on
directed by Alexandru Dabija
Răzvan Mazilu
Monica Petrică
Coca Bloos / Emilia Dobrin
CRBL
Directed by: Alexandru Dabija
Choreography: Răzvan Mazilu şi Amir Kolben
Stage design: Alexandru Dabija şi Laura Paraschiv
Diyalog Theaterfest, Berlin, April 30, 2011
Romanian Culture Festival in Poznan, Poland, October 21, 2010
Tour at Braşov, February 23, 2010
Tour at Athens, December 18, 2008
Tour at Bruxelles, December 2, 2008
International Theatre Festival, Sibiu, June 4, 2008
Tour in Prague at the Laterna Magika Auditorium of the National Theatre in Prague, December 4, 2007
The National Theatre Festival, Bucharest, November 12, 2007
The Romanian Drama Festival, Timisoara, October 10, 2007
Tour at Paris, at the UNESCO Institution, at the invitation of the Permanent Delegation of Roumania attached to UNESCO, September 3, 2007
Alexandru Dabija – National Award for Art, section Theatre granted by the Ministry of Culture and Cults (2008)
Opening night: May 5, 2007
Duration: 1h
Press reviews
Block Bach is an original culturally-backgrounded performance, unique in the Romanian turmoiled cultural landscape.
J.S Bach has never been so well dramatically incarnated by the choreographical illustration and theatrical, sensitive vision. The cast is complex: Monica Petrică, soloist of the National Opera in Bucharest, Răzvan Mazilu coming from the field of contemporary dance, Emilia Dobrin an excellent, multi-awarded and experienced actress, CRBL star of the pop-breakdance scene. Each has a memorable solo in the performance.
Răzvan Mazilu’s and Monica Petrică’s performance is a complex, outstanding creation.
Block Bach is a brilliant performance that can be appreciated even by those who consider Bach…a little bit outfashioned!
J.S Bach has never been so well dramatically incarnated by the choreographical illustration and theatrical, sensitive vision. The cast is complex: Monica Petrică, soloist of the National Opera in Bucharest, Răzvan Mazilu coming from the field of contemporary dance, Emilia Dobrin an excellent, multi-awarded and experienced actress, CRBL star of the pop-breakdance scene. Each has a memorable solo in the performance.
Răzvan Mazilu’s and Monica Petrică’s performance is a complex, outstanding creation.
Block Bach is a brilliant performance that can be appreciated even by those who consider Bach…a little bit outfashioned!
– România Liberă, July 21, 2007
The idea to associate J.S. Bach’s music to a story from any Block neighbourhood is extraordinary: a sample of life adjoining a corny, middle-aged housewife, an ordinary rapper and two young people (falling in love and therefore not yet hackneyed), all of them (b)lodgers, whose daily routes cross, for an instant, on the staircase that leads to their box-like, concrete apartments. At the end of the performance we realize that we have pulled out an astral hour from the blocking living. Such a short hour for a performance that makes the title of this comment seems short on meaning.
– Ziarul Financiar, June 8, 2007
Block Bach is not neccessarily a sofisticated and abstract performance, it is a story about our daily existence, that can be reduced to the words urban, dance, Block, Bach.
If you will not be impressed by the breakdance solo of CRBL on Bach’s! music, a flawless interpretation, youl will surely be moved by the kissing scene between Răzvan Mazilu and Monica Petrică, an endless kiss that sweeps the stage away, winging them together; or, in any case, you will at least be surprised by the treadmill electrical runner duel between CRBL and Mazilu, two different ways of parkouring elements of our daily existence’s architectonic structure.
If you will not be impressed by the breakdance solo of CRBL on Bach’s! music, a flawless interpretation, youl will surely be moved by the kissing scene between Răzvan Mazilu and Monica Petrică, an endless kiss that sweeps the stage away, winging them together; or, in any case, you will at least be surprised by the treadmill electrical runner duel between CRBL and Mazilu, two different ways of parkouring elements of our daily existence’s architectonic structure.
