On the very first day of April, I went to Bulandra theater to see „Bury me Behind the Baseboard” / „Îngropați-mă pe după plintă„. My feed-back below.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
First of all, let’s explain what „Baseboard” / „Plintă” is:
S: (n) baseboard, mopboard, skirting board (a molding covering the joint formed by a wall and the floor)
and
PLÍNTĂ, plinte, s. f. 1. Piesă de lemn, de piatră, de mozaic, de material plastic etc. care se aplică la partea de jos a pereților unei încăperi pentru a-i apăra împotriva loviturilor și a umezelii sau pentru a acoperi rostul dintre pardoseală și perete. 2. Partea de jos a unei clădiri, a unei sobe, a unui zid, ieșită mai în afară și formând un mic soclu. 3. Bloc paralelipipedic de piatră sau de zidărie, pe care se reazemă o coloană sau un piedestal. – Din fr. plinthe.
What was good?
- The humor – a lot of times the actors made me laugh; more types of humor were used: surprise (didn’t expect that, did you?), remembering a thing (oh, so this is related to that thing in the past – now that’s funny), insights (making the viewer understand a thing, which, in turn, would start laughter), funny situations (you didn’t see this situation coming, did you?);
- The combination between humor and drama – the text itself is dramatic, with both a sad end and a traumatizing sequence of events; yet in this apparently dark setting, humor pops up; at some points, one can laugh at a joke, and in the same time understand that the situation is dramatic; so, yes, this is a funny thing to see, but, on the other hand, it’s also very sad; nice combination!
- Acting – Marian RÂLEA in the role of Saşa SAVELIEV, a 9 years old boy, had a very good imitation of what gestures a boy would do; his gestures helped me imagine him as a boy; happiness, sadness, traumatic experiences – you could see them all in his behavior;
- Emotions of Saşa SAVELIEV – the boy went through a wide range of emotions, but rarely happiness and joy, and mostly frustration, guilt, shame, fear, sometimes anger;
- Emotions of the grandmother (played by Mariana MIHUŢ) – the grandmother was the negative character in the play; she had a very critical eye, negative feelings, aggressive behavior; quite a performance;
- The snow effect – I’m a sucker for such things; little pieces of paper (oh, no!, the magic is ruined now) flying around on the stage and, at the end, over the spectators; very nice;
- I could pay attention to about 95% of the time of the play (although I’ve missed some part at the beginning), so I am satisfied with this; it helped to see changing sets, to hear easy to understand words, and to say the words in an engaging way;
- The settings were nice – refrigerators flying around at times, angel wings, parks, trees, benches, doors and windows; quite nice;
What impressed me?
- Stunning – the little boy had a small ball to help him remember his mother; this is my life; I have memories (yes, as hard as this can be to be imagined) about loved ones, and they’re always in my head; that’s it; the essence of life in a small ball; and if you can put the ball into your mind, being always with you, you’re safe from any danger, and your good memories are always with you;
- The role of the mother – Andreea BIBIRI; good memories, like: joyful, playful, forgiving, brave, fearless (at times), fragile (other times), but most of all fulfilling a role each mother is destined to have – loving her child more than anything in the world;
- I learned some things about myself by looking at the grandmother; I do share some of the negative traits the grandmother had;
What could be improved?
- I had to look the word „plintă” into dictionary, so perhaps a more common word would do nicely; the play itself was using rather simple language, so it’s an atypical trait (a complicated word in the title);
- There are some commercials at which you stare and think „Hmmm, I know why they do this, yes, it might appear to be funny, but they’re tricking me into this”; and there are some commercials in which you enter the state the advertiser wants you to enter, and you can’t focus on the mechanism of fun, being to much involved into it; to me, this play was the first kind; I looked at it, I understood the mechanisms of fun, I understood what should depress me, but I wasn’t engaged as a viewer; I was not part of the show, I didn’t live it; I could watch it externally, not being part of it; thus, my emotions were safe in a corner, while the little boy’s weren’t.
Considering it’s not that easy to book a ticket, I’d suggest you do this as soon as possible (talk about limited offer incentive in marketing).