Ivanov

Synopsis

Ivanov (1887) captures the moral and existential crisis of Nikolai Ivanov, a young landowner overwhelmed by debt, stuck in a lucid apathy, like a provincial Hamlet. Once idealistic, he becomes aware of the failure of his own life, but is unable to act or find meaning in life. His marriage to Anna Petrovna, who is seriously ill, is falling apart due to Ivanov's indifference to her suffering. In an atmosphere of suffocating provincialism, rumors and hypocrisy, Ivanov vainly seeks the zest for life in his attraction to the young Sasha. Neither the promise of a new love nor his wife's suffering inspires him, because the true source of his wandering lies not in circumstances, but in his own exhausted spirit.

Director's word

"I first worked on the text of Ivanov when I was at the Master of Directing in Paris because even then I was intrigued by the drama of this man and his relationship to those around him, but I only happened to stage this play now, when I reached the age of the titular character.

Ivanov's vulnerability and the force of self-destruction are familiar experiences to me and I find myself in his naive and passionate behavior at the same time. His desire to overcome himself, his failure to accept love, and his struggle with his own inner demon prevent him from being lucid, responsible, and conscious. Ivanov is a "madman," but what does it mean to be normal in the world we live in?

In an era of Instagram psychology and individualism that kills any form of belonging, in a permanent strategy towards a "balanced" life, today's Ivanov is suffocated by the expectations and satisfaction of the needs of others.

Ivanov is not a hero. He is an outcast by definition, he does not fit the mold, he is an emotional outcast because he still believes in life's mysterious pleasure of living the moment. He is, at the same time, a pampered and a victim of his own existence, but also, paradoxically, an executioner of those for whom he feels carnal, spiritual, familial love. Ivanov is a creature, a soul troubled by his own fears and the ghosts of the past.

In the continuity of my current formal searches, at the intersection of theater and film, and in the ambiguity of the exposure of reality between truth and fiction, I explored, together with my creative team and the actors and actresses of the Craiova national troupe, a concept of dramatic deconstruction, which would shake up both the acting and technical mechanisms of a classic theatricality."

Eugen Jebeleanu

"Ivanov's process of particularization is the riskiest and Vlad Udrescu risks everything, he is radical and offensive, vulnerable and cynical. Is he an antihero or is he a monster? as Eugen Jebeleanu stated in a recent interview. Both, but above all he is a character in progress, in de/construction, he is from the family of good people who can do no good of Chekhov, about whom Nabokov spoke. There is an excess of lucidity in Ivanov, and the camera allows an expansion in capturing moments of (self)unmasking. In the second act, Sașa takes the camera and records the confession of shame, it is a complete moment, the intensity with which Monica Ardeleanu Andone, the sound character of the show imagined by Rémi Billardon, interprets Imaginer l’ Amour,  and Ivanov's dance, endless beauty, the ghost of a love, a seductive flight that ends suddenly, the new life is just a dream, and the disenchantment is complete, Ivanov is closer to self-mockery than to self-illusion.”

Daniela Firescu, Ivanov, the absurd comedy, Ramuri magazine, no. 11/2025, page 15

"Ivanov is the first collaboration of director Jebeleanu with a trained, experienced troupe, with clear identities, with important actors, with visible roles, with awards, in a context of meetings with directors that transform you. If I were to name only Declan Donnellan and Radu Afrim. The protagonist of the production is the actor Vlad Udrescu. A Hamlet of his generation and of this time. An actor on whom Declan Donnellan staked the structure of an entire aesthetic approach. Jebeleanu makes Ivanov the voice of some inner springs. Of a type of imprisonment. The sum of some conscious and verbalized impotences. The cry of captivity. Or of a poem about love. A double assumed by the director. (…) The show is the composition of two mixed plans, especially through the witness who becomes the camera. A witness-link of intimacies and broad, public declamations. A witness who records and exposes the dramas of individuals. A style definitively imposed in 2011 by Katie Mitchell at the Schaubühne, with Domnișoara Iulia. A fabric that Jebeleanu creates for both The Seagull and Ivanov. Much clearer and stronger now. With large, poetic and cruel scenes, scenes that walk through the viscera of each character, but also through the existences of those who play them, elaborate scenes, well coordinated, with mystery, with a calculated distance, a continuous movement in each space thought out in detail by the set designer Velica Panduru, partner in thought and illusion, analyst and visual commentator.”

Marina Constantinescu, nikolai alexeevici, let's run away to america!..., Romania literară, no. 50, November 28, 2025

"Ivanov, once full of hope and enthusiasm, has completely abandoned his youthful illusions and, mired in provincial boredom, believes for the moment that he is finding his vital energy again, in a new love with the young Sasha. But he is definitely tired and commits suicide on the verge of marriage. The end of Jebeleanu's performance recalls the modification of the denouement in his previous performance with The Seagull: Ivanov no longer chooses to disappear or commit suicide on his own, according to the two versions of the text, but is killed by Lvov, the doctor of his deceived wife. In The Seagull, Treplev does not commit suicide either, he is killed by the teacher Medvedev, an unhappy lover. Jebeleanu is constantly searching for new forms, like Treplev, one of the characters that marked his directorial evolution, situated at the intersection between theater and film."

Mirella Patureau, Eugen Jebeleanu, the third time Chekhov or the end of a cycle, scriptor magazine, Jan.-Feb.2026, pp. 102-104

"Ivanov is a show built on mystery. Paradoxically, while it is generous in images. An 'instagrammable' show, charming through the scenography thanks to Velică Panduru, Eugen Jebeleanu's longtime collaborator. The stage offers a lot of visual refinements, everything is in plain sight. And where the gaze cannot reach directly, the video camera, handled with real mastery by Corina Druc (…)

Eugen Jebeleanu proposed a game to us: we see the filming of a film based on Chekhov's play, so that the actors are on the set, wearing period costumes, but they move – literally, there is a lot of movement on stage, from one side to the other, behind the set, through the hall, outside the hall, towards the foyer – and through what represents the setting of a filming location. (…)

Music is a major pillar in this show. On the one hand, we have the original creation, thanks to another constant collaborator of the director: Rémi Billardon. A music present even over the lines, like the one in the film. The show evokes the sound of a cuckoo and the hall is filled with the warm voice of Monica Ardeleanu.”

Marius Dobrin, The third book on the history of theatre begins with ‘Ivanov’, SpectActor no. 2/2025

https://tncms.ro/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SpectActor_02-sep-dec-2025_web.pdf

"(…) the actors play with loneliness without ceasing. In every way, translating loneliness, isolation, resignation and sudden death into their own language, entering and exiting with incredible ease in and out of the skin of Chekhov's heroes of alienation, treated with equal importance in the proposed theme (all the characters less visible or less present in Chekhov's play acquire in Jebeleanu's proposal a relevance resolved from the dramaturgy of the show, through added or countered characters, built especially for the actors in the cast), turning our souls and references on all sides until we all find ourselves, on stage and in the audience, in Ivanov."

Luciana Antofi, Imaginer l’amour with Eugen Jebeleanu or Liniște, in Craiova they are Chekhoving!…  The splendor of solitudes like “Ivanov”  https://lucianaantofi.com/2025/12/10/imaginer-lamour-cu-eugen-jebeleanu-sau-liniste-la-craiova-se-chehoveaza-splendoarea-singuratatilor-tip-ivanov/ Dec. 10, 2025