Petro Ionescu - on concepts and introspection

This September, we are absolutely thrilled to welcome the premiere of Part 2. Power! Created within the wonderful Intersections cultural program, this captivating show explores our relationships with strangers and otherness through the magic of theatre and film.

To find out more exciting details about this new Reactor production, we invited its brilliant director, Petro Ionescu, to share some of her thoughts with us before the big opening night!

Even though I expected this moment to come a bit later, over the past few months I’ve been happily working on the second part of the Solidarity trilogy—a project I’ve been dreaming about and brainstorming since before the pandemic, with the goal of stretching it over six years. Although it started as a deeply personal spark, I wanted to give this trilogy a beautifully structured foundation. So, I turned to minds much wiser than mine—specifically Hegel’s dialectics and its three classic elements: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. That is how I came to design the three parts of the trilogy: Love as the thesis, Power as the antithesis, and Solidarity as the synthesis. I see them as the main engines or dynamics that guide and shape our lives and society. Of course, I playfully took only what served my vision from Hegel’s framework, mixing it with my passion for political contexts and more collaborative, less hierarchical ways of making theatre. I’ve realized I just love working with concepts! Whenever I direct or write, I find myself drawn not so much to linear stories, but to themes, big ideas, and how we can bring them to life conceptually on stage.

From the very beginning, Part 2. Power was the most challenging part for me. But with the premiere just around the corner, I am delighted to say I feel incredibly peaceful and excited! I knew it had to be the complete opposite of the first part; in our theatrical universe, power is envisioned as the antithesis of love. While that idea can easily be debated, here I really wanted to explore the darker, absolute sides of power. If Part 1. Love was created as a bright, warm, and playful experience, for this show we aimed for a rigid, neutral atmosphere. Theatre lovers might even spot some clever mirror scenes and explicit nods to the first part!

I also wanted to keep some lovely continuity, so I am overjoyed to work on this second part with most of the wonderful team from the first show. It is so comforting to have artists by your side who have traveled this path with you and can bring fresh depth. For instance, the multi-talented Cătălin Filip is taking care of stage movement while also performing. Adonis Tanța, though not on stage this time, has composed the marvelous music. Of course, meeting new creative souls is just as thrilling! I am immensely grateful for our collaboration with Selma Dragoș, who guided the dramaturgy through a delightfully complex structure. The amazing Oana Mardare and Endre Racz have joined the cast, and together with Andrada Balea, Cătă Filip, and Tavi Voina (whom you'll remember from Part 1. Love), they bring absolute magic to the stage. For the scenography, I am happy to work with Alexandra Budianu for all three parts, which brings a beautiful visual coherence to the whole journey. Plus, our fantastic assistant directors have been a dream—Călin Deneș, who also put together the incredible video editing, and Roxana Țentea, who was also our watchful eye during Part 1. Love.

I’m not sure if I can define a single directing style for myself—there’s a wonderful contrast in approach between Part 1. Love and Part 2. Power, both in how I collaborated with the actors and how the text was built. What I know for sure is that I thrive on the collaborative spirit of devised theatre, and I love keeping the rehearsal space completely stress-free. Even though the play is about power, we made sure to create a beautifully harmonious and joyful working environment.

Our creative research into the theme of power had several starting points. Beyond flipping some of the ideas from Part 1. Love on their head, we focused deeply on how our city welcomes newcomers. Together with Selma, we gathered fascinating material and focused on the real-life experiences of non-EU immigrants living and working in Cluj in unskilled jobs. It reveals a very visible power dynamic and, as you might expect, has sparked incredibly diverse and fascinating reactions from people.

I truly hope this show will inspire our lovely audience to question their own relationship with power and the many ways it manifests. It’s a production that invites us all into a wonderfully introspective space, even if it doesn't seem like it at first glance. While it certainly isn't a passive experience, it is by no means heavy—in fact, we have woven plenty of lighthearted humor into it!

And that is another wonderful constant of this trilogy—humor! I hope we can bring that same witty approach to the final chapter, whenever that may be. It is both thrilling and a little scary to realize that, after this premiere, I’ll be entering the final stretch of this grand project that gives the trilogy its name: Solidarity. I am so curious to see what the world (and my own life) will look like when we finally talk about solidarity, and how amazing it will be to watch all three shows performed consecutively in about two years. Here’s a little spoiler: my ultimate dream is to present all three parts together in a single day, as a thrilling, one-of-a-kind theatre marathon!