Romanian rock and drama in Finland
Two cultural events dedicated to the Romanian community, as well as to a wider public in Espoo, Finland, will take place this month. The famous band IRIS will appear, for the first time in Finland, in an extraordinary rock concert, featuring familiar songs from their albums, and the Dan Puric Passe-Partout Theatre Company will perform the non-verbal dramatic play “Rencontres”. In the Sellosali Hall of the Espoo Cultural Centre, on Saturday, June 19, 2010, starting 21:00, the band IRIS will give, playing for the first time in Finland, an extraordinary rock concert, featuring the best-loved songs from the “IRIS I,II,III”, “Luna plina” and “IRIS MAXIMA” albums, as well as other hit albums. Doru Borobeica – bass, Nelu Dumitrescu – drums, Cristi Minculescu – vocal, Valter Popa – guitar and Relu Marin – keyboard, the five IRIS members, will offer the public in the country of a thousand lakes a recital filled with the stamina become, in their 32-year career, a trademark of the band. Bestowed, in 2007, the Cultural Achievements Knighthood Order, the Iris members offered, throughout their career, over 5,000 concerts. In the autumn of 2009 the entire Iris discography, from 1984 until now, was re-edited under the name “Iris – The Gold Collection”.
On Sunday, June 20, 19:00, in the same venue, Violeta Totir and Dragos Huluba, actors of the Dan Puric Passe-Partout Theatre Company, will perform the non-verbal play “Rencontres”. The two protagonists’ silent art is based on a synthesis of various means of artistic expression: pantomime, dance, step, drama, gesture, an interweaving of music and lights, spirit and emotion. “Rencontres” is the encounter of worlds and civilizations, of the various characters. The play premiered in 2007, in Luxemburg, in an event organized on Europe Day by the Romanian Embassy. The “Rencontres” performance also participated in the Uherske Hradiste International Festival of Performing Arts (the Czech Republic, 2007), in the Arad Underground Theatre Festival and in the Bucharest Romanian Comedy Festival, in the MaiFest-Great Actors, Great Directors, Great Playwrights Festival organized by UNESCO in Cluj, the Belgrade International Theatre Festival and the Galati National Comedy Festival, where it was awarded the Jury’s Special Prize (2008). The play was also present, in 2009, in the COS Reus Festival Internacional de mimi teatre in Barcelona (Spain) and the Dresden Pantomimefestival, Germany, and, in 2010, in the Francophony Festival, Saint-Louis, Senegal, and the “Black and White” International Theatre Festival, in Imatra, Finaland, where it was a hit show. It won the Grand Trophy and the Public’s Choice Award in the 2008 Belgrade International Theatre Festival.
Romanian writers in Moscow
The writers Vasile Ernu, Florin Lazarescu, Dan Lungu and Doina Rusti will attend the Moscow International Open Book Festival, to take place between June 11 and 14, 2010. After being consistently promoted, lately, in Western European book fairs and festivals, Romanian literature will be represented, now, after a long absence, in Russia – one of the biggest book markets and the homeland of some of the world’s major writers. Present in the wide-scale Moscow literary festival, alongside 60 writers coming from 20 countries, the Romanian guests will play a key role, taking part in the roundtables addressing “The crisis of historic identity or the war of memory: past and present in Eastern Europe”, “Dracula’s grandchildren in Moscow” or “Children’s literature in Romania and Russia in the communist and post-communist age”. Romanian writers will also meet Russian writers, editors and journalists. The event is organized, within the festival, by the Romanian Cultural Institute, represented by the National Book Centre, in collaboration with the Central House of Artists.
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