MONDAY Theatre at Green Hours returns to NYC:
THE CONCRETES, directed by Alexandru Mihăescu
at the invitation of the undergroundzero experimental theater festival at PS 122


Widely applauded in Romania, where it performed in various locations in Bucharest and throughout the country, this Green Hours production is a multi-media theater adaptation of Vladimir Sorokin’s science fiction novel 'The Concretes' that skewers globalization, the future, and the political apathy of the young.

At the invitation of East River Commedia's 2010 undergroundzero festival, the production will join more than twenty artists and companies from around the world presenting a unique flying repertory of innovative performances to NYC audiences.

In the youngster’s night out, in a frenzy world full of easy amusements of a futuristic Moscow, long after the myth of the surgical strike disappeared, our characters decide to tear apart universal pieces of literature, to go inside other worlds and to search for new prey. Trip after trip, from Moby Dick to Natasha of 'War and Peace' or the heroes of 'Dune,' three – too real [aka concretes] - teenagers chew with orgasmic pleasure the symbols of world literary heritage then leaving with satisfaction towards something new.

You have five chances to the see the performance at PS122 on July 14 through 18, and one chance to meet the entire cast, director and producer on July 13 for a talk show and informal dialogue focused on "New Theatre from Italy & Romania". The latter is organized as part of commonground, the festival's special program of meta-theatrical talks.

The talk show celebrates the Italian and Romanian experimental theatre communities by featuring Compagnia La Fabbricca (Italy) and Green Hours Theater (Romania) with special guest Corina Suteu, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York, Voicu Radescu, Artistic Director, Green Hours Theater, playwright and NYU Professor Saviana Stanescu, director Alexandru Mihaescu, Sylvia Giampaola, Cultural Attache for the Italian Consulate, and director Fabbiana Iacozilli. The hosts include Festival Artistic Director Paul Bargetto, playwright Saviana Stanescu, and the festival’s production team.

The participation of Green Hours to undergroundzero festival is made possible with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute Bucharest - Cantemir Program, and The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.


THE CONCRETES
Directed by Alexandru Mihaescu.
Cast: Monica Sandulescu, Katia Pascariu and Marius Damian.
Live-VJing: Cinty.
Costumes: Carmen Secăreanu.
Produced by Monday Theatre at Green Hours, Bucharest
The show will be performed in Romanian (with English subtitles).

Born in 1980 in Timisoara/ Romania, Alexandru Mihaescu studied acting in Rostock/ Germany, then came back to study directing at the National University in Bucharest. Between 2006 and 2007 he went back to Germany with a cultural-management scholarship from the “Robert Bosch” Foundation and worked at R. Ciullis “Theater an der Ruhr” in Mulheim and at the “Forum Freies Theater” in Dusseldorf. December 2007 he co-produced the East European festival  “Tr@nsfusion” covering performance art, theatre, visual arts and theoretical discourse at Kampnagel in Hamburg. From 1998 untill the present day, he has been often collaborating with the German Theatre in Timisoara working either as actor or director. At present he is living and working in Bucharest. Read more

Monday Theatre@Green Hours was founded in 1994 and is located in the middle of downtown Bucharest. It promotes young directors, actors and playwrights from Romania; the café-theatre is one of the first spaces dedicated to independent theatre in Bucharest, with productions already presented in many international festivals.

“A a real multimedia trip in trendy “archives,” a place where characters and major literature works are mutilated until their limbs and inner organs are thrown out […] Mihaescu and his actors enter perfectly the anarchic-virtual story, transforming their mimics and corporality from one sequence to another […] into a performance centered on the explosion of physicality. The Concretes smoke their free time like an anarchic joint that connects them to a global net of destruction.” - Mihaela Michailov, Cronica Romana