Written and directed by Ioana B. Jucan ’11 MA’13 MA’15 PhD’17, “Resistance (Happening)” tells the story of three women — Anka, Roza and Clara — as they seek a way to resist corporate exploitation and greed. Performances were held on Sept. 20 and 21 at Studio 1 in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.
Anka is portrayed by Denisa Lupu, Roza by Fabiola Petri and Clara by Alexandra Serban. The performance was co-produced by the Radu Stanca National Theatre and Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu in Romania.
The performance began as soon as audience members filed onto the set. The stage sat centered around two panels, each inscribed with political statements criticizing economic and environmental exploitation. Intricate displays hung from the ceiling on either side of the stage, and two women stood engaged in a conversation regarding education and its influence in shaping thought.
Central to the performance is the search for an effective means of resistance to capitalism and a broader political system dominated by human greed and ignorance. The three characters consider different options of resistance ranging from a general world strike against global exploitation to the formation of a human chain across the globe to stand against capitalism. Throughout this journey, the three women encounter setbacks stemming from their sense of hopelessness and exasperation with the lack of progress and available solutions.
The production also elicits laughs with mocking discussion of genetically modified foods. The characters engage in a conversation regarding the “hybrid tomato,” which mega-corporations developed by injecting tomatoes with growth regulators to make the vegetable grow faster and last longer. These conversations are held amid episodes of dancing and singing.
According to the program, the performance does not intend to offer answers or solutions to this cycle of exploitation or greed, but rather pose that solidarity among people may be indispensable to confronting these issues. In fact, in the final moments of the show, the performers ask all audience members to stand from their seats to chant, in unison, “We are the resistance.”
