The first guest of the 2025 cultural event "SpectActor Meetings" is playwright Matei Vișniec. Nicolae Coande will hold a dialogue with the theater man and cultural journalist Matei Vișniec, Tuesday, March 18, from 5:00 p.m., at the "Ion D Sîrbu" hall of the National Theatre of Craiova.
On March 19, from 7:00 p.m., the author will be present at the official premiere of the show "Țara lui Gufi", to which he wrote the text, directed by Dan Tudor.
Tickets for Tuesday's conference are available at the theater agency.
Poet, playwright, novelist, journalist, Matei Vişniec was born on January 29, 1956 in Rădăuţi, in Suceava County. He debuted with poetry in 1972 in the magazine Luceafărul. He debuted in volume in 1980, at the Albatros publishing house, with a collection entitled La noapte va ninge. In September 1987, he managed to leave for France, where he requested political asylum. Between 1990 and 2022, he worked as a journalist at Radio France Internationale. After the fall of communism, in 1989, Matei Vişniec's activity took place between France and Romania, between two cultures and two languages, between West and East.
He is the author of several volumes of poetry and articles, six novels, a collection of short stories and over 60 plays. Numerous awards have rewarded his work, starting with the Poetry Prize awarded by the Romanian Writers' Union in 1984 for the volume The Sage at Tea Time. He has also received the Romanian Academy Award, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Romanian Theatre Union (UNITER). In France, he has been awarded the Press Prize at the Avignon International Theatre Festival several times, the European Prize awarded by the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers, and the Jean Monnet European Literature Prize for the novel The Merchant of Novel Beginnings.
In 2021, Matei Vișniec was decorated by French President Emmanuel Macron with the National Order of Merit in the rank of Knight.
His plays have been translated into over 30 languages and have been performed in many countries. Some of them have been staged in important theaters in Europe: the Rond Point des Champs Elysées Theater in Paris, the Stary Theater in Krakow, the Piccolo Theater in Milan, the Royal Theater in Stockholm, the Young Vic Theater in London, the National Theater in Istanbul, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the National Theater in Sofia, the Teatro Stabile in Turin, the Amalia Theater in Thessaloniki.
After the fall of communism in 1989, Matei Vişniec became one of the most performed authors in Romania, with performances created on all national stages (Bucharest, Sibiu, Iaşi, Cluj, Craiova, Timişoara), as well as in many other cities. Numerous radio plays produced by the National Radio Theatre.
The "Marin Sorescu" National Theatre in Craiova has so far staged the plays The Beautiful Journey of the Panda Bears told by a saxophonist who had a girlfriend in Frankfurt (directed by Mircea Cornişteanu), Hotel Europa complet (directed by Șerban Puiu), Occident Express (directed by Alexandru Boureanu).
