A Stormy   Night or No. 9

 O noapte furtunoasa sau Nr.9 

The action takes place in Carigiale’s own time and place, Bucharest at the end of the 19th century. It is a cynical view of society as it was then but is nowadays often compared with the society of the present. He captures in a very eloquent way the mentality of the Romanian people, being able to create strong characters that verge on caricature representing society stereotypes. What he is trying to show in this play is the so-called petit-bourgeois, a nouveau-riche that has a peasant mentality and which aspires to be French but not through study but convention. This situation is often compared to the modern phenomenon of globalization, where all over the world the old and the traditional are threatened by the same clichés and stereotypes. This production of the play was staged in a classical way, but with a modern approach. What also gave it intimacy was that the public was seated in a horseshoe and therefore had more possibility to absorb and to participate in the action, becoming both witness and conspirator…