Constanța State Theatre opens the 2022-2023 season with the premiere of the play "Seaside Stories," directed by Radu Afrim.

The Constanța State Theatre opens the 2022-2023 season with the premiere of the play "Seaside Stories," directed by Radu Afrim, scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, and Thursday, October 27, at 7:00 PM.

"Seaside Stories" is an innovative play in the unmistakable style of the renowned director Radu Afrim, who is also the author of the script. The play is a collage of texts about the sea, written by six contemporary Romanian authors: Marius Chivu, Lavinica Mitu, Dan Alexe, Simona Goșu, Tudor Ganea, and Nicoleta Dabija, along with a poem by Nina Cassian.

The set design is created by the young Theodor Cristian Niculae, marking the second collaboration with Constanța State Theatre after "8 Tați." "Seaside Stories" represents his debut after completing his bachelor's studies this year.

The cast, in order of appearance, includes: Liliana Ghiță, Ștefan Mihai, Theodor Șoptelea, Cătălin Bucur, Marian Adochiței, Anaïs Agi-Ali (student), Cătălina Mihai, Iulian Enache, Laura Iordan, Liliana Cazan, Mihaela Velicu, Alina Manțu, Cristiana Luca, Lana Moscaliuc, Nina Udrescu, Remus Archip, Andrei Bibire, and Alex Burcă (student).

The creative team includes: assistant director Mara Oprea, lighting designer Cristian Niculescu, assistant set designer Paula Rusu. Andrei Dermengiu and Marian Adochiței worked on the filming with Radu Afrim, with Dermengiu also handling the video editing.

Alexandru Bibere – lighting operator, Alexandru Popa and Eduard Lupu – sound operators, Andrei Dermengiu – technical director.

The play is exactly what Constanța needed—a series of stories with different characters, fleeting encounters, and intense moments taken from life, possibly from those we have all experienced at the seaside. The common thread of these stories is the feeling of vacation on the coast, shared by both locals and returning visitors, whether yearly or occasionally.

Radu Afrim is one of Romania's most appreciated, awarded, and innovative directors. His body of work includes dozens of plays at theaters across Romania and Europe, as well as many awards, including three UNITER awards for Best Director and several major international accolades: the Grand Prix at the Grange de Dorigny Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the “Coup de Coeur de la Presse” (press award) at the “Off” Festival in Avignon. Afrim was the director of the Gala Tânărului Actor (Gala HOP) from 2013 to 2015.

In Constanța, he previously directed the play "Inimi cicatrizate" in 2006, an adaptation of Max Blecher's novel.

The authors:

MARIUS CHIVU, born in 1978, is a poet, prose writer, translator, and literary critic. He debuted in 2012 with the poetry collection Vântureasa de plastic, winning the debut prize from the Romanian Writers' Union (USR) and the Observator cultural magazine award. Since then, he has published several volumes of poetry, prose, and interviews with prestigious publishers, and his poetry has been translated into French, Swedish, English, Polish, Spanish, and Catalan.

Lavinica Mitu, born in 1980 in Slatina, graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Bucharest. Her debut volume is Bărbatul fără cap (The Headless Man), published by Polirom this year.

Dan Alexe, born in 1961 in Buzău County, is a writer, filmmaker, journalist, and translator, currently based in Belgium. He has traveled and made documentaries in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kosovo, and Central Asia. He became known mainly for his discourse against protochronism and Dacianism. He has published several volumes of journalism and prose with renowned publishers.

Simona Goșu, born in 1976, is a translator. She graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, English-Romanian department, at the University of Bucharest and holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics and English teaching. She has published short stories in cultural magazines and debuted in 2020 with the short story collection Fragil (Fragile). This is her second collaboration with director Radu Afrim, the first being the play Câine cu om. Câine fără om (Man and Dog. Dog without Man), staged last year at the "Marin Sorescu" National Theatre in Craiova.

Tudor Ganea, born in 1983 in Bucharest, grew up in Constanța and graduated from Mircea cel Bătrân High School, where he had the late poet and prose writer Mircea Țuglea as a teacher. He is an architect, and as a writer, he debuted in 2016 with the novel Cazemata (The Bunker), published by Polirom, for which he received the "Young Prose Writer of the Year 2016" award at the Gala Tinerilor Scriitori, the debut award from Observator cultural magazine, and the "Nepotu’ lui Thoreau" (Debut) award. He has since published four more volumes with the same publisher.

Nicoleta Dabija, born in 1978 in Constanța, graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at "Al. I. Cuza" University in Iași in 2002 and became a PhD in philosophy in 2008 with her thesis Metaphysics and Confession. She is the author of several volumes of essays, philosophy, and interviews. In 2018, she debuted in poetry and has since translated the complete poetic works of Giuseppe Ungaretti into Romanian. In recent years, she has published essays and prose.

Nina Cassian, born in 1924 in Galați and passed away in 2014 in New York, was a poet, essayist, translator, and composer. She is best known to the public for her children's poetry, but her body of work, which includes dozens of books published since 1947, culminated in volumes of memoirs that provide a panorama of the literary environment in Romania.