(Ship)wrecked Shakespeare in Romanian Tempests

Increasingly popular on the Romanian stage post-1989, The Tempest has become fertile terrain for exploring the current function of Shakespeare and theatre in the country. Comparing two 2009 productions, directed by Cristi Juncu and Cătălina Buzoianu respectively, this essay discusses the rediscovered topicality of Shakespeare, the reworking of The Tempest into concept productions, and the negotiation of collaborative authorship. Juncu kept his Tempest sparse, using sound to construct the spectacle of the storm off-stage, and reducing the island to a sand-box infused with a specific blend of domesticity and dreamlike metamorphosis. Conversely, Buzoianu's production was criticised for being too busy. High-tech projection screens framed a high-concept journey through the history of human violence, heavy with unsubtle analogy and plagued with interpretive inconsistencies. As with Prospero and Ariel's magic, these productions explored collaborative theatrics, with authorial attribution being given wholly neither to Shakespeare nor to either director or translator. Unburdened with the ideological baggage of other plays The Tempest here represents a "new world" for Romanian theatre, in which to explore such matters - theatrical and political - previously missed.