Youth Everlasting And Life Without End: Flogging the mechanical horse in Timișoara

Like your best friend at a party, fairy tales are always with us – even when we need them to get lost. 

Petre Ispirescu’s fairy tales, collected from various folk tales (à la Brothers Grimm) and published by him in the 1800s, are a source of Romanian national mythology – appearing countless times as puppet shows, on television, or in school curriculum. Though as fairy tales they are saturated in Romanian culture, there is simultaneously a lack of specific or critical perspectives on them. In this way, they sit under the surface like crocodiles, unquestioned, dormant, yet filled with a certain type of potential.

Performed for three sweaty July nights in public space in Timișoara, Western Romania, Youth Everlasting And Life Without End revives one of Ispirescu’s most loved stories about a prince temporarily escaping the problems of the real world.  It's all part of Europe’s Centriphery project – a roaming, multi-year project that develops site-specific events across ‘peripheral’ locations of EU states. Romania’s entry to Centriphery, which also forms part of Timisoara's hosting of the Capital of Culture, takes the form of a spectacular live-action puppet extravaganza, with gargantuan characters parading around Piața Libertății (Freedom Square), to the sound of a wailing, multi-harmony, live, rock-inspired soundtrack.

 

Photo: Flavius Neamciuc

There’s a lot to like about the outcome on a local level, even if the network of partners and stakeholders that creates it is pretty complicated. For one thing, the situation offers the artistic community of Timișoara a chance to strut their stuff on a big, big stage. The costumes by Lia Pfeiffer are a highlight, as are the gargantuan puppet-heads made from recycled materials by Ciprian Tauciuc. The music by Sol Faur, with sound by guest artist Connie Zenk, pulls you along in its ebbs and flows, incredibly supported by a quartet of vocalists (led by Choir master Beatrix Imre Leila) that begin in the first minute of the performance and do not stop singing until the 90^th. 

It’s all fuelled by an army of hundreds of volunteers, who have come in over the course of months in Timișoara and surrounds, amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. From both a managerial and community perspective, the community may well be the real star of the show. As well as hundreds of roles in set and costume construction, some 50 volunteers appear in the production itself – carrying placards, holding puppet-rods, or assisting lighting and tech. All of this accumulates into a community theatre event of epic proportions – Ispirescu’s fairy tale is not so much revived as it is dragged from the grave, kicking and screaming by the collective energies of the Banat region, and reflected in the gasps and wide eyes of the local audience.

 

Photo: Flavius Neamciuc

Fireworks aside, Youth Everlasting’s treatment from director Ovidiu Mihăiță emphasises the supernatural components of the story, presenting a stage heavy with ritual and totemism. The narrative written by Ispirescu has difficult moments, with weird additions like the Prince’s choosing specifically “the youngest” of the three sisters - for whatever reason. Despite this, the story is left largely untouched by the process, which re-produces it faithfully for an adoring local audience. 

This approach limits it to a (spectacular) re-telling of a well-known narrative, rather than a radical contemporary re-reading. Some questions on the subject of death are left unexamined – can we really, for example, look death in the face today (as “Europeans”? As Romanians/Hungarians/Serbians/Germans? As "humans"?) – or is it something that can only be approached through the fairy tale? Has this changed somehow, in a global culture that increasingly abstracts these essential, deeply philosophical questions? Is the story of a prince escaping his problems – for the fantasy of immortality among three beautiful princesses – still the best vehicle through which to think about these questions?

It’s easy to suggest that incorporating a more horizontal approach to direction - one that includes  challenging and pushing back against cultural assumptions of fairy tales - would have deepened the exchange and enriched the work. As it is, Youth Everlasting is a massive, wide-scale achievement and a breathtaking community project, that nevertheless leaves some stones unturned. Those stones are worth considering, leading up to the production's future performances, and Timișoara’s hosting of the European Capital of Culture in 2023.

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Youth Everlasting And Life Without End (Tinerețe fără bătrânețe și viață fără de moarte)

Director - Ovidiu Mihăiță

Scenography - Ciprian Tauciuc

Sound – Conny Zenk

Music – Sol Faur

Choreography - Xiri Tara Noir

Costumes - Lia Pfeiffer

Lights - Călin Cernescu

Puppet master - Cuța Gornic,

Choir master - Beatrix Imre Leila.

Graphic design - Livia Coloji

Production - Bogdan Cotîrță.

Cast of 60 professional actors and musicians from Timișoara and the country, along with art lovers and volunteers from the local community.

My visit to Timisoara was supported by the Centriphery Project, Association Prin Banat, and European Capital of Culture 2023.