Chronicle by Jasmina Mitrici

When a little girl, eclipsed by admiration for her military grandparents' past, decides to follow in their footsteps, a bag full of traumatic secrets pours over her dreams and expectations, crushing them. With each open letter and with each analysed diary page, the little one turns left around and decides “back to order!”. It seems that men, especially soldiers, do not have as glorious a past as she imagined.

Combining elements of puppet theatre with live music and decor that morphs before the eyes of the spectator, the one-woman-show The Sparkle of a Black River puts its finger on a wound as old as the world: the abusive relationship between men and women. The slightly syncopated rhythm acts as a slight amnesic episode, as if something in the stories of the main character does not connect. The idyllic image of the men in her family does not overlap their actions. And then the alarm bell is ringing. Because, although it is a man's world, it means nothing without a woman… who suffers from their actions. It sounds like the beginning of a feminist manifesto, but maybe it's more than that.

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“Theatre Chronicle @ Eurothalia” is a programme conceived by Daniela Șilindean together with the team of the German State Theatre Timișoara, within the Eurothalia 2023 European Theatre Festival, held between 20-30 September 2023, financed by the National Cultural Program Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023.