The German Theatre announces that rehearsals for the newest production in its repertoire, Florian Zeller's Son, directed by Mădălin Hîncu, are well underway. The premiere will take place in a few days, on 11 May 2024, at 7.30pm. The next performances will take place on 12 and 14 May 2024 at the same time.



The cast includes Bülent Özdil, Yannick Becker, Enikő Blénessy, Oana Vidoni, Harald Weisz and Robert Bogdanov-Schein. The set and costumes are by Răzvan Bordoș, the light-design is by Cosmin Anania, the assistant directors are Alma Diaconu and Daniela Török, the make-up is by Bojița Ilici and the technical director is Costinel Stănescu. For this production the artistic team is also working with a speech trainer from Germany, Ulrike Schulze.


It's been two years since Pierre and Anne's divorce. Pierre has a new wife, Sofia. Life seems to be moving forward for him. But the news that his son from his first marriage, Nicolas, has been absent from school for three months is deeply disturbing. What has happened to Nicolas? In an attempt to discover the cause of this behavior, Pierre learns that Nicolas wants to move in with him, Sofia and their newborn child. Excited by his son's request, Pierre welcomes him with open arms, but the process of Nicolas' adaptation to this new reality raises many questions. Time passes and Nicolas' condition does not seem to improve. How long will this adolescent crisis last? As the story unfolds, we discover that Nicolas' emotional problems are more complicated than they seem, and the source of these problems crystallizes in the form of a response that is difficult for those closest to him to accept.

Born in Bacău, Mădălin Hîncu has been passionate about theater since high school. He studied directing (bachelor and master) at the Bucharest University of Theater and Film (UNATC). In 2018 he was nominated for the UNITER award for directorial debut with the production of The Night of the Bear, by Ignacio del Moral which he staged at the Comedy Theatre in Bucharest. He has directed performances of classical and contemporary drama and dramatizations of consecrated operas. He has collaborated with the Bacovia Municipal Theatre in Bacau, the Excelsior Theatre in Bucharest, the National Theatre in Târgu-Mureș and the Matei Vișniec Municipal Theatre in Suceava. He has participated at theater workshops coordinated by important artists such as Radu Penciulescu, Tufan Imamutdinov, David Esrig and Enikő Eszenyi. Since 2022 he is the artistic director of the Bacovia Municipal Theatre in Bacău.


About this production, Mădălin Hîncu said: "For me, Zeller's text is a powerful drama about the loss of innocence. Once we reach the threshold of some of the difficult obstacles life throws at us, we discover who we really are. The playwright gets to create a paradox: what if our desire to do good masks a selfish need? Are we emotionally equipped to fully understand the truth about ourselves and our relationships with those closest to us?"


Florian Zeller, novelist, playwright, theater director, screenwriter and film director, was born in 1979 in Paris. Over the years he has written plays that have been staged in London, Paris, New York, and won international awards. One of his novels, The Fascination of Evil, about the relationship between the French and the Arabs, became a bestseller and earned the author a Prix Interallié.In 2020, Florian Zeller co-wrote and directed his first film - The Father - which received more than 200 international nominations and awards, including two Academy Awards at the 93rd Academy Awards.


Florian Zeller writes The Son as the final part of a trilogy about family relationships marked by a major existential crisis. While The Father deals with the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease on an old man's relationship with his family, and The Mother with the existential drama of a woman past middle age, The Son explores the devastating impact of depression among teenagers, while also becoming a good means of analyzing the generational discrepancies between parents and children. The ingenuity of Zeller's play comes from the fact that it uses the ambiguity of this teenager's states to explore a relevant yet difficult topic: adolescent mental health.

See you at the premiere!