Maia Morgenstern, the woman

To talk about the meeting with Maia Morgenstern.  This is all. Words pale into insignificance in front of that which passed through a true exodus, her climax in acting being her role in the movie  Maia Morgenstern, Leonie Waldman Eliad, Andrei Finti, Roxana Guttman, Luana Stoica, Geni Brenda, Dorina Păunescu, Nicolae Predica, Mircea Dragoman and Silvia Schmidt.

 

With open books from The Hebrew State Theatre is a project initiated by theatre artists to bring to the public pages of Romanian and universal literature in a new way than that of a rehearsed spectacle. The charisma, the flows of intonation and facial expressions of the actors were more than enough to convey emotions.

The sudden  movements, suspicious looks and unpredicted gestures passed on exactly what was written by the author, Vasiliu Grossman, a Jew born in Ukraine, initially an engineer, but practiced journalism – he was the first to talk about the Holocaust publicly, and was severely punished afterwards.

Beyond the spectacle, I was nervously waiting for my interview. Maia Morgenstern spoke openly about today’s women, in the context of virility. She told us how women still wear night gowns and not pajama trousers.

‘The difference between being an actor and having a usual behavior at home? It does not exist! The interesting fact is how you behave on stage; I like to believe that I am able to leave all my worries at home, so that I can dedicate myself to the artistic act. If I think about it, I only want one thing: for my public to know me as I am on stage, without the human weaknesses. They want the actor, not the person. Besides, there are things that are mine, that belong only to me, my family and especially to my children’.

We live in a world of men, dictated by so called virility and manliness, in a harmony of complementary tones. How important are the female features in the dynamics we take part? Maia Morgenstern tells us how ‘in the history of theatre, the most important roles were played by men. See Shakespeare in love, for example, and one of the most recent elements of proof, were it is curios how women could get in. I don’t think we are taking part at a masculinization, on the contrary! Look around you: the woman has not disappeared from the background, instead she became much more determined, motivated and strategically placed in leading seats, even though it is complicated, to be fair. But in such surroundings you could not care less regarding the knocks on the door, but if the door can still be opened and how.”

[…] In a very important part of our discussion, I remembered the concept of being a mother. It completes you. Is it still true? ‘Of course! I can only think of the endless abyss I would have been sent by God, if I were not a mother? What would my role be then? Or better yet: would I even have a role? I cannot imagine my life without Lea, Isadora and Tudor. I still learn to discover the world around me through their eyes.’

Suddenly, we switched the topic. I recalled a statement of Maia Morgenstern’s husband, Dumitru Băltăţeanu – he said nostalgically that he was a wine taster. ‘If my husband is a taster of Bach’s drink, I like to taste all the joys of life, living each one intensely. Each person is built differently. Who is the one to be judged for it?!’

I could not forget the advertisement about Rosia Montana – dramatic and profound. I asked the actress if true value can still be found nowadays?  ‘For every man there is an object of great importance, filled with a certain spiritual and emotional energy, each has a moment they remember with joy. The teddy bear of a child, for example, can be the center of the universe for him, or a picture of his mother… For each and everyone, a different object or moment can be the most important of them all.’

I concluded our dialogue by talking about regrets. When we prepare to leave home, we seldom have the feeling that we will never return. We ask ourselves: will I have regrets? What will I regret? ‘Of course I would! I would regret never having the chance to say goodbye to the ones I love.’

[…] and I found out that without theatre, she would have dedicated her life to being a pediatrician. Curios, but understandable.

de Andreea Gurban