Скачать или смотреть Closing night of the Rehearsal for Truth festival: “Lowlands” by Herta Müller. Post-show talk

We were excited to open (and close) the Rehearsal for Truth Festival in New York with the workshop production of ”Lowlands” by the German-Romanian, Nobel Prize winner author, Herta Müller, a haunting depiction of the moral decomposition of the terminal years of Communism seen through the eyes of a child from the German minority of Romania. The workshop production, directed by Ana Mărgineanu on a stage adaptation by Mihaela Panainte, will be followed by a talk on topics related to the play. The Romanian presence at the Festival, which carries on the vision and legacy of the great Václav Havel, is complemented by a screening of ”Here Moscow Calling”, directed by Catinca Drăgănescu, a production of the Unteatru company of Bucharest.

PROGRAM
May 17, 7:30 PM: “Lowlands”, Rehearsal for Truth Festival (staged reading)
June 22, 7 PM: “Lowlands”, Voices International Theatre Festival, New Jersey (workshop production, as part of the Rehearsal for Truth Festival)
June 23, 4 PM: ”Here Moscow Calling” by Catinca Drăgănescu (screening)
June 23, 7 PM: “Lowlands”, Rehearsal for Truth Festival (workshop production)

“Lowlands” was originally published in the volume “Plays from Romania: Dramaturgies of Subversion”, edited and translated by Jozefina Komporaly, Bloomsbury, 2021

“Lowlands” is a Untitled Theater Company No. 61 production made possible by the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute
Adapted for stage by Mihaela Panainte after the homonymous book by Herta Müller, translated into English by Jozefina Komporaly
Directed by Ana Mărgineanu
Associate director: Jack Cavanaugh-Gialloreto
Cast: Maria Müller (Narrator, Child Narrator); Calaine Schafer (Mother, Blonde Girl, Scarecrow); Vas Eli (Father, Tony); Allison Fletcher (Grandmother, Aunt); Miguel Loyola (Grandfather, Man with Matchsticks)
Choreographer: Răzvan Stoian
Running time: 65 minutes
Language: English

Originally a volume of short stories, ”Lowlands” by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Herta Müller, born in Romania in the sizeable German (Schwaben) ethnic group of Banat Region, offers a poignant portrayal of life under the repressive regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, from the perspective of the German minority in Romania. Seen through the eyes of a child narrator, using both poetry and frankness to convey the harsh realities of the time, the book captures the malaise of an existence suffocated by the constraints of both a dictatorship and a closed off community.