“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” wins the UNITER Award for the best radio show of 2022

The UNITER award for the best radio show performed in 2022 went to the Radio Romania National Radiophonic Theater for the production The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

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Corina Sabău, 16.12.2023, 11:32

The UNITER award for the best radio show performed in 2022 went to the Radio Romania National Radiophonic Theater for the production The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King turned out to be the listeners’ favorite show, being the most voted radio production in audience’s bet contest, a tradition established and maintained by UNITER over time. The show was aimed to mark the bicentenary of the passing away of the famous German romantic writer and is signed by the director Diana Mihailopol. Here is Attila Vizauer, editor-in-chief of the National Radiophonic Theatre, about the new staging of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

It was a very interesting bet. We felt the need for a new, fresh version of this story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, so we invited Diana Mihailopol to think about the possibility of producing a radio show based on this classic and well-known text. I admit I thought it might create a hit in this area. Well, Diana Mihailopol showed not only that she was interested in the text and that she treated it in a very generous way, that she was very inspired when she wrote the script, the radio adaptation of this story. She intervened with great sophistication in the text and managed to build a story with a formidable cast: Marian Râlea, Diana Rotaru, Marius Manole, Lucian Ionescu, Rodica Mandache. As I said, a formidable cast that helped make this a very, very beautiful show. Which is why it was no wonder that it won this year’s UNITER award for best radio theater show.

Diana Mihailopol believes that the proposal to stage a show after The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann was for her a real challenge. Diana Mihailopol:

I thought of and worked on this production trying to address not only children. I was happy that I was offered this text to adapt it for radio and, as I said when I was awarded, I got very close to that story. The radio adaptation addresses both adults and teenagers, I think it reaches listeners regardless of their age. There are some accents in this show that anyone can understand, it is primarily the evil personified by the Mouse King, but not only him. There is also the idea that evil has always existed. At the end of the adaptation, different from the story of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet, both of which have happy endings, the Mouse King returns. And he returns after the good seems to have prevailed and ideals achieved. The Mouse King returns and this return of his is underlined by a repeated line, stressed by Marius Manole, who plays in the show. It is a text that helps you understand what experiences you have to live as an adult. It is a story about the coming of age of a girl, about the coming of age of little Marie, who in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet is called Clara. Little Marie goes through this process of growing up and manages to find her way.

The actress of the German State Theater in Timişoara, Olga Török, handed the director Diana Mihailopol the UNITER trophy, the award for the best radio show staged in 2022 , at the 31st UNITER Awards Gala. Here is Diana Mihailopol again:

It was a surprise because, first of all, it is a story perceived mainly as a children’s story. And these children’s stories are unfortunately considered minor, they play a secondary role, although I know many adults who love them, who are nostalgic for the stories they read when they were little. Perhaps many feel that The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is not or is no longer a story for our times, a story to be read in 2023, but I find it very current and I think it includes and reflects many of our current concerns. It is an adaptation that also benefits from an extraordinary cast, I was lucky that Alina Rotaru agreed to play the role of little Marie. As I said, it is about a little girl who fears that her innocence will end with the passing of the years and that her growing up will be complicated by the appearance of other feelings, which is what actually happens.

The show The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, under the artistic direction of Diana Mihailopol, was also awarded at the Radio Romania Grand Prix Nova awards ceremony. The award for best supporting actress went to Manuela Ciucur for the role of Mrs. Mauserinks, queen over mice, and the Ilinca Tomoroveanu debut award went to Alina Rotaru for the role of Marie in the same show. (MI)