by Mirela Sandu Gheorghiu, photo: Maria Ștefănescu
Nearly a decade ago, an artistic journey began between Târgoviște and Seoul. A long road across seas and continents, but one shortened by a shared passion for theatre. Today, the collaboration between Tony Bulandra Theatre and theatrical institutions in South Korea is more than a cultural exchange – it is a true friendship, built on respect, trust, and the joy of shared creation.
It all started in 2016, when the Târgoviște theatre was invited to South Korea with the production The Storm by A.N. Ostrovski, directed by Dumitru Acriș, for the first edition of the Experimental Theatre Bomb Festival in Seoul. An artistic encounter that would become the foundation for everything that followed.
A year later, in 2017, a partnership was formalized with the Seoul Theater Association, and the theatre troupe returned to Korea with Othello, performing six shows at two major festivals: the second edition of the Theatre Bomb Festival and the eighth edition of the Daejeon International Play Festival. Beyond performances, the actors and the theatre’s manager held conferences and workshops at the Seoul University of the Arts, opening a dialogue between artists and students from cultures so different, yet deeply connected through art.
This relationship continued to flourish. In 2022, the theatre returned to the Daejeon International Theatre Festival with two beloved productions – Not#Me and Mrs. Escobar. As a sign of recognition, theatre manager Mc Ranin received the Excellence Award at the K-Theater Awards for his contribution to promoting theatre as a space of freedom, humanism, and education.
The year 2023 marked another memorable chapter. In the fall, Tony Bulandra Theatre presented in Daejeon a poetic prelude inspired by The Little Prince and the one-man show Fragile Balance, a sensitive performance by Mircea Silaghi dedicated to the memory of director François Jacob. That same year saw the birth of the first Romanian–Korean co-production, titled Argonautas – a story about distances and closeness, about otherness and understanding, told through a universal language: that of the body, of gesture, of emotion. The performance, choreographed by the late Hugo Wolff, was presented in Brăila, Târgoviște, Chișinău, and Bucharest, and was dedicated to his memory.
In 2024, the collaboration was strengthened with a new tour in Korea – the sixth in this beautiful story. The performances The Little Prince and Richard 3. The Man were presented at the 15th edition of the Daejeon International Theatre Festival, held between August 6 and 16, bringing with them powerful themes and universal emotions.
This friendship is also the foundation for the presence of director Jeungwoo Son at the Babel Festival 2025, where he staged The Cherry Orchard – a living demonstration that the classics can always speak to our times, regardless of language or continent.
Year after year, the bond between the theatre in Târgoviște and the artistic world of South Korea grows stronger. Korean students now take part in the Babel Festival workshops, alongside young people from Romania, Scotland, Russia, and Algeria, working side by side under the guidance of international masters in a vibrant, colorful, and meaningful Babel.
What could be more beautiful than seeing how theatre becomes a common language? How a performance told here, before an audience in Târgoviște, is understood and applauded in Seoul? This theatrical friendship is proof that, beyond our differences, we are bound by the same questions, the same emotions, the same thirst for meaning. And the Babel Festival is the perfect place where these bridges can be built – step by step, show by show.