animal one animal two animal three. Shall we begin? Good evening. Welcome to our play. The story we are going to present is the tale of a Siberian tiger born in a nice average size European city. Two years ago Mihaila the Tiger was two and wandered free for almost five hours before the authorities managed to track her down. We wanted to understand the circumstances in which this happened and so we tried to document every step that the big cat took right from the moment when she left her cage. We mainly used our own interviews but there are also some material taken from the archives of the local TV station. What you are about to see is thus a documentary play built up out of interviews with a good number of those who interacted with Mihaila and who are willing to share their experiences with us. We thank them all for their kindness and assure them that we have done our best to remain faithful to their statements. Scene one. Interview with the taxi driver. So, what was it like? I'll tell you what it was like. It must have been nine o'clock ten past, twenty past at the most. I took a group of tourists to the zoo. No sooner had the tourists got out of the car than I found myself with what can I say? I didn't even see when he got into the back seat and once the customer is in the car you can't say no. Customer is a customer. You know, you don't even bother with what they look like these days, do you? As long as they're a customer and they've got the money I took it. He wanted me to take him to the center. You know, all right if I leave you beside the pedestrian area I took it. He agreed. To be honest I did most of the talking along the way. Well, I don't know about this and that. You know, oh yes I know I know about the city and about how nice it is here especially the center completely renovated. We have a very nice city, very quiet and the people are welcoming and hard working. We have a city what can I say? Like any self-respecting European city should be a real jewel and we're very proud of it. Of course there are parts that are rather not so pleasant so to speak but that will be dealt with and they tackle everything all at once but these are small problems nothing important like the problems with the but that's not the fall to the city these are problems that come from the outside from the south it's from the south that all these problems come now. They brought them here from the south there's lots of them here from the south they come up here they like it and unfortunately they stay they're noisy they're aggressive there's no way you can go I pointed them out on the street look at them see how they hang around in groups especially near the parks all day and at night what more can I say you just can't go that way I mean you do go but it's at your own risk they brought them here when the summit was on they cleaned up the capital to look like a European city put them in trucks and dumped them here seemingly it would cost a lot to kill them all I don't know there's got to be some solution put them in a field somewhere on the edge of town for example I don't know if they've bitten anyone I mean I don't personally know anyone that's been bitten by one of those wretched dogs but of course they've bitten people that's pretty much what the discussion was about he listened seemed interested although he was looking out the window all the time like a tourist admiring everything I think he liked what he saw I arrived behind the site near the pedestrian area and I said I'll leave you here he opened the door and made to get out and I said I had to help you 15 and I said look I'll do a deal with you you wipe my windshield and clean my mirrors we'll call it even no free rides here everyone works in this city he wiped my windshield he wiped my mirrors and my headlights with his fur coat he was well wrapped up he had a fur coat like real nice and then he headed off put down the pedestrian stream I'm in my business I picked up another group of tourists I guess it was 940 I hope I've given the right answers scene 2 interview with two homeless people in the central park we'll tell you how it happened I saw him first I saw him before you he spoke to me first I didn't hear him say anything until I invited him to drink with us 39 meaning yes he felt like downing the feet we didn't invite him he invited himself we don't just invite anyone to drink with us but she wasn't just anyone oh she was no hot shakes poor me at the end of the day she was nothing but a anyways me that I realized she and not a he you can't even tell if you're a he or a she he said hey fur coat come over here fur coats are feminine the thing is that that day I got home with some cash and I had just got a bottle of the hard stuff rubbing alcohol to the exact we mix it with the same quantity of water so it goes further and so we don't go blind we come here to the park behind the trees so no one bothers we have two of these clear plastic bottles one of water from that fountain over there and the other one is empty we pour the water into the empty bottle like so till it's half full and then we pour in the alcohol till it's full we mix it so and I gave her some of mine to drink that's not true mine first you didn't even want to share come on didn't I say it doesn't matter who was first let's just talk the story so the people can understand because it's a story that they're interested in not who was first no? so we gave her a drink and we asked her look where are you from and she's like where are you from fucking pardon me I said you don't say from here from this city I insisted because I go by the principle that it's not the clothes that make the man but the man that makes the clothes or the fur at any rate and she's like yes I was born here in this city and your parents where are they from and she's like they're from here too are they from here no they're a a figurative who are you saying that's the catch you can only say you're really from here when you're a third generation but at the end of the day the important thing is to get on with your own business yes that's what I said when I saw there'd be no end of it with her she started to get annoyed that third generation thing she didn't yell or anything but she