Snail rescuers

Synopsis

How much of his being does an actor leave on stage after each performance? How much of an actor's role remains in his being once the makeup is gone? Three sisters, actresses, a brother, also an actor, a father, a teacher of astronomy, and a mother, a famous actress, to whom is added a psychotherapist, these are the characters of the tragicomedy "Snail Rescuers". In fact, this play is a plea for the show, for the show on the stage or on the set, but also the show of life, sometimes more powerful than any fictional creation. The actors play, but they play, in a merry-go-round of funny or tragic events that make you wonder if you are on the stage of a theater or even in the everyday life of those who embody the characters. But don't be fooled: nothing is what it seems.

 Chronicles:

"Bogdan Drăgan expands the meaning of the piece towards what conveys the greatest emotion. And it must be said that the show is important not only on the general level of text-representation, but also through the human substratum that also targeted the distribution. (…) The image with the four actresses: Petronela Zurba, Anca Dinu, Geni Maxsim, Haricleea Nicolau, holding hands, together with Tudor Petrescu, their partner in the cast, is full of emotion, one felt by those close to the theater. Bogdan Cristian Drăgan thus brings a performance to the stage as an exercise of admiration, as a gesture of appreciation for the actors, as our hurried life rarely knows the opportunities. (...) Petronela Zurba opens the series casually, with a springtime air that I haven't seen in a long time, if not really unique on the Craiova scene. We thus have scenes that can foreshadow a one-woman-show of the actress. Of great comic effect is the rhythm in which he describes, through paradoxes, his character's marriage: "always attentive, pedantic, perfumed, educated, elaborate". (…) Anca Dinu appears in a posture of maximum exploitation of a subtle humor, developed after complex roles in HOT L Baltimore and Spargerea (…) draws applause on the open stage when she ironizes, including an intelligent dose of self-irony, a quite common way of doing talk shows. (…) The character of the therapist Ana-Maria Ionescu Puturi, in a perfectly adequate interpretation by Hariclea Nicolau. With a subtle humor, this role comes, somehow, in the continuation of the one in the Oreste Project, offering a character characterized by a melange of seriousness and comedy, of vulnerability and superficiality (...) Haricleea Nicolau speaks with a warm, well-balanced voice, even with a playful hesitation of an exposed professional inconsistency, typical phrases, generating laughter. (…) Geni Maxim appeared as the most serene, apparently without any intention of expression. This role is captivating precisely because of the attitude of harmony that outlines a strong personality."

Marius Dobrin, Unsolicited services, SpectActor magazine, no.1 / 2018

"Scenes from the lives of actors and (or) puppets," could be a synopsis of the show imagined by Bogdan-Cristian Drăgan, The Snail Saviors. A fertile subject that here becomes a pretext for bookish experiments, for a game of luring the audience, who are challenged to go back and forth on the plot, a parodic recycling of Chekhovian themes.The result is a hybrid composition between a theatre in which the actors are emotionally involved, a self-reflexive theatre and modern technologies. Inserted film fragments, where the enlarged faces of the actors reach the dimensions of the screen, bring another form of connection with the audience, as well as documenting personal experiences. The (melod)dramatic deposition of the three sisters is counterbalanced by the intervention of the psychotherapist, with an agenda of her own from which she does not deviate: "what is happiness?". The comic pattern is carefully structured and the recitation of the definition of happiness repetitive. The play of movements and lines, the crescendo sequences take the action beyond the tightly set dramatic situations, and among the most authentic moments are those in which the four actresses (a remarkable collective performance) search for the play/reaction that brings the action to life, or the uncharacteristic moments of explicit parody of rehearsals in a hypothetical performance."

Daniela Firescu, Scenes from the lives of actors and puppets / RAMURI magazine, no. 4 / 2018

The performance "The Snail Saviors" by Bogdan Cristian Drăgan received the Special Jury Prize at the Contemporary Romanian Drama Festival 2018.