– Time Out, June 2007
Block Bach is an unusual performance, woven with sensitiveness and delicacy, at a very high level. It is a must see!
The architecture of the stage design is built up in sharp formes (rectangles, squares, triangles) and describes a block staircase and four flats. The background illustrates the frontside of a block, with interchangeable windowed boxes, like cubes in a game, in a creative visual mixage. This facade, of a surprising and unpolished realism is endlessly multiplied in a up-to-the-sky perspective, creating the impression of an infinit number of boxes characteristical for our urban landscape. The video camera peaks beyond the surface, inside the apartments where our everyday dull moments are consumed. This alternance inside/outside contributes to creating a complex range of meanings for the urban communist concept, that confers a sort of local colour and defines the (post)communist human being: the man trapped in a cube (the limits, the uniformization).
Block Bach is an unusual performance, woven with sensitiveness and delicacy, at a very high level. It is a must see!
The architecture of the stage design is built up in sharp formes (rectangles, squares, triangles) and describes a block staircase and four flats. The background illustrates the frontside of a block, with interchangeable windowed boxes, like cubes in a game, in a creative visual mixage. This facade, of a surprising and unpolished realism is endlessly multiplied in a up-to-the-sky perspective, creating the impression of an infinit number of boxes characteristical for our urban landscape. The video camera peaks beyond the surface, inside the apartments where our everyday dull moments are consumed. This alternance inside/outside contributes to creating a complex range of meanings for the urban communist concept, that confers a sort of local colour and defines the (post)communist human being: the man trapped in a cube (the limits, the uniformization).
Block Bach is an unusual performance, woven with sensitiveness and delicacy, at a very high level. It is a must see!
– Adevărul, May 30, 2007
The architecture of the stage design is built up in sharp formes ( rectangles, squares, triangles) and describes a block staircase and four flats. The background illustrates the frontside of a block, with interchangeable windowed boxes, like cubes in a game, in a creative visual mixage. This facade, of a surprising and unpolished realism is endlessly multiplied in a up-to-the-sky perspective, creating the impression of an infinit number of boxes characteristical for our urban landscape. The video camera peaks beyond the surface, inside the apartments where our everyday dull moments are consumed. This alternance inside/outside contributes to creating a complex range of meanings for the urban communist concept, that confers a sort of local colour and defines the (post)communist human being: the man trapped in a cube (the limits, the uniformization).Block Bach is an unusual performance, woven with sensitiveness and delicacy, at a very high level. It is a must see!
– Luceafărul, June 20, 2007
Go and see Block Bach at least when you feel suffocated by a too small humane box, and I assure you that you’ll reccommend it to all of your neighbours!
Block Bach is an urban chronicle with feet on the block-ground staircase and head in the sky. It is a dancing blog that scannes our daily block, the folder we dwell, the stressing and sticky crowdness we live in. Different but, in the same time, dramatically homogenuos, Block Bach is also for the gang boys and for music lovers. It is created in such way that you recognize your everyday experience but, moreover, it allows you to see what happens if even for a second you listen to Bach volume up. With feet poked onto the stairs and ears connected to Bach’s music, Block Bach is an extremly intelligent theatre meets urban dance performance. Go and see it at least when you feel suffocated by a too small humane box, and I assure you that you’ll reccommend it to all of your neighbours!
Block Bach is an urban chronicle with feet on the block-ground staircase and head in the sky. It is a dancing blog that scannes our daily block, the folder we dwell, the stressing and sticky crowdness we live in. Different but, in the same time, dramatically homogenuos, Block Bach is also for the gang boys and for music lovers. It is created in such way that you recognize your everyday experience but, moreover, it allows you to see what happens if even for a second you listen to Bach volume up. With feet poked onto the stairs and ears connected to Bach’s music, Block Bach is an extremly intelligent theatre meets urban dance performance. Go and see it at least when you feel suffocated by a too small humane box, and I assure you that you’ll reccommend it to all of your neighbours!
– România Liberă, 2007