started growling and we didn't fancy having some beat cop coming along to ask what we were up to the important thing is to get on with your own business it's a keep in your place if everyone keeps in their place there's peace and quiet there's prosperity it's a win-win situation and after that we asked her what she did well it turns out she didn't have a job I said to her in this city you haven't got a job you need to get one if you don't work you don't live it's not like other places that's all there is to it for my dear he gotta go look for work and then you see this idea came to me so I said I said I'd go we'll arrange some work for you but you've got to be serious about it you see the thing is foreigners like faces that are strange a bit exotic you should see how many photos I made the tourists think we don't realize that they're taking pictures of the buildings or something but we know that actually they want photos of us because we're special and we'll use it home too maybe even nicer so I say come with us they'll take photos with you in them and we'll share the takings 50-50 she didn't negotiate not what she could negotiate was there it was your idea it was my idea but that doesn't matter she accepted no way she could refuse because the first day you worked for nothing because we gave you a drink no such thing as a free drink she accepted we went to the center to the places where they usually take pictures to the objective as they say talk about success the tourists were coming in droves in 10 minutes the takings were as much as we usually make in a whole day and then I said let's take a break we've earned it I'll go and get a bottle of alcohol from the shop and I'll go get some water from the drinking fountain I'll put a hat in front of them if anybody wants a photo they can help themselves and pay for it it was all your idea you were the first to say let's take a break the thing is we trusted her we trusted in her good faith and in the good faith tourists, fucking pardon me the thing is that we came back in about how long could it be let's take an hour there was a little line in the shop and when we stopped a long way too and when we got back she was gone she got banned into a post it was only to be expected she didn't seem to like the work she didn't have much experience either with the tourists you've got to know how to get under their skin tourism isn't just a matter you've got to know what to offer people and above all how to get on with your own business you've got to like the work of it too honestly I don't think she liked it she got used to the static sector we realized afterwards when we found out where she came from she just sat there she just got her growth and slept all day seemingly she didn't move all day the tourists would throw stones through the fence and she still didn't move there is no way to do business that's right it's different when you get out of the cage into the free market like they say the proof being that she couldn't take the strain well it's more comfortable sitting and waiting for food to come to you isn't it scene three interview taken from a local TV station with two tourists who saw Mihaila I was just arrived in this town I had barely arrived in this wonderful city a beautiful riddle town in this incredibly beautiful city I take pictures everywhere I go I have probably 200 photos from this town he takes pictures everywhere he goes and has over a thousand pictures of this city everybody taking pictures to what to the people who are begging everywhere you go to sit and drink a coffee he did not have time to take pictures but he very much enjoyed drinking coffee and sitting on cafe terraces I rock European cities they are different it is very very different culture he likes European cities because they are so different I take pictures with buildings not so much people people don't stay still I like clear pictures he likes to take photographs of buildings not of people Europeans like mascots I like them more than people because they stay still you can take pictures with them that's why he prefers mascots so I was drinking a coffee in one of these restaurants outside checking my email reading the news he asked, asking for money on the cafe terrace he checked his email and read the news when he she this creature it is standing next to me I said to myself if I don't look at it you will go away and leave me alone someone a creature sat down at his table without asking permission but this didn't bother him much he didn't go away he did not say anything like please give me money or don't need a while in Europe it simply started to eat my omelette eat eat it sat at his table and didn't ask for money but ate his omelette this tiger this mascot this tiger mascot was very cooperative with the camera I took more than 20 photos different angles it is born to be model I must say this tiger, this mascot this tiger mascot was very pleased with the unexpected photo session after I take the pictures I say maybe I look a bit at it it was fascinating I must say this mascot looked really real for a few moments I forget about everything after he had taken dozens and dozens of pictures he thought he would look at the mascot he found it fascinating it was made in a very realistic way so much so that he forgot everything while he was looking at it then it drank my coffee and it served itself from my pack of Goulwars yes, I know but that is exactly what this creature did I managed not to look at it one single instant I avoided all I could the creature drank his coffee and smoked just one of his cigarettes from his pack of Goulwars to avoid eye contact the closest you can he applied the method of avoiding eye contact and kept his eyes on his bag when I wake up out of my fascination the camera has gone when he woke from his fascination his camera had disappeared the camera is vanished with all my pictures I have another camera not a problem but with other pictures the camera had disappeared but he is not upset another one is exactly the same I complained to the police and they made like risks in connection with the disappearance of the camera and our police did all that they could he appreciates their efforts and in general has been very