Dumitru Solomon și teatrul de idei (I)

Résumé

Dumitru Solomon and the Theatre of Ideas (1)
In the early years of communism, Romanian drama encountered major difficulties due to censorship and political control. Great writers, such as Camil Petrescu and Victor Eftimiu, produced mediocre plays, aligned with socialist realism. Likewise, Lucia Demetrius and Aurel Baranga wrote pieces in a socialist style, but rarely ignored official ideology. Part of a select few, Teodor Mazilu, with Fools under the moonlight, drew attention to the abuses of the totalitarian system, in an aestheticized, masked manner. In 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu imposed a directive for realistic and optimistic art. In the 1970s and 1980s, censorship intensified, culminating in the scandal of the staging of Gogol’s play The Inspector General, directed by Lucian Pintilie, at the “Lucia Sturdza Bulandra” Theater, which was quickly banned after only three performances. In this context, Dumitru Solomon’s dramaturgy focused on dialectics and selfknowledge. His theater, characterized by polemical dialogue and the effects of parody, sought to confront clichés and incite self-reflection. His plays emphasize how dramas transform actions into history and people into characters, reflecting Brecht’s theory of social transformability. The difference between historicism (related to Marxism and the relativity of truths) and historicity (with a focus on a continuous present) is emphasized. In general, Dumitru Solomon believed in uncompromising theater and in performances that do not distort the original message of the dramatic author. In his opinion, it is necessary to balance the comic and dramatic elements, by involving the audience in an active dialogue. At the same time, Dumitru Solomon considered metaphor as essential in theater, through which the relationship between reality and the abstract is explored. The author also insisted on the moral dimension of stage art, stating that theater must interpret reality, not imitate it. In this way, a theater of ideas and debate was promoted, essential for the development of the consciousness of the spectators. With the help of the metaphor, which connects the dream state with reality, utopian ideals are explored, but also the truth about people, with the aim of maintaining a balance between the self and the world.