Legends, songs and folklorics theater

Posted by | October 15, 2013 | Traditions | No Comments

A specific form of tradition is to be found on the Mountain’s Valley. It is called folkloric theater and simple people, with a basic education and no training at all, just the love for their traditions, become stars in a complicated play.

It’s called Banda lui Bujor and it’s an one hour play, with 12 characters. Bujor (the Romanian word for peony) is the name of the main character and Banda lui Bujor stands for his group.

The play shows a quick glipse of Bujor’s life, called for some “haiduc”. In Romanian, “haiduc” defines a person that would steal from the rich to give to the poor.

The action is set in the 1800’s when Bujor, a real character, formed a group. They lived in the forests and attacked boyar’s carriges to steal their money, that would be given to the poor. They haunted especially phanariots, foreign leaders that came to conquer Romanians. The phanariots took people’s land and obliged them to work it, also claiming taxes.

 

Bujor’s group seeked a certain revenge. They sacrificed their life in order to help the others. They lived in forests, always hiding.

His actions were mentioned by most of the Romanian historians and, to a national belief, Bujor remains a hero.

Through the main characters, the New Year and the Last Year appear. They are usually played buy a really young man and an old man. It’s a mixture of poetry, songs, legend and fantasy.

The most intense moments shows how Bujor and his group are captured, emprisoned and convicted. Bujor’s mother, an old woman, with visible signes of sickness come to see her son in prison. Her crying is probably the most emotional moment. The woman acting sings a tearful song, showing her dispair as a mother, seeing her son humiliated this way.

But, by the end, Bujor manages to flee and revenge, once again, people’s poverty and misery, raising against the system.

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