IV. Madách International Theatre Meeting

Tranquility marks the second time director Radu Afrim has collaborated with the artists of the Tompa Miklós Company. The script is based on Attila Bartis’ novel by the same title, Anyám, Kleopátra [My Mother, Cleopatra], and was adapted for the stage as a joint effort by the director and the company. Keeping the language of the novel, the performance presents characters from the author’s own world in Tărgu-Mureş. The realist script has high literary merits: it makes room for mystery, the grotesque nature of ephemeral existence, and the fragility of human relationships, creating an atmosphere typical of Afrim’s works. The performance does not intend to tackle taboos. Rather, it seeks to move the audience by presenting passion, eroticism, humour, music, an intricate plot, and mother-son and male-female relationships in all their fragmentation and sexuality. At the same time, the performance makes the audience think about and interpret what they have seen. The production has won several prestigious awards in Romania and Hungary.