Father Constantin Necula in dialogue with Constantin Chiriac
We are living on the edge of God’s patience towards us. We incite cheap meanness and then desperately cling to miracles. FITS prompted us to rediscover the continuity of humanity, the representativeness of humanism and spiritual tranquility. An interlude of humanity. In order to rediscover life itself.
Father Constantin Necula: Master Constantin Chiriac, or in the words of the wonderful Florin Piersic, Director General Sir – and he knew exactly why he was saying it – we are facing novel challenges. We are awaiting this year’s edition of the International Theater Festival, with its more than generous motto, full of joy, full of companionship – friendship. Which should be our expectations for this year’s festival?
Constantin Chiriac: After last year’s motto, „Wonder”, and 30 years of the festival, it was quite difficult to think only about not only continuity, but also about new beginnings, because every new edition is a new beginning comprising the end of the previous editions. This red thread, connected to the wonder that the festival has been standing for 31 years now… The motto came up naturally, like drawing a breath, like the joy of being together, of breathing together, of thinking together.
At the same time, it is a re-imagining of the concept. We are inspired by our audience, including the people who during the pandemic found joy in the Digital Stage, we thought of them, first of all, when we developed this project that became a worldwide miracle, a space of friendship. Then, also under the sign of friendship, we were able to host that online edition, calling everyone on the Walk of Fame and telling them that this was not done for myself, but for audiences worldwide, for the sake of artistic dialogue materialized in worldwide tours, for the sake of audiences. The public is waiting, artists are lonesome and waiting. And they all told me „Yes, we’ll perform”.
There were two countries united in friendship and in need of a bridge.
Constantin Chiriac: Exactly! And the fact that we did not abandon the Digital Stage after the pandemic, but indeed thought of it becoming a useful tool and not an enemy of everything live performances stand for. If we look back, almost everyone who was a hero during the pandemic, doing things for the public, has vanished. Because they have struggled for their own existence forgetting that in fact the poles of reference are the public, friendship, dialogue, the joy of creation, of gifting, of passing on.
It’s like going to church because one has forgotten to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, to our Lord God, and to all those who have created the power of love and of belief in the infinity of faith – we can also pray facing the skies, a lake, a tree, a friend. Not only the crowd in a church offers us a blessing, but the purity of our thoughts and of the need to share this love and faith because, as the famous poet used to say, „The mind is like a light: I was not the one who made it. My soul has powers that scare me.”
How was the program designed?
Constantin Chiriac: We are witnessing an unprecedented moment, when recording this interview, and we can talk about it now that five days have passed since the press conference where we announced the festival program. What was extraordinary was the fact that the entire team made all necessary efforts to put the program together, and here it is, including those events not connected to buying a ticket. We insisted for the gift we are offering, in the name of the lifelong friendship we share with the public, to be a complete one.
That is, to offer almost 60 % of performances free of charge, so more than those for which tickets have to be bought, so that people from all over the world may have a clear picture of the majestic gift that we include in every conference, exhibition, book launch, street shows in Piața Mare, in all public squares, wherever we go, in all of the churches in Sibiu…
A UNIQUE Festival worldwide
Constantin Chiriac: This festival is unique worldwide. And when one has a panorama of all events and one sees the miracle in Piața Mare at a certain hour, a certain show in a certain church – in keeping with the dignity and the status of every church, every space of prayer – the spectator says: yes, they struggled to offer us an 80 lei subscription, to offer us a bicycle for each of the 10 ten days we spend in Sibiu. So, we mount the bicycle at 3 pm on the first day and we attend Father Necula’s conference on friendship, where we’ll also see that person coming to say a few words, because he was the one who took care of the festival in its entirety.
