"Fever" starring Simona Maicanescu opens UNDERCLOUD festival

'Fever,' a French show based on a text by Wallace Shawn, directed by Swedish Lars Noren, starring Simona Maicanescu, on Wednesday opened the 11th edition of the UNDERCLUOD drama festival.

"In the foreground is actress Simona Maicanescu, a Romanian who settled in France more than 30 years ago. This show is very special from several points of view, starting with the text written by Wallace Shown, a well-known Hollywood actor, and moving on to director Lars Noren, the most popular and famous Swedish playwright alive," Carla-Maria Teaha, executive director of the festival, told AGERPRES.

This year's edition of the festival includes more than 35 events from Romania, England, China, France, Israel, Poland and Portugal that will take place August 22-31 at ARCUB-Gabroveni.

The novelties of the 11th edition of UNDERCLOUD are a dance section and a performance section.

"This year we added two new sections - a dance section, because the UNDERCLOUD dance shows have been very well received (...), and a performance section, a new form of expression that is neither drama, nor dance; it has been a mix in Romania, at least for the last two years, and it continues to develop," said Teaha, adding that this year it is for the first time that the festival adds independent performances from Romania, namely 'Complet alb' (Fully White) (Iasi); 'In umbra marelui plan' (In the Shadow of the Great Plan) (Cluj), and 'MaRo' (Targu-Mures).

On Wednesday evening the competition section opened, created for young playwrights, with the performance "The Caretaker," by Harold Pinter, directed by Radu Iacoban, stage design by Ana Ularu.

The only show of the festival to be staged every evening but not at ARCUB is "In doi" (In Two), which can be seen every time by just three spectators, as the performance takes place in a car.

"We have another performance that repeats every time, it's called 'In Two' and it's a marvellous show, the only one that is not staged at the Gabroveni Inn, but it's mounted in a car. It's a selection of text by Matei Visniec. Each trip by car lasts 15 minutes and there are five stories. You can watch the stories separately, but they can be watched together as well. The ticket, which has a price of 20 lei, is for one story. The car, with the two actors, the protagonists, taking the front seats and the spectators, three in all, sitting in the back, leaves from Piata Romana, the Lupoaica statue. So they ride the car through the city and play. The route is not a special one, it is preset to include the central area, as long as that quarter of an hour allows, but at the request of the spectators it can change. The show will be performed every 20 minutes, starting at 20:00hrs through 22:30hrs," said Teaha.

The second performance of the first evening was "Stretto," a Portuguese production, featuring Romulus Neagu, a Romanian choreographer and dancer who settled in Portugal almost 20 years ago.

"This show is included in an unofficial section, 'Return,' which includes Romanian artists who are less well known in the country but very well known in the countries where they have settled; we have thought to give a helping hand to their promotion," said Teaha.

This year's dance performances include two Israeli productions: 'The Third Dance'- a show that showcases Romanticism and all its clichés, and 'Territorial Opera,' by Schlomit Fundaminsky, nominated by the Ministry of Culture of Israel as the most promising young choreographer.

On the other hand, the performance section includes performances such as: 'Homo Love,' 'Nok! Nok!' and 'Institute of Change.'

Tickets can be purchased online via Mystage or Eventbook.

Organisers say that this year's audience qualifies for the '1 + 1 Cashless Life' campaign conducted by Raiffeisen Bank ticket, which means for one ticket purchased on a Raiffeisen Bank card, a second free ticket becomes available at the ARCUB-Gabroveni ticket counter on 84-90 Lipscani Street. Tickets bought online do not qualify.

Created in 2008, UNDERCLOUD is the first independent drama festival in Romania. Since 2014, it has been unfolded under the aegis of the Europe for Festivals programme, an important international certificate awarded by the European Commission and the European Festivals Association. UNDERCLOUD is an organised with support from the Bucharest City Hall through the ARCUB - Cultural Centre of Bucharest, a cultural event co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Identity. AGERPRES (RO - author: Petronius Craiu, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)