2. Interior Anatomies. Drama 5 Play Anthology @ Cărturești Casa Hintz

authors: Oana Hodade (ed.), Sabina Balan, Teona Galgoțiu, Alina Pietrăreanu, Cosmin Stănilă, Ioana Toloargă, Olivia Grecea, and Alexa Băcanu (foreword)

2. Inner Anatomies

Drama 5 Plays Anthology

Publisher: IDEA

Year of publication: 2026

On Monday, November 9, starting at 6:00 PM, we invite you to Cărturești Casa Hintz (1 Regele Ferdinand Street, Cluj-Napoca), for the launch of the volume 2. Inner Anatomies. Drama 5 Plays Anthology, published in 2026 by Idea Publishing House.

Speakers: Oana Hodade, Cosmin Stănilă, Ioana Toloargă, Olivia Grecea, Alexa Băcanu

The second anthology of plays written during the Drama 5 residency of the Reactor of Creation and Experiment theater includes five plays written between 2019 and 2024, which discuss, in one way or another, the deep, fragile, and often unconscious connections between mind and body.

The play "This Animal That Hurts Itself" by Teona Galgoțiu was written in 2019, during the fourth edition of Drama 5, and addresses the phenomenon of self-harm and the psychological traumas that induce this behavior, choosing to build its story as a playful sci-fi therapy session in which human psychologists have been replaced by androids, and probing the past sometimes becomes unbearably immersive. "All the Things Alois Took from Me" by Cosmin Stănilă, written during the 2020 residency, tells the story of the relationship between a son and his mother affected by Alzheimer's, delicately capturing the mother's cognitive decline alongside the son's suffering, as well as the deepening affection between the two as the roles of parent and child seem to reverse. "Underwater" (2022) by Ioana Toloargă is a poetic meditation on depression through the metaphor of water and the physical sensations through which internal suffering manifests. "My Orgasm Is a Sigh" by Sabina Balan (2024) recounts with great humor and honesty about female sexuality, pleasure, trauma, and the attempt to break away from the conventions of patriarchal tradition. In "Papilloma Party" by Alina Pietrăreanu (2024), the author proposes a dynamic, party-like theatrical formula to bring up a rarely discussed topic—the HPV virus and the way the combination of stigma, misinformation, anxiety, and a lack of public policies can turn into a medical, physical, and psychological nightmare.

The five plays are accompanied by interviews with their authors conducted by Oana Hodade, as well as two contextual texts written by Olivia Grecea and Alexa Băcanu.

In a world where much is said about body aesthetics, but far less about its utility, fragility, and power, and where science has only just begun to investigate the links between the physical and the psychological, the five plays offer fresh perspectives, grounded in research and personal experiences, meant to create dialogue, understanding, empathy, and self-identification. We hope this volume contributes to this purpose, both among readers and among theater professionals who might stage these plays and take the conversation further into theater halls.

Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.