The story
Beginnings of theatrical life
The early days of theatrical life in Craiova reflect developments in the cultural life of Wallachia—one of the two Danubian Principalities, existing as autonomous components of the Ottoman Empire. Craiova historian George Franga argued in a 1973 article that the beginnings of such activities can be traced to March 1830: a poster, written in French and German rather than the vernacular Romanian, announces that Antonachy Burelly's townhouse was hosting performances of comedies by August von Kotzebue. Franga also notes an opera performance in March 1837. This is more reliably attributed to a "German" touring company, which sang I puritani, by Vincenzo Bellini. In 1838, Craiova already had six music schools, one of which was housed in the Poroianu complex. They gave regular concerts, helping to consolidate a local tradition. As attested in a period letter by Ioan Maiorescu, before 1847 the scions of the local boyardom had fully embraced amateur theater, and were performing for each other in wintertime. Such private shows, done for a small audience, ranged from tragedy to pantomime. By 1840, Craiova was the permanent home of the French immigrant actors, identified as "Valeri" and "Theodor Gafrey". These two placed a demand with the Oltenian regency, seeking approval to perform "on days when there are no club meetings". As Franga notes, the two new arrivals were also managers of the "Craiova French Theater", attested in March 1841. They introduced Oltenians to the works of Eugène Scribe and Jean-François Bayard; at exactly the same time, the city welcomed in two English acrobats, Nicholas Craft and John Atterbury, who gave professional circus performances.
Theatrical life went through an unexpected hiatus during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, and especially during its quelling by the Ottoman and Austrian armies (1848–1850), who restored order under a conservative Wallachian Prince, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei. These two military forces also occupied Craiova, and its only usable auditorium, located within the Central School for Boys, became their barracks. During these events, Costache Caragiale's company in Bucharest had to shut down its theater; it is possible, though not fully certain, that Alecu Corcoveanu and his troupe of actors were performing at the time in Craiova's public gardens. One local tradition is that Caragiale himself came to Craiova, helping to form its permanent company. This account relies on details about Caragiale's associate, Ion Gestianu-Mihuț, who settled in Craiova in 1849, and remained there, as a member of the troupe, for the rest of his career. Scholar Lelia Nădejde believes that both Caragiale and his pupil, Constantin Dimitriade, were at Craiova in 1849.
In mid-1850, Dolj County's governor, Dimitrie Filișanu, heard a demand by his citizens, which was to set up a permanent theater. He acquiesced, bringing in Caragiale's former associate, Costache Mihăileanu, to organize a permanent company in Craiova. The employees that Mihăileanu and his sister Ralița took to Craiova are believed to have included Dimitriade, Mihail Pascaly, Constantin Serghie, and I. Vlădicescu, joined by sisters Maria, Polina, and Raluca Stavrescu. The first mention of shows being performed under Mihăileanu's direction is from 29 June (Old Style: 18 July) 1850—on that day, Vestitorul Românesc of Bucharest published an article by the Craiova intellectual, Gheorghe Chițu, with detail on what was being done to make the Central School into a theatrical venue. It is, according to Franga, also the first piece of theater criticism to come out of Craiova. Two plays were being produced—one by Caragiale, and the other by Vasile Alecsandri; as Franga argues, Caragiale himself most likely appeared in at least one of the roles.
A teenager at the time, the Craiova native Ștefan Vellescu recalls being allowed to perform a small role in Molière's comedy, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, which was his debut on the stage. In November 1850, Mihăileanu also directed, and starred in, Matei Millo's operetta, Baba Hârca. The ongoing performances infuriated some members of the Wallachian Orthodox hierarchy. In June 1851, the Archbishop of Râmnic, Calinic, observed that a Christian school was hosting petreceri de noapte sub denumirea de teatru ("nighttime parties that they call a theater"), and pleaded with Prince Știrbei that he suppress the new institution. The request was already anachronistic, since, from late 1850, the company had been ordered to evict the school, and a new hall was being built to accommodate its activities.