Then at 4 pm we’ll go and see Baryshnikov. It’s a historic moment for our country that this person is conferencing in Sibiu and offering an installation alongside Jan Fabre, which will be visible for the entire duration of the festival, in the sports hall in Piața Teatrului and that there will be five shows and all of them are almost sold out. It’s been 5 days since the press conference and 78 % of tickets are sold. People took one day to consult the program, from wherever they were in the world, and then they stormed in. Dozens of performances are already sold out. It’s unprecedented. When we see this boundless joy we are offering, in an organized manner, not like giving out too much food and making people sick, but offering the joy of this celebration for the entire duration of the festival.
I’ve been seeing this during the past years, while we used to talk before the beginning of the festival and the people at Capital Cultural helped us print it, how serious the mottos have become – not that the previous ones had not been serios enough – how close to people’s hearts. It’s obvious that the present world’s heart has been displaced. If we do not guard that heart, it will collapse. What is the goal of such a challenge, what is the message behind all of the unmasked balls, balls of the soul, of culture, that are part of the festival?
Constantin Chiriac: It is not a promotional message regarding that which we are doing, it is not an opportunity for us to show how useful, smart and resourceful we are, but a perpetual quest for the needs of each and every spectator. When one thinks of what the spectator stands for, what the pole of each of us as artists is, as people searching for dialogue and for the joy of sharing, when one discovers the needs of every category of audiences, of every group inside a community, then one reaches the necessary maturity to also find the means to do it.
Think of the Volunteer Program, which is just as sought after as a festival ticket. These kids that act as volunteers, out of the tens of thousands who aspire to become volunteers, are carefully selected and trained. Because we need to teach all our partners and everybody else that nothing should be taken for granted and that one receives if one also gives and gets involved, not only demands. You only receive as much as you are willing to give.
That would be the difference between service and servitude…
Constantin Chiriac: Exactly! We have 570 selected volunteers. many of them are foreigners. We reached out to the people of Sibiu and we said: let’s offer a gift from the heart. There will be a couple of dozens of foreign volunteers, and those of you whose children are volunteering, from Sibiu, from its surroundings, take the foreigners into your homes, have them make friends with your children, have them find dialogue. The number of those receiving has doubled. Last year we had 12 families who received volunteers in their midst, now we have 24. And we are still receiving requests. What an extraordinary thing!
Friendship beyond symbolism, a reality. Sibiu as a seal of excellence!
If the motto is friendship, maybe we’ll learn how to be friends, not only enemies. For me the festival is a dramatic feast, if I may put it this way, and it bears the power of healing the evil around us. I’ve said it last year too, I’ll say it again this year: this social function of the festival is still standing, I believe the objective of telling people that things can also be done differently will not be changed.
Constantin Chiriac: Absolutely! And that it is possible to be beautiful and dignified and that at the same time everything we do – and you talked earlier about servitude – we do from a position of equality. We do not bow our heads and ask for handouts. No, we go everywhere and we give. I recall that moment in New York, on January 11th, at the most important structure for the performing arts worldwide, built 106 years ago. For 75 years they offer the most important awards in the world. One day before being awarded the grand prize, the Angel Award, for 30 years of the festival, I had met Tim Robbins, who holds an Oscar award, as well as several other awards and nominations, who has been to Sibiu before and who last year gifted us „Aphrodite or the liberation of the world”, which we have presented as a reading performance, and this year he offers us a world premiere which will be the opening of the festival.
Well, I sat with Tim and I told him how he could hold a festival in the countries that border on Ukraine, where there is a war. And that we must create a strategic partnership for the audiences in these countries where there is also NATO personnel, but also for the public there, in the Ukraine. The next day, I was surprised to see him at the gala performance, where these awards were handed out. At the end, when we posed for the photo, the six of us who had been awarded, he jumped on the stage.
Everybody there was surprised at first, then starting clapping frantically. He stopped the applause and said the following – which I have recorded and which we will use as an argument for promoting the festival – he said «Dear all, I got on stage without deserving it, to tell you that I have learned from this man that if I want to be successful in London, Paris or Berlin I absolutely must pass through Sibiu first. »As you can imagine, there is no other more beautiful argument for promoting this festival.
How beautiful! Sibiu as a seal of excellence.
