The Anomaly

Synopsis

"The modern world is changing at an alarming rate. In recent years we are exposed to the uncertain, the unexpected, the unknown. In the world of anomalies, we were forced to leave our comfort zone and adapt regardless of the situation.

The Anomaly is a show about nine different people in moments of crisis and their reactions to unpredictable anomalies that will upend their everyday lives. In this captivating, musical and poetic performance, electronic fragments are combined with polyphonic melodies. The actors dance dynamic choreographies to the rhythm of the poetic text inspired by the theater of the absurd.

This is the universal story of people's exceptional ability to adapt to any circumstances." (Natasza Sołtanowicz)

The creative team

The show The Anomaly is created at the Craiova National by the Polish artistic collective called [in between] and established in 2017. The founders are Natasza Sołtanowicz, Joanna Kowalska, Marianna Syska and Grzegorz Bieńko. They create theater that challenges well-established conventions, with a primary focus on image and music. Metaphorical language and poetic imagery are their hallmarks.

In their poetic texts for the stage, the group gravitates towards topics such as human identity in the uncertain contemporary world, the perception of time and the relationship of humans to the environment. They are heavily inspired by folk tales and various myths.

[in between] produces performances in both institutional and off-stage theaters for children, teenagers and adults. Their most famous performance, Weirdos, was presented at the OFF d'Avignon Festival in France, won the Grand Prize at the PRO-CONTRA festival in Szczecin (Poland) and the International Theater Network Festival in Craiova (Romania).

In the future, they also plan to organize opera performances and concerts.

https://www.facebook.com/inbetweengroup

https://www.instagram.com/in_between_group

Chronicles:

• "Beginning with a scene in which several employees of a company meet at a meeting to find solutions to the created situation, about which no one knows anything, The Anomaly confronts us with an Ionesian universe translated into a corporate note. Ramona Drăgulescu goes through a score with extraordinary meticulousness that highlights her remarkable ability to transpose the text into subtleties, whether gestural, mimic or oratorical. I savored his moment with every word spoken.

(…) Fear, the unknown, the inevitable, the absurd, the incomprehensible. All are gathered in the esoteric character embodied by Monica Ardeleanu, who emerges from the postal package as if from a Pandora's box, unleashing chaos in a hypnotic cry. (…)

The Anomaly it was a revelation. A show in which I saw the actors of the "Marin Sorescu" Theater totally dedicated to a brave, controversial, abysmal stage experiment, proving that they can do anything, from singing, to choreography or domesticating texts that are not easy to give up."

Journey into the Abyss. anomaly, by Anda Simion, Cochilia Andei, 30 oct. 2023 https://cochiliaandei.wordpress.com/2023/10/30/calatorie-in-abis-anomalia/

• "... The anomaly, unfolded on a scenic space in which the upper wall, the ceiling, and the comic and the grotesque are exploited, is a carefully constructed show, with finesse - only it can calibrate the force - and, if I may still a risky word with heart. This is what I felt in the acting of the actors (a Cătălin Miculeasa with a way of looking that I had not discovered until now, an ethereal and precise Petronela Zurba, a delightful Ramona Drăgulescu, a surprising Nicolae Vicol, compared to the roles in which I seen so far, an admirable Cătălin Vieru and he, as well as Iulia Colan, Ștefan Cepoi, Monica Ardeleanu and Costinela Ungureanu), in the collective character he forms and who is constantly present there..."
Mădălina Nica, Et in Anomalia ego, SpectActor no. 3/2023

• "That's what the Polish director Natasza Sołtanowicz managed, the leader of a team that put on a striking show. It's a corollary of technical effects, mainly, plus acting and a bit of text. Put together, they give an intense, detailed, luminous show, a chronicle of the contemporary world and the dangers that beset us. The sci-fi film is taken as believable, there is no lack of irony, especially since there are some common places: the corporation, the gift that awakens the Evil, the escape in the mountains scheme, zombies & company, the inevitable visit to the psychologist, the fight with yourself, the abolition of time, the reorganization the world in an interplanetary cosmopolitanism and art therapy."
Ana Paraschivescu, Anomaly, SpectActor no. 3/2023

• "One of the main elements that formed the basis of the show is time and our relationship with time. We did not want to launch a ready-made theory, but rather to encourage reflection on what time means to us and how it influences our daily lives. We are interested in modern man, who is a captive of clockwise movement. Man has always been the slave of time, but he probably never had to lose himself to follow its rhythm. But time is stable, it has a constant. (…) That is why this vision of the absence of the ticking of a clock, although utopian, is superb. My objective was not to create a new time dimension, but to create space in an existing, well-known dimension over which we could have absolute control."
Natasza Sołtanowicz, interview conducted by Nicolae Coande, SpectActor no. 3/2023