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A visionary German theatre director, Thomas Ostermeier became world-famous for his astonishing, often visceral productions, which quickly earned him a reputation as an iconoclastic artist, an "enfant terrible". His performances, staged both at the Schaubühne Berlin (of which he has been artistic director for over 20 years) and on major stages around the world, have become landmarks of contemporary theatre.

At the peak of his career, Thomas Ostermeier, much coveted by the great stages of the world, is now staging, for the first time in Romania, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, a production that brings together a team of directors from Schabühne Berlin and a cast made up of elite actors from the Bucharest National Theatre.

Known for his "rewrites" of classic playwrights such as Shakespeare and Ibsen, Ostermeier creates performances that speak about today's world in a new theatrical language and with contemporary means. His remixes bring life stories to audiences that seem to have been written in the present day.

In Hedda Gabler, which premiered in 1891, Henrik Ibsen offered a searing critique of the 19th century bourgeoisie. Today, the bourgeoisie no longer exists as a homogeneous class as it did two centuries ago. Paradoxically, however, the bourgeois desires and fears that conditioned and deformed biographies in the 19th century are found today in almost unchanged form - but now equally in all levels of society. Fear of social decline has become a common motif of our age.

In Thomas Ostermeier's view, Hedda Gabler is a product of the digital age, a woman used to getting exactly what she wants. But this Hedda realizes that there is a big difference between what she thinks she wants and what she really needs. In Ostermeier's vision, the brilliant Hedda is a combination of femme fatale and spoiled brat who has grown bored of her new toys and amuses herself by playing dangerous games.

"What interests me as a director is that I am dealing with an author (Ibsen) who shows how a human being, with his emotions and feelings, tries to survive, keeping her soul intact, in a totally rationalized and materialistic world where the power of money reigns exclusively" Thomas Ostermeier

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu

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Photo: Florin Ghioca