impressed by the city and its inhabitants in spite of this unpleasant incident finally it stood up no merci, no au revoir, no nothing I paid half the bill it was evident it won't contribute sa so fear that was the moment when I raised my eyes from moon or dark he paid half the bill but the person the creature was unwilling to contribute then he lifted his eyes from his computer and looked at it I saw him saw him we need something to believe in something to hold on in this crazy, crazy world a kind of a kind of messiah but today messiah cannot come in a human shape a human shape it is so so compromised need a messiah so I guess his idea to come as as a tiger was not in the end such a bad one believe me I saw him I saw him he saw it and and in general he too is absolutely delighted with our city and with our country scene 4 interview with the local representatives of the population of crows pigeons and sparrow I'll be honest and tell you straight up front the central square belongs to the pigeons all over the world squares belong to pigeons of course in the very first place they belong to people those who built them they belong to children tourists but right after them come the pigeons so if we start from this presence this premise basically we don't have very much to debate it was an act of trespassing infringement of territory the parks trees and all belong to the crows people are so egotistical to put it elegantly I don't know what they didn't hear a thing zoos are for animals and birds in captivity alright we pass by that way too from time to time we go to the zoo too like everyone else especially when people come too because they go on to the teeth with popcorn when things get mixed it's not good the proof what happened after it was announced on TV and people started shutting themselves in their homes who were the first to suffer pigeons obviously not a single child to be seen we went hungry for a good few hours and that's not fair we all have to live together somehow if we really are a community that is for us the crow population they forgot all about us for once started bothered about more serious problems they were even able to make a clear comparison between real dangers and inventive dangers we didn't see a thing didn't hear a thing it was a very difficult day they simply forgot about us I'll tell you the truth they're obsessed with us and not only here in this city in all cities we have a hard life what more can I normally they love us we actually feel very comfortable here in this city personally I wouldn't move anywhere else I feel I belong to this culture I really feel that seemingly we attack the city we derp on the pavements in the parks what more can I that's man for you he sees the straw in someone else's eye instead of seeing the plank in his own maybe we have some minor disputes on the matter of droppings for example all the same coming at it from our side pigeon droppings are considered lucky if you look around the city and see how it looks I think we've brought our contribution toward this good luck seemingly we're noisy us we're damn well noisy do you hear that man we're part of the identity of the old town we're the symbol of peace and quiet defining features of this city apart from small accidents insignificant matters how should we know we don't have time to seemingly we steal food that's an aberration we don't steal we take the food that you throw away we clear up for you and another thing if crows stay in a place it's a sign that place is prosperous when we don't find anything more to eat it's goodbye so far that's not an issue so I say that's a good sign that's why the city takes care of us even they even put in dispensing machines with food in the square to inspect on the part of the those authorities don't know what to invent next each of their ideas is more stupid and criminal than the last we don't know how to read that's true nobody's perfect but we're not stupid we find things out too here's the latest a local council member has filled the city with posters saying something like this dear citizen we have received numerous complaints regarding the problem that for some time has been troubling the district and the neighborhood in which you live and I refer here to the birds especially starlings and crows that have nested in the trees in the high school yard I am aware of the fact that these birds are troublesome from several parts of you including the mess the noise and the smell the method that I propose be applied urgently as it is the fastest and the least costly is to drive them away with gunfire I shall take personal charge of solving this problem you are sincerely council member I didn't remember his name you know not that I couldn't but I didn't want to man the names of all the fools I don't know what comment to make either what comment can you make on such a genocide we saw her but we didn't go too near with creatures like that you never know you have to keep a distance I saw her obviously but I didn't go too close because I'm not stupid I stuck with the gang and we looked down from above from the top of a tree so all those hunters and all the armed forces were in the woods while she was wandering free through the city alright you gotta have perspective to see that but what kind of perspective can that army of criminals have no one peas in our city like that no one peas like that on us because that's what the likes of her they pee they invade the territory they market we've had a few cases of fainting among our numbers that day from the smell of pee obviously good thing it ended well it was an unpleasant incident but as usual the authorities did their duty I'm satisfied all of us the whole population of pigeons are satisfied bunch of bloodthirsty criminals well man can't you wander through the city or even over the city anymore does it say anywhere no tigers or no crows does it say that anywhere does it? not much you people have such an appetite now of course a number of us were lost that day about 45 my sister so that's 46 she was looking into some tourist plate when Hila I mean Mrs. Tiger approached that was her gone my sister she had only herself to blame for not paying attention these things happened scene 6 interview