I write about the two things that made me a playwright and seem to shape my entire life: love and failure. I wrote about the failure of love in adolescence, the love of two homeless people, the failure of a little boy`s love for his mother, the failure of one actor in expressing his love of humanity through theatre, but also about the failure who inspired two young men to find a sort of purpose in life. Through each play I try to give birth not only to interesting, lovable, failing characters, but also to a strong story. I believe in this magical healing power of stories watched together by many, and in thisextraordinary healing power of black humor.
Maria Manolescu has an MA in dramatic writing (National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest) and was a resident of the Royal Court International Residency. She works in advertising. Her first two plays (“Sado-Maso Blues Bar” and “With a Little Help from My Friends”) won the 3rd edition of the dramAcum contest in Romania in 2007. Since then, she worked with several directors from dramAcum developing another full length play about the homeless people in Bucharest (“Love Thyself”) and several short plays. She also writes prose, having published 2 novels – “The Weightlifter from Vitan” (Polirom, 2007) and “Like Drops of Blood on the Elevator Floor” (Cartea Romaneasca, 2010). Her plays have been translated in Turkish, English, Serbian and French.
I write about the two things that made me a playwright and seem to shape my entire life: love and failure. I wrote about the failure of love in adolescence, the love of two homeless people, the failure of a little boy`s love for his mother, the failure of one actor in expressing his love of humanity through theatre, but also about the failure who inspired two young men to find a sort of purpose in life. Through each play I try to give birth not only to interesting, lovable, failing characters, but also to a strong story. I believe in this magical healing power of stories watched together by many, and in this extraordinary healing power of black humor.
Sclavi (Slaves)
A failed actor hopes to achieve success by addressing a tough theme: modern slavery. With the financial and moral help of his new age girlfriend, he finds a shepherd, former victim of modern slavery, and convinces him to play in his show. The show fails when the shepherd, blackmailed by authorities, refuses to say the truth in the show. But the real failure is the one of humanity in all the three characters: the actor, his girlfriend and the shepherd, each time they try to take advantage of the others.
Sado-Maso Blues Bar
Two friends, a failed young actor (Sa) and a former young convict (Ma), plan to open the first BDSM Club in Bucharest which, they think, will bring them money and the chance of revenge on those who fucked up their lives. The first client should be Pila – another former convict who raped Ma in prison. But his coming reveals something deeper in all of them, and makes them change their minds and their business plan: they will make a “fucking kindergarten”.
Ca pe tine insuti (Love Thyself)
This play was written after documentation made together with the dramAcum director Radu Apostol about the lives of several homeless people in Bucharest. The story of the play is the fictional meeting between two homeless lovers (a girl with mental disorder and a former priest) and a corporate young man who`s bored with his perfect life and girlfriend whom he doesn`t love anymore. Their meeting is a matter of life and death: the two homeless don`t let the young men to kill himself. The girl, madly and hopelessly in love with the priest, doesn`t let him die. Being the only one who wanted to live, she ends up dying.
