A stormy night

"The show in Craiova is a necessary gesture, even more so during the Caragiale Year, primarily because, on the one hand, it reveals the way in which Caragiale reflects the current world and, on the other hand, the way in which the world currently "reads" Caragiale."
Monica Andronescu – Literary and artistic truth, December 2011

"I feel enormous and I see monstrous", the phrase that is used to justify grotesque attacks on the playwright, was now understood as a natural desire for catharsis through satire. A sign of the depth of artistic thinking of a creator who has a respectable experience in the field of Caragiale. And I appointed the director Mircea Cornişteanu."
Doina Papp – Cultural Bucharest, no. 111, February 2012

"Cornişteanu found very ingenious and convincing solutions to offer us a slice of the daily life of Romanians. It is maintained within the boundaries of a credible realism. Obviously, there is no lack of the erotic element, the natural exaggeration, in which Cerasela Iosifescu displays her sexy qualities. Ingeniously, in counterpoint, Raluca Păun, a corpulent actress who pampers her brides, is chosen as Ziţa. She herself, through her presence and her costumes, is a comedy."

Grid Modorcea – Mozaicul, nr. 11/2012

"Mircea Cornişteanu's last staging demonstrated, without ostentation, why Caragiale is our contemporary and, at the same time, how the Caragiale text can be read on stage, today, without embarrassing terribilisms. "Stormy night" from Craiova is a modern tonic, without once betraying or blackmailing the text. The bohemian slum from Caragiale's time is transferred perfectly, naturally and without any vulgarity, to the one of our days; in the fiefdom of a current mucava baron, around the villa under renovation, on the outskirts of Bucharest, with the howling and barking of the maidans, the fire pits have been replaced by a high iron fence, operated by remote control, the shed in the yard has become a trailer, the broom - vacuum cleaner, Rică records his famous Pharisaic monologue on the tape recorder, Spiridon appears on stage on rollers, pulling "grass", and Chiriac, on a rickety motorcycle. The inspired scenography of Lia Dogaru represents a framework in which the maturity of Mircea Cornişteanu's artistic thinking and experience are fully expressed, as well as the performers, left to innovate on the classical-contemporary text, without for a moment forcing light exaggerations."
Mircea M. Ionescu, A night of big days, Taifasuri magazine, November 2012