with the school so when she arrived in front of the big stairs it was 12 maybe a little earlier when the old bells of the old clock and the old tower rang 12 o'clock she was already there suddenly all the children were already inside after the lunch break that was when we saw her she just stood there she stood there for almost 20 minutes she was just standing there and staring at I had no idea what she was staring at maybe probably the children maybe I was trying to guess what was in her mind what were her eyes trying to say what her plans were would she just sit there or would she try to get inside the pupils, the teachers, the principal everybody was looking from the windows taking pictures making signs to her different signs but she didn't move she just sat there she just sat there and just she just wanted I don't know to belong maybe but think for yourselves I can't open my doors to a I have to think of the security issues and about the student base many parents would take their children to other schools immediately and then we would have to close as a school I am responsible for education inside these beautiful brick walls education has been going on for over 200 years and I can't throw it all away because of her then she just left but later when we heard what had happened well nobody has to suffer from this event at least not from our side and that's basically my responsibility scene 7 interview with the owner of the car and the car of the owner well there's not much to tell you the moment someone threatens my property I'm as they say furious entitled to retaliate because by the time the law comes to give me justice those guys can come and do what they like in my house it didn't actually enter the house it's not exactly well he followed me into the yard I had just come home in my car that's me okay well I have very tall strong gates yes basically there's no way you can get past them you can't see a thing through our gates yes well for all that when I get out of the car I found myself face to face with this animal and this animal I'm sorry but there's no other word I can use well that's what it was too is an animal I mean it was I said what business have you got an animal like you in my yard kindly get that hell off to where you came from and he had no intention of moving probably attracted by the sound of my car it has an amazing ending anyway I saw he wasn't going to leave so I went into the house it started to scratch my door right around here I went in took my rifle from the cover I knew what a rage sweetens would get into when she saw well I was stunned what can I say no, wait a minute I want you to understand where I'm coming from when I go out into the city I only ever park beside cars of the same caliber because the guys with nose peugeots trash like that it's no problem for them to get their car scratched but for someone like me he's got a Maserati a Bugatti something like that he opens his door carefully pays attention to how he parks right so when I saw that that fucking animal had done to me I'm sorry there's no other word I can use it actually is an animal I mean it was is this kind of thing possible in a country where property is guaranteed by law well I went right up to him he was not wide open growling in his own language and since his mouth was open wide I stuck the rifle there between his teeth he didn't move so I opened the boot took out a wrench I was so angry I didn't know where to start so I pulled out one of his nails then I pulled out the rest on the principle of an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth he didn't even say boom what the hell could the animal say when I had all the evidence that he had trespassed on my private property devastated my private property I said get the hell out of here before I call the police I was what's the word generous I was raging someone else in my place would have knocked him flat and paid for a new car but how would a fucking animal like that pay so I made this necklace out of his claws I put a youth on the dashboard the animal's claws symbolize passion courage and extreme agility scene 8 interview with the ER doctor that's how it is in the ER one goes out and comes next and you don't even look at the patient's face you're like a sewing machine on autopilot at a certain point in came the individual he had rather nasty wounds severe bleeding from the upper and lower limbs I started to sew him up two minutes later another patient barged in I was sewing up the one and it came the other and he said I said if you take his place then I can't guarantee that someone else won't take your place I started yelling that his life was more important than the life of him you know the kind of discourse I don't see any need to yelling away and me sewing away at the other and suddenly I lost my tape temper and yes I still came in the wrong place because the one I was sewing started howling it came to and I was how can I describe it a blood curdling howl and then I started howling too something like that when I finished the guy who had barged in had gone and the other wasn't howling anymore either so I sewed him up and left the hospital the next day after I sewed him up I kept thinking about it and in the end I sent some applications to hospitals abroad right then the very next day I've already had answers from written and from Germany scene 9 interview with the bank manager and his employee it was 12.45 and so on her ticket number for the line she left it on desk of course I don't sit at the front desk I came later my colleague can give you more details he interacted directly with I didn't realize at first what the customer wanted to ask for information to open an account with us to take out a loan but of course not all of our customers who come into a bank know how to formulate their requests any education in banking matters so we try to help them of course there are also situations especially these days when quite a few customers come in rather rather embarrassed especially those who are interested in loans for house purchase I've noticed that they don't know quite how to explain what they want not because they don't know what they want but just because they know they've got no chance