SUMMIT
by Florin Fieroiu
About the show
The SUMMIT performance is embodied around the principles and aesthetics formulated by the Dadaist movement, a revolutionary artistic movement that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, which had Tristan Tzara at its energetic and conceptual center, alongside Hugo Ball, Francis Picabia, Marcel Janko, Andre Breton and other outstanding artists of the time.
The working process is an exploration, mainly in the theatrical and choreographic perimeter, of the disturbing ideas that can be found in Tristan Tzara’s work “Sept manifestes Dada” published in Paris in 1924. The seven manifestos will be the guide to this exploration of an artistic space outside the usual patterns, a framework dedicated to breaking with stage conventions and searching beyond logic, an aesthetic approach in which the psychological mechanism is no longer relevant.
The show tries to revive the spirit of these young artists at the beginning of the 20th century, to rekindle their curiosities and fears, their spirit of fronde, rebellion, nihilism and at the same time their courage to oppose the past without any pity for its values. Seventh-power gestures and tics, anti-music, running backwards, stage anarchy, anti-logic, random dramaturgy, declamation that breaks through the wall of the astonished spectators will not pose any aesthetic problems because Dada has provided us with a perfect context to explore and capitalize on these ideas.
“SUMMIT is an invitation into an innovative and challenging artistic universe. A semi-open door to expressiveness, creativity … freedom.
Creative team
Concept, script and direction: Florin Fieroiu
Music: Vlaicu Golcea
Costumes : Cristina Milea
Assistant scenography: Cosmina Croitoru
Lighting-design: Andrei Ignat
Cast
Anamaria Pîslaru, Sorin Dinculescu, Dora Iftode, Alina Crăiță, Valentin Mihalache, Laura Duică, Mădălin Mladinovici
“… Summit functions as a dramatic ars ars, an artistic manifesto or a declaration of intent for what is to come. Choreographer Florin Fieroiu takes Tzara’s manifestos and places them in a shadowy space, occasionally flickering with reflections of light on the silver movable curtains manipulated by the performers. Their ashen costumes take on marvelous fantasy extensions at one point, Cristina Milea creates man-object installations by placing excrescences – wings, hats, etc. – on the actors’ drab clothes, resulting in new characters. In fact, it’s a way of showing that revolt against conventional art generates new artistic languages.” ( Oana Stoica – Neighborhood theater -Dadaon Virtuții Boulevard)
” “Summit” by Florin Fieroiu can be seen as the “manifesto” of the passage from nonverbal to text performance; a manifesto in a double sense because it starts from the Dadaist manifestos as a point of departure from the past to engage the company (and the audience) in the game of redefining the scenic language of the Theater. Affirming the ludic as the only regulating law of the stage, the performance can be read as a separation from the past, but also as a tender look at the memory of the gestural and statuary postural performances that have defined the identity of Masca Theatre under the direction of Mihai Mălaimare, in collaboration with the director Anca Florea, for over three decades.” ( Oana Cristea Grigorescu, “Manifestele teatrului de proximitate și reprezentare”, scena.ro)
“A unique theatrical performance on the Bucharest stage. A metamorphized performance for everyone who sees it. Because you leave there at least touched, if not moved or even transformed. You know the Dadaist movement? Great, you’ll leave knowing a little more. Never heard of it? No problem, now’s your chance to get to know it, find out more about it. As a dear friend confessed to me after the show, if you want a beautiful and complete lesson in Dadaism, come to Masca Theater and leave with a clear mind about perhaps the most avant-garde of the avant-garde, the most revolutionary artistic movement in existence and the one that I think has been spoken about and is spoken about the least in Romania.” (Tudor Sicomaș, We are DaDa or the logic behind chaos. SUMMIT)
“Summit is not a dance performance (Florin Fieroiu is the choreographer), but it is extremely demanding for the actors, at the level of means of bodily expression, including running backwards and moving in place – as landmarks of the illogical and contradiction.” (Irina Ionescu, Atypical, nonlinear, different – Summit)
“Summit” abandons theatrical convention and comfortable compromise in the Dada spirit. Through a series of provocative statements such as “Logic is the dance of the impotent” or the definition of Dada as a “means of curing political and artistic syphilis”, dramaturgical non-structures and an aesthetic that unites camp and expressionism in defiance of their apparent incompatibility, Florin Fieroiu’s performance (concept, script, direction) takes as its skeleton the seven Dada manifestos found in Tristan Tzara’s work, Sept manifestes Dada (1924). ( Adda Mihăescu, Theatrical Non-structures in “Summit“)