Constantin Chiriac: In the spirit of what I just said, think about the fact that on Friday, after you will have opened the festival, there will be the world premiere of the performance, which he will give here, in Sibiu. On the same day you will have the chance to watch another titan, Pippo Delbono, one of the weirdest, most special and warmest artists, who had an incredible impact on Sibiu. We brought him here for the first time as part of the European Cultural Capital in 2007, at the suggestion of our older brother, George Banu. He suggested him, and I told him that I had no free spot for him. He instantly replied: it doesn’t matter, place him anywhere, because once you’ve seen what he can do, he will change the face of the entire festival. And so it was.
We scheduled him at 1 am, at the Culture Factory, back then located at Balanța, and he was an incredible success. Ever since, he’s always returned, asking for our friendship and brotherhood, the second topic you will touch upon during your conference and, behold, we now have a co-production with him, presented at the Faust Hall, also during the first two days. To open a festival with Pippo Delbono and Tim Robbins, simultaneously, to have names like Baryshnikov and Jan Fabre, with an installation-performance for the entire duration of the festival, and to have the premiere here, in Sibiu, I believe is an unprecedented thing.
At the same time, in the evening, in the courtyard of the History Museum, at the Old City Hall, one of the oldest city halls on the continent – it is almost 1000 years old – the Madrigal choir will offer a show for the official opening of the festival, thinking about that which we have built together during these months, the dialogue between word and song. What does it mean to connect poetry and music. They both come from the primordial beauty of what rituals and joy of life stand for, with all of its beauty and sins. I believe it is a sign of joy that we carry inside of ourselves a tiny sign of godhood that the creator bestowed upon us; let us not forget that He sacrificed His only son for us.
I am the image of thy glory, even though I bear the stigmata of sin.
Constantin Chiriac: How beautiful! So, we will have this opening by Madrigal, a poem to friendship. We will probably try to include some grand names. I cannot reveal them right now, because there are proposals which are not yet confirmed… But we want to have it in that inner courtyard, which has some fabulous acoustics, similar to the one of the Popes’ Palace in Avignon, we want, apart from everything that this unique performance stands for, to bring also the projection area and other things, and the closing event will take place on the lake, in Dumbrava Sibiului, also featuring Madrigal, focusing on the friendship between man and places, nature, the lake, the trees.
Tones, tone and tempo of the Festival
What’s the festival’s tone? We know that it usually changes the city. It transforms it into a stage, to be perfectly honest. We will have various feasts within one feast. How many people is Sibiu expecting these days?
Constantin Chiriac: Looking back, because nothing can be built without noticing the groundwork and the bridges we walk further on, last year, during the two drone shows and everything that went along with it, around 100.000 people. In a city that officially does not exceed 140-150.000 people maximum.
The fact that we can gather here, on Bălcescu street, in front of the theater, above, another city, a festival city, is unimaginable. And even the fact that tickets are sold out within five days and the public can experience the joy to attend all the performances we so generously offer, is a remarkable thing. As compared to last year we have seven concerts instead of five in Piața Mare.
Also in Piața Mare we have, for the first time, through a program of the Ministry of Culture in Romania and the Ministry of Culture in Poland, Teatr KTO, the biggest street campaign in Poland. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they will perform three different shows. So, what a joy to be able to offer in Piața Mare, for the duration of the entire festival, seven concerts and ten shows especially designed for this. We well know that during only one event we can have from 15-20.000 up to 35-40.000 spectators.
This is quite impressive also from another point of view, because friendship also means communion, it means bringing people together, asking them to think together about the same topics. 2 years ago, I said that we have drones curing us from drones. This year we have a friendship that cures us from enmity. Is the Theater Festival a promoter of peace in times of war, also from this point of view?
