Even The Nights Aren't What They Used To Be

I'm not used to the city at night anymore. As I've gotten older I've become lazier and like the comforts of home. Sometimes, however, the urge (meaning my wife, in my case) takes me out of the house even at night, even when I have no desire to beat the city streets. This time, "the urge" took me to the theatre!

I was a show-eater in my youth, which means I used to go very often. I didn't even have enough time to go to as many as I wanted. I thought that when I retired, when I had a lot of free time, I would be able to go to more shows.

Well, now I address myself to the young people who may be reading this in the hope that they will learn something from me, in hope that this post is not pointless...

Don't postpone what you can do in your youth when you are full of enthusiasm and desires, because they will grow old with you, in your old age they won't be the same, even if now you think it won't be possible!

I'm lucky with "the urge" that still forces me out of the house and out of my stillness. I think you understand that "the urge" is my wife and please believe me that I don't call her that in a pejorative way, quite the contrary, with love and gratitude...

So we took a walk to the theater. I'm wrong here, the walk to the theatre was run because we always run late in such situations. The real walk was back home...

Now back to the theatre. This theatre, relatively close to my house, i.e. about half an hour by bus, is called the Playwrights' Theatre, it is a small theatre that proposes small plays (i.e. with few actors). This time we saw a play called "On Tenderness" written by a Romanian author who lives in Paris, called Matei Visniec.

I don't really like plays with few characters where I have to listen to a discussion, even a special philosophical or comic one. I like big plays, with many actors, with music, light, colors, scenery, dance...

Of course, this time I didn't get that, but I have to admit that it was a good show, with some very good actors and an intelligent text, about love, relationships between people and everyone's different perception of the same event.

It is a rule in theatre that it is forbidden to photograph or film during the performance, I don't always respect it, but this time I respected it and only photographed the end, i.e. the applause!

Let me tell you something about applause. I don't know if you know, but applause at the end of a performance is a moment well learned in rehearsals, not something spontaneous and improvised by each actor!

A good friend of ours is an important director in Romania and I have seen many rehearsals she has done with many of her shows. There I saw how much rehearsal is done at the applause at the end of the show.

Well, so far it's been run to the theatre, then the show and just now the short night walk somewhere in Bucharest. To be more precise with the location, this theatre is located near the North Station.

The show ended at 9 pm and the city was plunged into darkness. To think that at this time of day, summer, it is still day with the sun just getting ready to sunset!

What amazed me was that the town seemed deserted. Only the lights in an office building suggested that there were still people there.

This part of the city is an architectural amalgam. Old, almost abandoned houses, uninhabited old houses, renovated old houses, and tall office buildings. Some lit, some not, you get a somewhat uneasy feeling, given by insufficient lighting. Fortunately, Bucharest is a city where you feel safe, there are no aggressions on the streets...

More light comes from shop windows, here just a fast food restaurant open probably all night to feed those used to staying out late.

I have noticed that after the pandemic many places have appeared where they cook food for home, food brought mainly by couriers. It seems that it is much easier to buy ready-made food than to cook it yourself at home. Young people in particular use these services because they don't have the time, or are lazy, or because they don't know how to cook!

The bus stop is thankfully close to the theatre, only a 5-minute walk. The bus comes slower, we waited 15 minutes. By then I had time to take a closer look at the city at night.

I noticed again what I said earlier about the chaotic architecture of the city, the mixture of buildings from different eras, with different heights, built almost without any rules.

A sad walk after all. The city is no longer the night as I knew it, the city has changed but so have I. The biggest difference has been the lack of lighting, due to the energy crisis and the high cost of electricity, and the lack of people on the streets. I think this is also due to the way the last pandemic changed our habits!

This is my post for the Wednesday Walk challenge hosted by @tattoodjay and the Make me Smile Challenge by @elizacheng!

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