of getting what they want still they come to get information which is in principle a good thing the main problem that we come up against I mean we don't come up against it they do is that their salaries are too low please meanwhile the big line had formed behind her behind the lady there have been staffing cuts here too there's no way out of it the crisis the competition but still we manage very well like this those who are left have become more active more efficient which in principle is a good thing I finished the explanations but the customer just sat there which in principle is a good thing it means that this is a genuinely interested customer who wants to find out more detail I asked her repeatedly is there anything else I can help you with please tell me if I can be of any more as you can see there are a lot of customers waiting behind you of course the customers had started to grumble I was getting the blame for not moving fast enough I asked for her ID she produced it named Mihail I couldn't find her in the system I deduced logically that she didn't have a card either or any other credit with us I presumed that she wants the personal needs loan I looked at the customer trying to guess what she might offer as security she didn't say anything we train our staff to be one step ahead of the customer to realize what solutions might be found to help them which in principle is a good thing right away I identified one thing that could serve security her fur coat I explained the conditions the steps she would have to take I showed her the contract here's the contract signed by the bank I valued it at 5,000 euro I gave her a loan of 250 euro when it came to giving her the money she started to growl I don't know what got into her because I talked nicely to her very polite, very calmly she didn't want to take the money she threw it on the floor her money, her business I made a sign for the security guard to come I lent the security guard with the customer and I went to inform the manager which in principle is a good thing these days we never know what can happen people are desperate and when they are desperate they resort to all sorts of all sorts of extreme measures it had never happened to us before we weren't scared we had no reason to be we had a security system and protections and video cameras although in the video its head and her face doesn't show very clearly by the time I got there she had us gone so I personally didn't see her the money had gone too the people waiting behind her picked it up off the floor well, her money, her business they picked it all up in a couple of seconds no, we weren't scared we had no reason to be it's quite difficult to rob a bank these days about as difficult as taking out a loan which in principle is a good thing I don't need the protection I mean now I'll tell you the story of the fur coat it's a nightmare our lawyers are trying to pick apart the threads of the story basically at this moment we should recover the fur coat we have the contract signed with the customer of course she unfortunately is now deceased however the fur coat belongs to us according to the contract except that now the zoo claims that this customer was its property, fur coat and all in other words they claim that the fur coat didn't belong to the customer so she couldn't use it as security which to us seems atrocious absurd abominant but that's not all the zoo has donated the fur and the bones to the faculty of biology for study and now the university says that they are the right the whole thing is terribly complicated still we I mean our lawyers hope to recover what can still be recovered at the end of the day we have a contract and all in our past is that it should be respected which in principle is a good thing scene 10 interview with the new zookeeper diagnosis of acute depression yeah caused by the disappearance of somebody you somebody you loved it is not easy to get over to get over a disappearance like that something you can't explain to yourself you were together sharing the same space you open your eyes every day seeing other one and one day she just just disappears she just vanishes without you know saying anything jumping into nowhere your mind just it can't understand it is probably more difficult to understand than death at least you can see the dead body the dead body is like the evidence of something that's not there anymore but used to be you don't even have that your mind is blown away you're stuck in just you're just up what can I say such a painful thing to see really depressing medically speaking they say depression isn't contagious the hell it isn't let me tell you the moment somebody is depressed people run away like crazy I don't know if energy or something you can't touch but it touches everyone in a very strange way you see these these days we try not to look at I mean we constantly turn our eyes away from it you know things that are take dirty or painful or just disturbing do you see people showing unhappy moments on facebook I mean maybe sometimes really but when they do they are actually looking for compassion or sympathy but did you ever see desperate really desperate people taking photos of themselves and posting them I closed my facebook page some time ago couldn't stand all this social hypocrisy obviously sad faces fucking annoying still not so fucking annoying as the happy faces yeah depression is something people do not want to see because they don't yet have an icon to cope with that like I don't know just drinking just being there and trying to be human maybe because it's hard fucking hard it's like well I know it's so well I was employed here just after the event with Mahila I was working in another place better pay and stuff you know then I had some problems for a long time I couldn't find a proper job in my field I tried to find one closer to me finally I said after all why not this one since nobody wanted to take it after the event it was my luck nobody wanted to apply for it so in the end they had to give it to me no I'm not afraid not at all why should I animals are not as dangerous as people animals are not they're not as can you show me the camera for a second so coming back to our well the idea is that