On December 22, 2019, at The National History Museum of Transylvania an event happens. Not an exhibition opening, not a debate on the Revolution, but a theater show, followed by a rock concert. If this seems to you to be somewhat outside the realm of history, well, no. MNIT tried a collaboration with the theater-reading project Good lyrics in crazy places, coordinated by the actor Ionut Caras, which took shape in the show The black sheep from Cluj. We invited Ionuț to the #court of history, to tell us about the challenge of translating historical facts into scenarios and, implicitly, into art.
IC: - I don't know... I don't know where this history thing comes from. It is possible that from school, I remember that I was in the 5th or 6th grade when the conductor, who was a history teacher, used to take us out to memorial houses and to various objectives, on the streets... We were very excited, it was something other than textbook history. Once, his wife told him that "this boy loves history". I was there and I felt very proud of it. It was, however, an alternative method for that time, for the 90s. After which, over the years, this passion melted in me. In high school that history was already boring, we were bored. After years, it seems that I have rediscovered the pleasure of history through the projects of "Good Texts".
- Where did this need to design projects around historical facts come from?
IC: – I think that from a desire to express myself on some issues, from a desire to revolt, using other revolters.
– That is, you express yourself somehow, but at the same time, you are more sheltered behind the words of others than assuming your own words?
IC: – In the end, maybe they said it better than you. And yes, art gives you a certain shelter. But it's also a professional flaw, somehow, to assume in this way, through the character or through the script. Alexandru Dabija, who is a fan of the project "Good texts in crazy places" and who supported the idea from the beginning, told me something: "You will get to a certain point to talk about yourself and then you will see if people accept and listen.”
– It is not easy to create scenarios around historical facts. Well, on the contrary, it's quite delicate. You work with "truths", with objective facts that you subjectively translate into something. How do you manage to create a story from a puzzle of several facts or information that you have?
IC: – For me there are some challenges. Anyway, I'm passionate about Sherlock Holmes, I really like "digging" and I took these projects as "detective work", so to speak. I like to discover what is around a piece of information. Because I don't do such shows only out of a duty to talk about these moments, but also out of pleasure. The joy of choosing and matching pieces. And it was exactly the same with the show about Călin Nemeș, "The Black Sheep of Cluj".
– How much did you know about him before the problem was put "in your hands" by MNIT?
IC: – I didn't know much about him. Except that he was a revolutionary from `89, an acting student, who committed suicide. He was more of a legend, as you know of all who have had stranger fates through this guild. But digging, all sorts of things started to appear. When I first heard of Nemeș, I remembered Chubby Zaharia (Dorin -Liviu Zaharia). He was the guy who made the music for the movies "Crucea de piatra" and "Drumul aurului". What was he doing... processing folklore. He was a curly-haired guy, who walked around in a white shirt, walked around restaurants, climbed on tables, always experimented. Somehow, he had the same bohemia as Nemes. Or at least that's how I saw it. This is how I imagined Nemeș. And Nemeș was careless, he was poor. Even in the way he dressed he was of a studied carelessness. These are people who find themselves in a hole and educate themselves to get out.
– How do you reproduce that balance between historical facts and art in the script?
IC: - Yes, well... There are, indeed, scenes for which you have no text and which have to be invented at the dialogue level. For example, in "The Black Sheep of Cluj", there is that scene with the Securitate phones. She is indeed mentioned somewhere in the studied materials, but there is no text. It had to be created. It's a risk to take on that text, but it's a nice risk. Some will agree with the variation, some won't, but at the end of the day, I'm doing the show and I own it.
– The figure of Călin Nemeș is, anyway, controversial. The construction of this character is very sensitive, in order to keep the reality as well, but still not to affect his memory.
IC: - Yes, he is a controversial character, but, in principle, there are two big debates surrounding him: 1. whether he did well or not to go out into the streets, here discussing whether it is a gesture of heroism or a drunken gesture; 2. the interpretation of the suicide, namely whether it came as an effect of disappointment with the state of things after the Revolution or whether it was a choice of a romantic nature. But it's clear that the truth is always somewhere in the middle.
– You told me in December that you thought of writing a poem in verse, as you imagine he would have written it. Why did you come up with this and why didn't you write it again?
IC: - From everything I had learned about him, it is clear that he was a man conquered by poetry, who conquered even women with poetry. Please, he was trying, but friends say he wasn't very successful. But that's why I chose everything he says to be in a poetic form. Let it be in verse. So I asked myself: if he lived now, how would he write, how would he answer in his poetic way about what is now? But I didn't write it in the end. After I found the end of the piece, it didn't seem like the poem was going any further.
– Can you imagine Nemeș in today's times?
IC: – I'm imagining it. I sometimes see him either lost, misfit, in a corner, in a tavern. Either, if he had someone to take care of him, I can imagine him playing. There are people who do not succeed unless they are cared for by others. He thought it was so.
– Tell me something about him that you found out and that surprised you. Something that history does not say.
IC: – A strong image remained in my mind. He would go to the station, buy a loaf of bread with the last of his money and give it to the pigeons. It is a romantic image, of a man who lived from today to tomorrow, who did not project into the future. And I am very attracted to wandering characters. In the end, he was a dreamer defeated by the system. Which, later, with all the honors and gifts, could not adapt.
– Why do you think he didn't know how to use all these privileges that came his way?
IC: Because, most of the time, in the absence of a concentration system, the protest disappears. Few create with a full stomach.
On Saturday, February 29, from 18.00:XNUMX p.m., at the National History Museum of Transylvania, there will be the second performance of the show "The Black Sheep of Cluj", with Ionuț Caras in the role of Călin Nemeș. It's an experience that's hard to put into words, hard to take both from the stage and from the audience. But a necessary and transformative experience.
