Radu Afrim is without doubt one of the most talented and talked about, but also one of the most controversial of the new generation of Romanian theater directors. After University degree in Letters (1995) and Theater (2000) at the University Babes-Boyai in Cluj, he begins directing and his work was awarded, two years running, the Grand Prix du festival Grange de Dorigny in Lausanne, Switzerland. More recently, he won the Uniter award (the Romanian equivalent of the Tonys) for best stage director, two years in a row (2006 and 2007). In 2008, Radu Afrim won the "Coup de Coeur de la presse" (prize discerned by the Press) at the "Off" Avignon festival, for his play "Mansarde à Paris. Les detours de Cioran", by Matei Visniec. A great defender of contemporary writing, Afrim has recently directed the works of writers as divers as Dea Loher, Vassili Sigarev, Hanoch Levin, Jon Fosse or Jean-Luc Lagarce.
To this list, which is already long, one must add the name of Fausto Paravidino, whose La Maladie de la famille M. he first directed at the National Theater of Timisoara in May of 2008.
Paravidino was born in Genoa in 1976, where he studied the dramatic arts at the Teatro Stabile. Paravidino is an actor, director, translator of the works of Shakespeare and Harold Pinter, screenwriter and astonishingly precocious author (he wrote his first play, Trinciapolio at the age of 20 before directing it on stage three years later.) Situated during a "season between fall and winter", and in a town that has sprouted like something from the American West, on the edge of intersecting highways - one of those towns where the din of cars driving by constantly besieges the intimacy of its inhabitants' lives - The Sickness of the "M" Family - portrays a collective and tragic portrait of an ordinary family, as seen through the eyes of their doctor.
The play has already been nominated for the Kultur Preis Europa 2009, the prestigious prize offered by the German association "Kultur Forum Europa".