people come here too they don't want to see just put yourself in our position in the position of zoo's management you have a little tiger a baby a tiger baby totally depressed he doesn't move he doesn't respond to me just sitting there he actually is the dead body of the disappeared mother intimidating everybody animals people working at the zoo visitors, children everybody you can exchange animal between zoos that's what we did we just changed the view that was the name of the Ohio son of it we exchanged him for a pair of kangaroos no actually we didn't tell them that he was depressed it was a zoo in Germany they didn't know too much about the story so we thought in the beginning maybe it was right wasn't right not to tell them the truth the end of what the kangaroos they gave us they were depressed too at least they jumped I guess in the end the exchange was quite fair scene 11 interview with anonymous animals at the zoo really that happened at our zoo all I know is the official version the one that was sort of no I can't help you being her neighbor I saw everything that morning Tuesday wasn't it no I think it was Saturday or Sunday because they were tourists there's something else they come first thing in the morning give us no peace for two days photographs, video, twigs, popcorn screens the kind of species that these tourists are I can't stand it they drive us out of our minds so much that by Sunday evening we end up beating each other I beat you lots of times and you me you should see the fights the blood, broken hands thorns, faces Monday morning you think there had been a war you should come by as I was saying that morning Mr. C the keeper swept the enclosure, went out pushed the door to but didn't shut it he emptied the waste bucket into a sack that he had on a wheelbarrow went in to see her and the others stop for a chat as usual he's a friendly man as Mr. C there's no end to the stories he'll tell you don't interrupt me or I'll lose the thread well then Mr. C opened the safety lock to let them into the enclosure and that's when she saw the open door and she went out obviously who wouldn't have done it two paces I think she had taken when Mr. C saw her he went up to her and said what are you up to hey, Mahila and she's like I'm just going out for a little walk and he's like hey come back here girl you want to ruin me they'll fire me I'll lose my job and Mr. C was right, they fired you honestly I mean she's outside take it easy Mr. C I'm just going out to see the town for myself you'll get lost and he says hey, Mahila what do you have to see the town for it's not for you you'll get lost and you won't know your way back and she's like I'll mark my territory you think I'm stupid and he says hey girl, think of me what am I going to tell them outside she's like I don't know Mr. C tell them the truth that I've gone out to see the world for myself and he says there are strict rules here no one goes out just when they feel like it you know what happens to animals that run away from the zoo and she's out there and she's like well, what happens and he says the people shoot them they don't stop to talk it over like we're doing now and Mr. C was right about that he's interrupting me he'll smash her face and she's out there and she's like I'll take the risk I want to see the world for myself I'm dying of boredom here Mr. C these tourists driving out of my mind and he says hey kid what are freedoms like you were born in captivity you don't have the reflexes to defend yourself to get by and these folks don't have time to stop and talk they don't execute you and that'll be the end of it plus you don't know the language and she's out there and she's like oh lord and he's like hey Nihila here you're an attraction it's a different matter outside people like to come and visit you but they don't like to be visited come on be a good girl and come back inside and she's like Mr. Acostica no kisses and she turned her back on him and she was off she ran into the woods after that I don't know well when word got round that Nihila had gone for a walk you know what it was like it was a chemistry not a soul just lots of bags on benches they ran away before you could see the boot after that I personally don't know all I know is that they shot her and now the question is did we make her go? what we know is this our vet went out with his tranquilizer the one he uses to put us all asleep we've got a real horror in that thing there was a professional hunter too the one that shot her the vet shot first with the tranquilizer and she got angry because she was on her way back to the cage man you can get along with people all their great heirs of being more enlightened than us more civilized not being animal but if that's civilization no thanks supposedly she jumped at them when they fired the tranquilizer I heard she was calm I mean she gave him the sort of look that they thought she was upset but in fact she wanted to explain to say something to them we need to get the chance to hunter fire no, Mahila though let's not forget what she got in her animal record meaning meaning well didn't she rip open a tourist's leg a year ago but didn't she provoke her he kept sticking his food through the fence he threw all sorts of things at her because she wasn't taking any notice of it I for one wouldn't have stooped to his level did I make her go well never fought with anyone but herself that's the truth Mr. C got fired the director resigned and so on one inquiry after another one TV channel after another a black mark against the zoo black mark against the city it is true that she didn't think very much about us about the rest of us I mean wasn't it because of her that they put up the electric fences I couldn't hardly turn around in my cage as it was now I have to take care not to get fried so did we make her go up did I minikirk did you make her it was all of her own fault stop you I don't know what you're on about why should I shut up you never stop talking all day don't talk or you'll be sorry you see these clothes we're not stopped it's howling are we wild or something maybe you want to taste too they do it and then we wondered the opinion of these people why they have that opinion about us