15.10.2024 / News

End of project: Share Location – The Făgăraș Resistance reached six counties this year. The documentary-theater show brought the powerful stories of women in the anti-communist resistance to the public, transforming each performance into a community dialogue about memory, suffering and collective healing. Between June and August 2024, the tour traveled to 10 venues across the country, engaging hundreds of spectators in a relevant dialogue about Romania’s recent history.

Each performance was followed by a dialogue between the project team and the audience, with the duration of the performance most often exceeded by the length of the debates. The tour started symbolically on June 13, Heroes’ Day, in the Wine Cellar of the Făgăraș Castle, a former place of political imprisonment, where the atmosphere was marked by silence and reflection. In the village of Mândra, the audience of mostly locals shared personal testimonies about the communist regime. At the Gușterița Cultural Barn in Sibiu, spectators spontaneously transformed the space into a therapy circle, demonstrating the need for an authentic dialogue about the past.

At the BIS Theater in Sibiu, although a torrential downpour began shortly after the show started, not a single person in the audience left and the debate was prolonged in an electrifying atmosphere. At Făgăraș Rocks, in the middle of nature, the audience consisted mostly of young athletes, many of them learning for the first time about the anti-communist resistance.

In Timișoara, the show was part of a monodrama competition, where it was the winner, paving the way for a possible collaboration with the National Theater Bucharest. In Socolari, at the Cătălina Buzoianu Anthropology Theatre Workshops, the performance sparked discussions about documentary-theater as a way of healing collective trauma. The audience included theater critics and actors, as well as a group of foreign students. In Râmnicu Vâlcea, the performance struck a chord with former political prisoners, who recalled the sufferings of the past.

The last performance took place at the Pitești Prison Memorial, in an event dedicated to the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes. Here, survivors’ testimonies and discussions with historians and officials turned the performance into a moment of deep reflection on collective memory.

In addition to theatrical performances, the Share Location project also included educational workshops for children and young people, aimed at bringing new generations closer to the history of anti-communist resistance. For its social and educational impact, the project was awarded the Jury’s Prize at the Țara Făgărașului Civil Society Gala, in recognition of the educational impact and the role of this project in preserving collective memory.

The initiator Ioana Hașu-Georgiev aims to continue the development of Share Location in 2025, carrying forward this form of documentary-theater that not only tells the story of the past, but brings it to life through an emphasis on relevance and necessity, proposing it as a dialogue topic in diverse communities.

“Each performance was followed by a substantial dialogue with the audience. The testimonies and reflections of those who attended the performance added a new dimension to the project. They were a kind of second part of the show, which brought new meanings and enriched the original direction. I was left thinking about people’s willingness to participate in a dialogue on communism and I hope that in 2025 we will move the spotlight on these debates and include them in a new artistic product.” – says Ioana Hașu-Georgiev.

You can see a trailer of the performance here, and visit the project’s Facebook page here for details of the activities so far.

Ioana Hașu-Georgiev gave a substantial interview about how the project came about to RFI Romania, which you can watch here.

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Departments: Center for Anti-Communist Resistance and History (CRAI); Society, Crisis and Resilience; Policy Analysis and Outreach Department.

Regions: Romania, Țara Făgărașului.

Themes: Arts and Culture; Communism and Totalitarianism; Education; Interdisciplinarity; History; Freedom of Expression.