Mad Forest: A Play from Romania is a play by English playwright Caryl Churchill. The three acts occur, respectively, shortly before, during, and shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The play is mostly written in English, but has several passages in Romanian, including having the cast sing Deşteaptă-te, române!.
The first and third acts—"Lucia's Wedding" and "Florina's Wedding"—are dramatic fictions. The second act—"December"—is based on...
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Mad Forest: A Play from Romania is a play by English playwright Caryl Churchill. The three acts occur, respectively, shortly before, during, and shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The play is mostly written in English, but has several passages in Romanian, including having the cast sing Deşteaptă-te, române!.
The first and third acts—"Lucia's Wedding" and "Florina's Wedding"—are dramatic fictions. The second act—"December"—is based on interviews conducted by the playwright, a director, and ten Romanian student actors.
The title alludes to a passage in A Concise History of Romania by Andrei Oţetea and Andrew MacKenzie that says that Bucharest stands on land that used to be an impenetrable forest "impenetrable by the foreigner who did not know the paths", known to "the horsemen of the steppe" as "Teleorman — Mad Forest" (see Codrii Vlăsiei).
The first act is set in Communist Romania, several months before the Revolution, and establishes an atmosphere permeated by the...
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