1935 closure and fascist reestablishment
The TNC was shut down by government order on 1 April 1935, leaving the actors unemployed. The official reason cited was "budgetary constrains". The troupe continued to perform for a while, being directed by N. Neamțu-Ottonel in a production of Madame X, by Alexandre Bisson (1936). It afterwards scattered; actresses Boteanu-Poenaru and Maria Burbea-Făgădaru were assigned to the National Theater Cluj. In October 1936, there was a delayed protest of the local intelligentsia, led into battle by Mihail Albu and Constantin Șaban Făgețel; as Popescu writes, these petitioners were animated by "sometimes vehement and extremist" nationalism. The Carol hall, meanwhile, was used for a performance by the touring company of the National Theater Bucharest, in October 1935. It was not assigned back to the school, but was eventually declared unfit for public use after a formal inquiry in 1938. According to Popescu, the decision was political, resulting from Balaban's maneuvers.
The theatrical movement continued during World War II, which began after Romania had begun an experiment with authoritarian rule—with a corporative constitution and a single party, the National Renaissance Front (FRN). At the regime's peak in August 1940, stage director Ion Sava was told by the titular Minister of the Arts, Radu Budișteanu, that the TNC would soon reopen. A ministerial decree on this subject was published in early September, splitting financing between the ministry and Craiova city hall. In a later memoir, George Ciprian claims to have been proposed the position of chairman, which he lost only because Budișteanu made inquiries about his private life. Just days after the decree had come out, the FRN regime crumbled, leaving room for General Ion Antonescu to establish another dictatorship, one more explicitly aligned with Nazi Germany. Initially, he also called upon the fascist Iron Guard, forming a "National Legionary State" (1940–1941). Radu Gyr, who had since joined the Guard, emerged as inspector of theaters, and, in December 1940, made additional efforts to reestablish the TNC—referring to it as the cradle of his own youth. In 1940–1942, another movement to reopen the TNC coalesced around a more senior Craiova intellectual, the historian C. D. Fortunescu; he addressed two petitions to the authorities, one of which comprised a historical overview of the institution.
On 15 August 1942, Antonescu's regime issued a new decree for reestablishing the TNC, and also reinstated Ștefan Boțoiu as manager. The Carol hall was again used, though Antonescu made promises to invest in a "palace of the arts", that would have accommodated the theater as well. The 1942–1943 season only opened on 29 December, with Lucian Blaga's take on the Meșterul Manole myth. In his thank-you message to the authorities, Boțoiu claimed that the hall was "packed-full" with spectators. Nicolae Massim and Traian Ciuculescu were used as stage directors, with George Löwendal and Iosif Vescovi as the set designers. Ciprian also visited, directing there his own play, The Man and His Mule. Burbea-Făgădaru and Boteanu-Poenaru both returned to be part of the regular company; in May 1943, the former was exposed as half-Jewish by the antisemitic journalist Ștefan Panduru, who demanded that she be removed from her job.
During August 1943, the TNB recruited TNC actresses Silvia Fulda and Getta Tudorache for a touring performance with Pământ—by Nicolae Vlădoianu and Soare Z. Soare. In October, the TNC reopened with four premieres. This unusually high number was explained by Capitala daily as caused by Oltenia's social structure: "theater enthusiasts do not match those large numbers we get [in Bucharest]; furthermore, the population of commuters does not yield the attendance numbers required for any productions to achieve a long consecutive run." Massim directed a celebrated rendition of Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, relying on talents such as Fulda, Virginia Bude, and Manu Nedeianu. Capitala newspaper reported this as a great success for Boțoiu, "putting in their place the gossipers who [...] shake the very foundations of the theater". Ciuculescu also garnered good reviews with Visul unei nopți de iarnă, by Tudor Mușatescu, with Nedeianu acclaimed for his contribution as servant Manole. Demetrescu Dan's take on I. L. Caragiale's Conu Leonida and Stormy Night was also on the bill, as a double show. It had lauded performances by Comăneanu and Ovidiu Rocoș.
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As Popescu writes, Boțoiu's Antonescian reconversion marked "a particularly difficult political moment, when the two tendencies, that of official politics and that expressed by actors, who wanted to make art, not politics, were increasingly difficult to reconcile". According to later reports, all attempts to protest against Boțoiu's arbitrariness had been stifled by his friendship with a regime potentate, Constantin Vasiliu. Both Antonescu and Vasilescu endorsed Boțoiu during "Oltenia Week" festival of October 1943. They appeared as guests for a TNC staging of Divarius' Liberatorul.
