"Farewell, Europe!" - the new edition of Ion D. Sîrbu's novel is launched at the National Theatre of Craiova
"Farewell, Europe!", the novel of the communist era left as a testament to the Romanians by Ion D. Sîrbu will be launched at the National Theatre Craiova, Wednesday, March 15, at 4 pm, 3o. Questioning what the writer called in the book's subtitle la condition roumaine, the novel was, in Monica Lovinescu's view, a major event when it appeared in 1991: "it fills the void of drawer literature and takes on the dimensions of Evil with such force, constituting almost a demonology, that it could illustrate the treatises and essays of political philosophy and sociology on totalitarianism both in its essence and in its local specificity".
The new edition published by Ed. Măiastra (2021), 30 years after the first edition, is carefully edited by Toma Velici, tireless and devoted editor of Ion D. Sîrbu's work, and benefits from a preface by Cosmin Ciotlos and an afterword by Ruxandra Cesereanu.
Participă: Clara Mareș, Cosmin Ciotlos, Marius Ghica, Toma Velici,
Moderator, Nicolae Coande.
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At the celebration of Ion D. Sîrbu's centenary (28-29 June 2019), the National Theatre of Craiova presented the absolute premiere of "Farewell, Europe!", directed by Bogdan Cristian Drăgan, adapted by Nicolae Coande.
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Candid Character:
I declare on my own responsibility that... I, the undersigned Desiderius Candid, declare that... I mean, I don't actually declare... I declare that I am innocent... I laughed, it's true, but I had every reason to... on the poster in front of the theatre there was a grotesque confusion... The great Karl Marx was mistaken for Karl May, an obscure writer who had written about American Indians in the science fiction section... I couldn't help laughing... I admit it came from my stomach, not my brain...
Tutilă:
You have no idea what it's like to laugh in public at Isarlâc. Why didn't you laugh alone in your basement at the theater? Even the devil wouldn't pick on you. You found yourself laughing in the theatre square, in front of all the Mongoloids on surveillance duty. Olimpio, you're out of your mind, explain to this fool of yours how things are!
Olimpia (angrily, to Candid):
In other words, you're putting shit on the doorknob. And not just any doorknob.
Tutilă:
On the doorknob that wished you well...