you know what no photographs we've had enough and I'd like you not to put my real name I'm called pussie just to be clear so there's no pussie there or Marcel or Lily or Gia or Maria or Platy or Coco or Cristina or Lucy we have a right to anonymity too and then the discussion with Mr. C I'd rather that didn't appear at all I mean so that no one can tell it was me because people make all sorts of connections and I don't want to have problems because the zoo is small and you've seen what animals are like and the message what's the message yeah I mean what light are you going to show us the animal identities very important how is the zoo going to be seen how is it going to be presented to the city look here what I said about people that's between you and me I only use the positive because there's play that's positive the business with Mihaila that was an unpleasant incident but we like it here what's the message you're going to be we're a model zoo I really want to know what the message is going to be in general we all live in peace and quiet in general we mind our own business in general we love the tour we love the people in general we love one another here we respect one another in general we are solitary amongst ourselves we are very solitary you're really looking for trouble come on say it so in general we're not just solitary we're very solitary in general we're all right it could be better and we wish you the same is that recorded is that recorded first of all to Timber the director he wants to ask four, five years ago and then I went in the city and I did like two weeks of research I did interviews but I was not actually so much interested in the story of the tiger but in the way that town with that event and I was very much interested in the people of this town not of this town particularly but this town it's a very middle-sized European town it's very relevant for a kind of mentality kind of conservative flow it's a closed community and more and more a lot of European these kind of cities are I don't know feeding these spheres they have for the stranger for the unusual and so on I think it is a documentary in place we wanted to capture something real in a way it's kind of a a magic realism documentary where we play the cast-talk animals talk and we hear from so is that something you feel is capturing that moment of transition in a stronger way that's Iblis has said so many people do that a documentary you know describe the words it's all that's real and we are all obsessed with the pametism of realism of data collections of data and theatre has to be real TV has to be real we all know whatever one thinks of real is made up but your idea is to put it in some kind of a fairy tale but still it's very moving so is that an idea of you to use this kind of new realism or is that an idea of a theatrical fairy tale you try to explain something in a branch and sense to the world I did and I do a lot of documentary theatre and I'm really interested in realities and in the ways you can translate that on stage so display in I mean it's very different from what I've done and actually I took this liberty this freedom to have some distance to documentary theatre and actually mocking the methods that I use and I think it's kind of it's a good thing at some point to make fun of yourself and of your own methods I didn't try to play like this before and I don't think I would write number one like this but it was interesting to play a lot with these conventions for instance you would have this scene with the pigeons the crows, the sparrows actually they were real people having this kind of speech and it's interesting to maybe to see it from this perspective but they are real people I mean and that's what the actors I mean Tamila knew that the actors don't have to play birds they don't have to play animals it's people, it's speech it's a human speech like a tradition of a Maslini and others so it is quite interesting that at the time we heard before from Christina that some certain state of forms people actually had to stop working because it was not under socialist the show also you don't show what some people call it as a capitalist realism you also transform this in a truly imaginary way and I think this is why it is so interesting and one just cannot stop listening and imagining that play and it felt it captured something of a transition of people who were lost who all of a sudden had to face for even for a short moment a revolution or a change but animals escaped it does capture imagination I know there was just in the the entire the circus was opened up where I live in Montclair there were two brown bears three black bears going around in the streets and people have seen them or not so something came up so it's quite an interesting beautiful description a moment does it fit in the contemporary scene or do you feel it's something very exceptional what she does is a new way of storytelling as a magic capitalist realism I don't know there's another level that I see this play is talking about how can you enjoy freedom when you are born in captivity it sums up in a way our question as a society how can you learn it's a huge responsibility to be free and to deal with this freedom when you are born in captivity it's even more difficult so yeah like Jenna said this play is very different from the others in the other plays of course it's a mockumentary but the other plays are they also have a level of magic in a way each of them in a different way they are inspired by realities because as I said this new generation wanted to dive in and introduce these realities they were very obsessed with reading the reality but I think the most interesting step is getting outside this reality not be captive in this reality and invent a form of a personal vocabulary to translate these new realities and I think Jenna is the most advanced in this journey that playwright has to take to come from reality and translate this reality with a personal vocabulary I think that's an interesting thing that she's doing well Jenna has a question before it comes to the land also it used to be that people got shot in the east from there but before the paving man they tried to get out you wrote this