Explosive

Synopsis

In a school with the principle of diversity, a multicultural class (with African Americans, Latinos and a Jewish victim of bullying), the new student appears, Denis who changes the hierarchies becoming the girls' favorite, more influential than the head of the class, charismatic, rebellious and authentic. Denis is the only one who revolts, he does not accept the false pressure of his parents, he has the courage to face the principal who teaches the lesson according to the notebook, he exerts fascination even on the school psychologist. The show "Explosive" is a story about a fragile age - adolescence, with its dreams and insecurities, a story about friendship and first love, about parent-child and student-teacher relationships, about power relations between classmates and the desire to popularity.

In a school that dotes on diversity, a multicultural classroom (with African-Americans, Latinos and a Jew who’s subjected to bullying) receives a new student, Denis, who changes the existing hierarchy by becoming the girls’ favorite and more influential than the class leader through his charisma, rebelliousness and authenticity. Denis is the only one to rebel, to stand against parents’ false pressures, who’s brave enough to confront the school’s director when he teaches from a notebook, and who even exerts fascination on the school’s psychologist. The showExplosive is a story about a fragile age – adolescence, with its dreams and uncertainties, a story about friendship and first loves, about parent-child & teacher-student relationships, and about power relations between classmates and the desire for popularity.

CHRONICLES:

"Andrei Măjeri, a director who is not only young, but also cultured, who collaborated with Elise Wilk since the stage of developing the dramatic text, remarkably exploited the mixture of realism, myth and symbol from which the play is made. The flow of facts is contrapuntally marked by factual breaks, skilfully planned, by actions shrouded in second meanings, carefully elaborated, by symbolic references to powers establishing higher meanings, of the second or third degree. Of signs of the myth and of its reverberations in actuality highlighted, marked, underlined, not ostentatious, to a commendable extent, by theatrical means represented by changes in the sound space, changes in lighting. As well as through the dynamic use of the elements that make up the decoration with variable geometry, inspired and efficient, signed by Alexandra Panaite. (...) "The revelation of the show is, without a doubt, Cătălin Miculeasa. Denis's interpreter. Still a student, endowed with talent, strength, power of concentration, with everything needed to make his first appearance on a professional stage, and not just any other, a success. Without his success, the success of the whole show would have been illusory. Fortunately, we are dealing with a victory in the true sense of the word. Worthy of being applauded as such.

(Mircea Morariu, "Myth and contemporaneity", "Adevărul", 17 Feb. 2016)
http://adevarul.ro/cultura/teatru/mit-sicontemporaneitate-1_56c3a7755ab6550cb8e25ef0/index.html)

"What is the connection between Euripides' Bacchantes and Explosive, a show based on a very free rewriting of the famous tragedy? The original pattern is fragmented and the idea of the revolted god who receives a new identity integrated into the pop-rock culture is maintained, Dionysos becomes Denis a teen idol, a modern god. The action opens in a kind of American High School, a concentration of clichés about the problems and concerns of young people who live like in movies and have assimilated a mixture of cultural representations, between the terribleness of the age and a kind of generalized hysteria produced by the appearance of Denis, the nonconformist hero, the terrible child who seduces both teachers and students. (…) The dramatic tension, the simple and alert style, the ingenious stage solutions, the central conflict that grows and grows until it explodes, pulls it out of inertia, crosses the sediments of the myth and recovers the image of the god in the culture popular; and at certain moments on the stage there is an alchemy that explains the great adoration such as Denis's final dance, rebellion of vitality against death."

(Daniela Firescu, "Dionysos superstar", rev. RAMURI, no. 2 / Feb. 2016)
http://revistaramuri.ro/index.php?id=3316&editie=115&autor=de+Daniela+Firescu)

"Agave is seduced in stages, conversationally, by awakening both sympathy and empathy (her son is the same age as Denis), but also the teenager, then the diva in her. Even Pentheus is instinctively drawn (along with the others) to another Dionysian moment in which the red light predominates, dancing to TNT (AC/DC) and throwing confetti, after which he remains despondent and retreats. The third Dionysian moment introduces a visual space at the border between blue, red and violet, and signs everyone's pact with Dionysus (on the song You're the one that I want). Perfect choreographic moments (the human wheel, the dance of Dionysus at the end), millimetric synchronizations in terms of stage movement give way to parodic moments."

(Dana Țabrea, "A contemporary tragedy", Ziarul de Iasi / Feb. 13, 2016)
http://www.ziaruldeiasi.ro/stiri/o-tragedie-contemporana–119038.html

Participation in festivals and awards:

Excelsior TeenFest / Bucharest / Sept. 2016
"Days and Nights of Theater in Brăila" Festival / Sept. 20-25 2016 / Brăila
"Reunion of Romanian National Theatres", 3rd edition / 20 Sept.–1 Oct. 2017 / Chisinau.
Pledez for you Theater Festival, Nov. 7-14. 2017 / Piatra-Neamț
Festival of Contemporary Romanian Drama / 6-12 Nov. 2017 / Bucharest
International Theater Festival for Young Audiences / Oct. 12 2017 / Iasi
The award for the best direction: Andrei Măjeri for