The great Romanian theater plays have the disadvantage of having been written in a language that is not world spread, but have the advantage of depicting people and situations everyone can recognize, with a humor everyone can enjoy.

 

“O scrisoare pierduta” (“A Lost Letter”) was written in 1884 by Ion Luca Caragiale. The author was a sharp minded person who looked at its contemporary society with an extreme criticism, combined with an enormous sense of humor. That time, democracy in Romania was rather fragile and it made room for many deviations and abuses. The 1884 elections were the historical source of inspiration for this play.

In a province capital town, the Prefect has a love affair with the wife of an old, prominent politician. A letter sent between the two lovers gets into the hands of another aspiring politician, who dreams of having himself elected in the Romanian Parliament and blackmails both the lady and the Prefect to accomplish his goals. The plot involves twists, insanely funny political speeches and other memorable characters, such as two moronic pseudo-politicians, an able policeman who officially serves the Prefect, but who understands that behind every powerful man there is a powerful woman, or the old husband who seems senile, but who is actually rather shrewd. The characters’ names are hard to translate in another language as they are suggestive for their bearers’ personalities. 

 

The play has been so successful since it first appeared that, nowadays, some puns and lines have entered the Romanian daily language, while contemporary political figures and events can hardly escape being compared to those from “O scrisoare pierduta”.

 

Romania as an intercultural universe is superbly compressed in Tache, Ianke si Cadar (Tache, Ianke and Cadar), written by Victor Ion Popa in 1932. Tache is a Romanian, Ianke is a Jew and Cadar is a Turk, they are all old friends and merchants on the same street in Bucharest. Ianke and Tache tease each other and they both tease Cadar, who is the least talkative of them all. Tache has a boy and Ianke has a girl and they both lost their wives some time ago. The two children grew up together, they went together for studies abroad and, when they returned, they announce their parents that they are engaged. Tache and Ianke are surprised and disapprove their children’s decision, as each of them fears that his community, Jewish or Christian, would forsake him for this.

 

Desperate, the two lovers are about to pennilessly elope, but Cadar gets involved and devises a plan to help. The Turk goes to Tache and tells him that Ianke’s daughter was actually his and, as Tache has no more objections to the marriage, he asks for some money to help the two. He tells a similar story to Ianke (that Tache’s boy is actually his) and, again, asks for some money. The young couple leaves secretly, establish a successful business and, later on, they return and all are reunited.

 

The play subtly satirizes the prejudices related to nationality and religion and it demonstrates that they can be overcome by true love and friendship. The play’s witty lines offer a lot to any actor and none of the several generations of stage performers who were involved in the representations of “Tache, Ianke si Cadar” failed to delight the audiences.

Another famous Romanian comedy is “Titanic Vals”, written by Tudor Musatescu in 1932. As the name suggests it, it is related to the sinking of the Titanic. Spirache Necsulescu is a peaceful man, who values simplicity above else, without financial possibilities, but with a large family, consisting in a daughter from a first marriage, another daughter and two sons from the second marriage, a quarrelsome wife and an equally pestiferous mother-in-law. One day, he finds out that his rich brother died during the tragedy of the Titanic and that he left him his entire fortune.

The humor of the play, residing in the unusual methods the main character employs to pacify the petty aspirations of his family and the hostility of his wife and his mother-in-law towards the step daughter, combines with the love stories of the two girls, of whom, the younger is pregnant and she tries to hide it from her parents.

 

Author: Iulian Fira