recently where there is this kind of freedom to explore but the tiger still got shot in the verseduio is that your in the sense that that freedom being bred somehow behind walls behind a cage like that famous rilke poem I know there is a little bit do you feel that your prognosis to be honest I think it's that I realize now that because it's about contemporary theater we tend to speak about 89 and about the walls but actually when I wrote the play which was 2012 I was more thinking about the European context I feel much more connected with what's going on now because for me 89 is important but it's still 27 years ago so I think this year in September this play premiered in Stockholm and it was in September it was in this time of the refugee crisis and the audience read it that way it was so they connected they didn't connect with the Romanian context but with that context and I think I wanted to write at that time a play that would speak about all these nationalist friends about these fears about this political how to say the way they use these fears so I was very much interested in in that thing but of course we can read it in different ways which is the mark of every great art and it's true in the beginning of the reading very much about immigrants or people coming in and we do not know are they dangerous or are they not dangerous what will they do Timela you have worked with Guillemina before what's your take on this play this is actually our first time of spending time together though I know from my colleagues it's always really a real pleasure to be able to really encounter her face-to-face in a situation where we're looking at her play this was an incredible experience for us fast and brief and wonderful but even in the time that we left the rehearsal going back to talk about the play and the repercussions of the play and the immediacy that this text has now in this country for us and how rich it was it's such a rich exploration of our own nationalism of our own fear of losing our America of our own idea of the other and the many different kinds of others that exist in this country and I said oh here we have to do it with five people because you have to have the black guy you have all these different communities that separate themselves that you know that trade teams and that so much of what we see happen here in the play was about people being able you know what they'll give up for their own identity for their own security and I thought it's just such a I mean there's just more time more time to explore that our relationship to this particular text it was really a delight thank you I noticed that a play where a city a town which is in order all of a sudden is in disorder and then when you do shoot the time over you open and understand since I'm just trying to take a walk I'm even going to go back you know I'm just here because the door was open so I think it is truly open and in its its structure and it's really I'm sure it will be for many years to come so thank you so much for coming truly here for finding for me also to share the play with us it's a really wonderful honor and I see a big applause to the actors that was truly a tour de force and also humans and all of it so maybe we put a little bit of light to the audience and we have a couple of questions if possible you know directly and we are recording this and we also have a little live stream so this is why we need the mic but it's also good to hear better so we start with you take the microphone hold it and introduce yourself hello my name is Adriana and my question is it worked right? it did work I did have a moment of life in its art because this play was written in 2012 right? not last week so I mean not after Monday I'm looking you know what I'm talking about and when those pigeons said you want to kill us you want to kill all of us what if you are right they want to kill us they want to kill the pigeons they want to kill the pigeons with the guns oh no it's the crows oh for the crows I'm sorry the pigeons were safe in other play so what exactly was in your mind when you wrote that line? actually I didn't write that line that was already made it was actually an announcement in the CPC view when the official people they decided that there are too many crows and the best solution would be to kill them with gunfire yeah that's real I think of Peter Brook who said this is a playground and that the stage which he appalls the name calls it our place to play and when I watched your playing I kept on feeling like this is every one of us could read something into whatever we are experiencing into your play it was quite delightful when you think about who we are and that all of this is about a piece of ourselves and I love the act it was just really quite powerful my question to you is what did you learn in the process of doing this play? what I learned was while I was doing the interviews with the people of this town and you learn a lot while confronting your fears with other people's fears I think you you learn a lot about this situation because they express their fears but not connected with the tiger but with other problems and the addicts they are both but at the same time good to understand comment on a question? I would never say sorry so my name is Sipyan I have a question did you try to save the tiger? to save the tiger well actually she was dead before I started the research so I couldn't do too much so there is no version where there is no version unfortunately not no happy endings you have to say happy endings makes us depressed sometimes good endings like this or it might be much better and much more delightful so again thank you so much we have additional questions hopefully you all will stay around here again thank you so much and what a great pleasure that we have the luxury in the time to really hear voices in place from around the world this is one of the most original documentary theatre plays we have ever heard of senior and this is of course why you are such a great writer so thank you so much and we hope you come back and won't take ideas thank you very much for inviting me thank you very much to the actors thank you very much Tamila all of you are being here for us thank you