Moldova's National Theatre Mihai Eminescu: 100th anniversary of foundation

Chisinau, 1 February /MOLDPRES/ - The Mihai Eminescu National Theatre (TNME) will mark its 100th anniversary of the foundation as national theatre on 6 October. The institution’s creation was influenced by more initiatives coming from personalities of the Romanian culture, who organized diverse cultural actions. Thus, the National Theatre from Iasi came to Chisinau in 1918.      

The events due to be held on this occasion will take place under the aegis of Moldova’s President Maia Sandu.  

Contacted by MOLDPRES, TNME director, People’s Artist Petru Hadarca, said that the New Year 1918 had started in difficult conditions of the war, despair and suffering. In this atmosphere, the National Theatre from Iasi, led by Mihail Sadoveanu, came on its first tour to Chisinau on 23 January 1918. The Iasi theatre played the first play on 24 January, when the Declaration of Independence of the Moldovan Democratic Republic from the Russian Empire was adopted.  

”This was a political and cultural shock, at the same time: in a city dominated by Russian-speaking residents, the decision to separate from Russia, taken by the Country Council (local parliament) was completed by the Romanian artistic presences. Till 1918, the audience from Bessarabia had access, preponderantly, to plays by Russian and Ukrainian troupes, as the Romanian ones were coming accidentally, being rare and censored to a poor repertoire. This, in early 1918, the orchestra of George Enescu and the plays by the Iasi National Theatre broke the wall of interdictions and stereotypes of the superiority of the Russian culture and the inferiority of the Romanian one. This was the merit of the time’s intellectuals, who felt the need to bring the Romanian art to Chisinau,’’ Petru Hadarca said.   

photo: agora.md