1944–1949 transition
Shortly after an anti-fascist coup in August 1944 toppled Antonescu and brought Romania under a Soviet military occupation, the political mood changed in rapid strides, with the previously outlawed Romanian Communist Party (PCR) emerging as a powerful player. On 27 October, General Radu Gherghel and his colleagues hosted a TNC gala for the Red Army. Entertainment was provided by the local actors and, on the Soviet side, by Lezginka dancers. Tiberiu Iliescu, who was also editor of a modernist and left-wing magazine, Meridian, had been made TNC chairman on 24 October. He was replacing the already disgraced Boțoiu. Leftist newspapers had come to identify the latter as a "petty dictator", who had replicated Antonescu at a city-level, or, more radically, as a "fascist propagandist" performing services for the Nazis.
Iliescu opened the 1944–1945 season with The Lower Depths. The selection was upheld as a good example by the Union of Patriots' Tribuna Poporului, since it was a "play for the masses". Alexandru Kisilievici won praise as the director, as did actors Fulda and Iancu Economu. In November 1944, Iliescu organized a series of "experimental conferences" at the TNC, inviting Grigore Preoteasa (who discussed Tudor Vladimirescu's modern legacy) and Matei Cristescu (who covered the literary aspects of French Resistance). In April 1945, the journalists at Fapta praised Iliescu for taking a risk with Paul Claudel's L'Annonce faite à Marie, which used Elena Sterienescu in the lead role. In the interview, the chairman informed his public that, should they like it or not, "I will persevere, until Craiova's people will get used to having good things." In his subsequent artistic program, Iliescu sought to combine a classical repertory (comprising Delavrancea, Shakespeare, Shaw, Tolstoy, Gorky, and Alexander Pushkin) with newer works—by Marcel Achard, Karel Čapek, Ilya Ehrenburg, Leonid Leonov, Ayn Rand, and George Mihail Zamfirescu. As he himself recalled in a 1976 interview, they were performed not just on the conventional stages, but also "in factories [and] orphanages."
With time, allegations surfaced that Iliescu was rarely found at his workplace, and that he had done nothing to prevent the stealing of operating suplies, including 153 lightbulbs and much of the carpeting. He was also much resented by his actors. As reported by critic and diarist Valentin Silvestru, by 1946 they were preventing him from even entering his workplace; the Ministry of Arts resorted to sending in another writer, Geo Dumitrescu, to take over all his attributes (initially in a non-official capacity). Iliescu was pushed out by Dumitrescu on 2 November 1946, only preserving his other office, as a ministerial inspector in Oltenia. In his own account, he had to resign due to "small machinations" by people who still functioned as under "the bourgeois regime". An unusually heated competition followed between his prospective replacements. It ended on 22 February 1947, when Romulad Bulfinsky won the appointment.
Bulfinsky's mandate witnessed the full imposition of a Romanian communist regime in early 1948. Immediately after, a trade unions' commission (headlined by Aurel Ion Maican and Velimir Maximilian), staged qualification exams for the theatrical staff; Ciuculescu was given a poor review, having failed to answer some of the more basic questions about stagecraft. In May, the PCR central organ, Scînteia, observed that the closing TNC season had been a disparate collection of classical plays (The Miser), "plays that are critical of the old regime" (Alexandru Kirițescu's Gaițele), and samples "of contemporary-progressive writing for the stage" (Arnaud d'Usseau and James Gow's Deep Are the Roots). Scînteia censured the TNC for also choosing Mircea Ștefănescu's comedy, Micul infern, which stood as a "dangerous [...] eulogy to bourgeois family life." During the summer break, Bulfinsky's troupe, answering a command by the PCR (then known as the "Workers' Party"), toured Oltenia with Gaițele, performing for agricultural cooperatives and workers' unions, in places from Oravița to Băile Govora.
On 21 September 1948, director and writer Marin Iorda lost his chairmanship at the National Theater Iași, and was instead moved to the similar post in Craiova, where Bulfinsky had resigned. Manager Alexandru Dincă, who led the TNC in the 1970s and '80s, described the 1948–1948 season as pioneering "fresh, original playwriting that attempted to present the New Man in all the complexity of the concerns and events he was experiencing." As Dincă notes, such premieres included Lucia Demetrius' Cumpăna and Mihail Davidoglu's Minerii. In early 1949, Iorda himself directed O scrisoare pierdută, for which he adopted the viewpoint of Marxist-Leninism. Iorda had a "creative session" with the agitprop department in Dolj Region, where he described Caragiale's text as an anti-bourgeois fable.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Theater Craiova, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3