Constantin Chiriac: Absolutely. We have an important presence from Israel. At the same time, we have received a sign of friendship unlike any other. We wanted to have Batsheva, one of the biggest dance companies in the world, of all times, who has shown us and continues to show us and we also show them a special friendship. Two days before Iran’s attack on Israel, Ohad Naharin called me and delivered a message: “Constantin, we are in the midst of a hard to comprehend situation and I would like your brotherly, friendly and human advice, because we have shared so many things throughout time. We have been extraordinarily well received by you. I imagined our presence there this year as a big celebration and we thought about going to Paris, to Roma, to Athens and to Sibiu. We wanted the moment in Sibiu to be the last and most important one. Because of the war in Israel and especially in Gaza, in Europe and the world an indescribable feeling of hatred towards Jews was born. And the ones we collaborate with in Paris, Rome, and Athens, asked us in a friendly manner not to come anymore. And I have to tell you this, too. You will receive us warmly, but we are afraid. If this precedent was created in cities much bigger than Sibiu, we do not wish to cause you harm and to cancel our visit last minute. Let’s meet next year”.
Of course, I found one of the greatest dance companies in the world, Herve Koubi, which is exceptional and which will perform instead of Batsheva. But I had to accept this out of friendship because he told me that they would be attacked by Iran. And after two days that thing happened. At the same time, we also bring two performances and the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. We have two shows from Istanbul, one from Oman, one from Egypt and we will try to show the meaning of dialogue, beyond any differences of faith which unfortunately culminate in war. So, we are always preoccupied with dialogue, with showing that we are all sons of God, no matter how we pray and that everything on Earth is here by virtue of His will including the good and the wrong we do, the faith we have or we lack.
Friendship as human brotherhood
So, a proposal of balance, of friendship, of brotherhood, as long as we have used the term. A message that should become an emblem of this festival 100 years from now. I sincerely hope that not only the drones will illuminate the last evening, but also that peace of mind we so desperately crave. I see people more and more downcast, sad about the fact that time is flowing in a direction they were not expecting, that their personal history is flowing in a direction they were not expecting and, in the midst of all this, such moments have the power to tell them that no death was in vain when it was about peace and friendship, that people do not die in vain when they fight for others to be able to live in dignity.
Constantin Chiriac: We are, after all, the only festival in the world, the only structure that for seven years has been thinking also about the people protecting this land, the NATO military staff. Every year we have scheduled performances at the Land Forces Academy, in specially created spaces for this purpose. And for a few years now we are offering 3000 subscriptions. If it is asked of us – and we are in the middle of negotiations right now – we will offer more because there are many members of the NATO military here in Romania at the moment. They are human beings; they are our brothers who defend us and we have thought of them. It is what we said in the beginning, free of any charge. At the same time, we have not raised the price of tickets since 2019. Since 2019, the cost of living has doubled.
In fact, being priceless, its cost has doubled.
Constantin Chiriac: Right! So, everything we do is dedicated to humans. We are not thinking about herds, but about every single individual in the crowd, here or online. We fight to have as many spectators as possible everywhere, we are trying to collaborate with the hotels, to make them understand that we do not have that many available interior spaces. That is why we have chosen to have street shows and performances in churches, which we can broadcast, in order to show the world the beauty and the miracles happening here. Simultaneously, the one staying in hotels in Suceava, Iași, at the seaside, in other parts of the world, can watch the performances, with the help of the Digital Stage.
A thought for those who would have wished to attend but are far away, including the colleagues in Israel, for those living from the signal provided by art.
Constantin Chiriac: Beyond the shadow of a doubt, beyond any given, beyond hopelessness, dark horizons, lack of faith, as long as we did not create the life that was given to us, we have the duty to search and to find that ultimate possibility. Because certainly, just as we have received this invaluable gift called life, there is a continuity and a possibility of perfecting the soul and our essence as human beings on Earth, by serving good, beauty and the possibility of doing good, entering dialogue, preserving beauty.
So, an invitation to friendship and cordiality that lingers long after the festival.
As usual, such interviews face us with the thoughts of a Human who has spent years identifying himself with Art. No, not only the performing arts per se. A friend and a mentor to those around him, a builder of Joy. May everything he thought up for FITS 2024 become reality. To the opening of FITS 2025!
