by Iulia Vucmanovici, photo: Augustina Iohan
It cannot be said that university education in the performing arts or dramaturgical taste gives Bertolt Brecht much favor on the pastoral Romanian plains. This is precisely why The Exception and the Rule, Brecht’s didactic play about social (in)justice, is a welcome novelty in the Romanian theatrical landscape—one long sanctified by Shakespeare—thus making its presence at the 13th edition of FAST in Târgoviște all the more significant.
It is not the first time that the Tony Bulandra Theatre has surprised audiences with its innovative spirit, staging a Brechtian play with a powerful collective message. It had already done so at the 12th edition of the BABEL Festival, in 2024, through an admirable in-house production.
This time, the stage in Târgoviște hosted a performance by the BAN Theatre Company from South Korea, founded in Seoul in 1996, “from a Spirit of Egalitarian Collectivism.” The company traveled from another continent to Târgoviște to perform Brecht’s short didactic play, written between 1929 and 1930.
The performance was presented as a musical, conceived by director Jieun Kim, with music composed by Jinkyu Park. Using the musical format of Brecht’s learning play, the South Korean troupe drew inspiration from the show A Race to Urga, a project initiated in 1967 by composer Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a libretto by John Guare, itself inspired by Brecht — a project that, however, remained an unrealized dream.
The inspiration may have been American in origin, but the musical format belonged fully to the Korean Gangnam style, extremely well known and popular internationally, with a contemporary sound that resonates strongly with modern audiences.
