This is the drama played by class 2E, which was translated into English.
Other classes involved in the project also played some dramas, which are not translated.
We hope you like them, too. And maybe you can discover some similarities between our languages and admire our actors and actresses.
Class 3D - their drama is based on the story "The Oak tree from Borzesti", by Eusebiu Camilar. Here you can read the translation of the story.
THE OAK TREE FROM BORZESTI
I
The Voivode Steven the Great had been
fond of the lands of Moldavia since his boyhood. He liked to play with the
yeomen's children. Everybody used to call him Ştefăniţă (or Little Stephen) and
they were very happy when he came near Trotuş River.
He
was short, thickset, nimble and agile; nobody could outrun him in throwing
arrows towards hawks. He had blue eyes and curly shaped hair. He used to wear
light armour and nice spurs. His father, Bogdan-Voivode, used to take his son
this way, on horseback, to show him the beauties of Moldavia.
But Steven liked the environs of Borzeşti
village best, where it was a huge, crown-rounded oak-tree. That's where Steven used to meet other children from
neighbourhoods. Immediately, the play started: 'The Tartars'. They made two
gangs: the ones from Steven's gang
were the Moldavians; the ones from the second gang were the Tartars, led by Mitruţ,
son of a yeoman.
II
That
day, the sky was as clear as a tear. The wild roses and the sulphinyl had
bloomed. All the birds in the fields were singing, thousands of insects were chirping
.The skylarks had filled the sky with their singing.
The
voices of the children from Borzeşti were mingling with the birds' voices and
that day seemed to be a hymn dedicated to the immortal beauties of nature. All
of a sudden, the first group of children, led by Ştefăniţă, hid in a wood,
lying in wait. The other group, led by Mitruţ, hid behind a hill, from where
the real Tartars used to invade the villages. Then Mitruţ, pretending to be a
Tartar khan, began to peer at the oak-tree all around. Hearing one shout from
him, the children dashed into the valley, filling it with the joy of their war
cries. After that, Ştefăniţă's gang appeared out from his hiding place, and the
reed arrows were whizzing slightly, competing against the buzzing of bumble
bees. The battle lasted for almost an hour.
Both
Ştefăniţă and Mitruţ were good, but finally it was Ştefăniţă he who won. Being
tied between two reed spears, like a Tartar khan, Mitruţ was taken to be
judged. On a log, under the lofty oak-tree, Ştefăniţă began to judge him very
severely, asking him:
'Why are you invading my country?',
"Why are you killing kids?', 'Why are you putting fire on the villages?'
Can't the invaders start working the soil
and stop being Moldavia's fear in the future?'
As he was asking Mitruţ some questions, Ştefăniţă thought
about the danger of the Tartars and people's troubles that were just about to
come. He closed his fists. On his cheek a tear slipped off, a tear of anger.
He
had seen with his own eyes villages burning and Moldavia's carts in exile,
ravens flying over people's dead bodies. He had also seen the Tartars standing
on a hill, far away, and behind them the sky was red with fire. That was the
first remembrance of the voivode about the Tartars.
'Why?' asked Ştefăniţă again, so
terribly that Mitruţ almost lost his nerve, and the other children stopped
laughing. “Why are you robbing a strange
land, you outrageous khan? What punishment must he receive because he has trod
a strange land?” At this question the children put their eyes down, wrapped
in thoughts. What punishment is usually given to invaders? They had heard from
their ancestors that the invaders were killed with the sword and that the
enemies had their noses cut or their eyes pulled-out.
'Cut his nose...' said one.
'No! It's a too weak punishment!' said Ştefăniţă.
'Pull out his eyes!'
'No, more than this!'
'Then let's hang him by the oak tree’s
branches...' said another, and Mitruţ was happy because he was going to be
tied up with the ropes round him and raised up, up, as he had never been raised
before!
The
children pulled out their girdles and tied them head-to-head. All were laughing
and shouting, only Ştefăniţă was standing in scowl and silence, like a real
judge of invaders.
'Just like that!' said Ştefăniţă, as the other children were
pulling Mitruţ up. Mitruţ was laughing and clapping.
They pulled him to the middle of the
oak-tree, and left him in the wind's breath. Suddenly, as he was laughing and
swinging, he looked far away. He grew pale! He remained speechless. He could hardly
shout:
'The Tartars... The Tartars are coming!’
Horror-stricken, they all looked at
the real Tartars that were coming, riding their horses, with the swords in
their mouths, with burning straws on top of the spears.
‘Lower me down,
hurry… The Tartars are coming!’ he cried, but the children ran off the
village screaming:
'The Tartars... the Tartars are coming!'
The bells started to toll
as for announcing storm.
The people ran through the
forest or took some bludgeons smoked at one head, pitchforks, scythes and axes,
being ready for defence.
Everywhere the children and the women
screamed: 'The Tartars! The Tartars are
coming!’
And the bells were tolling more and more intensely.
III
The
Tartars were dashing out of dust that raised high up behind them, mixed with the
smoke of the burning villages. They arrived at the oak-tree from Borzeşti and,
behind the branches, the leader of the invaders saw Mitruţ, being very
frightened.
'What shall we do with the boy from the
oak-tree?' asked one of the Tartars.
'Shall we kill him with the arrows?'
‘No!’ said the
leader. ‘He who throws an arrow at the
boy, will be killed by me!”
'Why?' they
asked in surprise.
'Because
I want to kill this little Moldavian with my own hands! I bet that I will put
him to death with one arrow shot right in his heart!'
'Have mercy...' yelled Mitruţ when the
leader was ready to throw. But he could not say any other word, as the arrow
was thrown right into his heart, and he died on the spot.
Then the whirling
Tartars jumped on the horses and moved from the place galloping, putting fire
on the villages, killing and destroying everything on their way to Suceava.
IV
In the meantime, Bogdan-Voivode was
galloping towards the mountains, holding Ştefăniţă in front of him. The night
was coming. Up and up they were coming.
'Do
not ever forget, my son...' said the Voivode. 'The one who killed the boy from Borzeşti must be punished.'
'I will never forget this, father...' said Ştefăniţă. 'I will avenge Mitruţ with my own hand! If
the leader is still alive when I am grown-up, I will hang him by the oak-tree
from Borzeşti...'
The
fire went forward from the Southern Country to Suceava's citadel. The forests
and the plains were burning. The people were tied up with ropes and taken to
slavery. All over burnt villages and hamlets you could see children thrust in
the poles of the fences.
That's how Moldavia was suffering in
those days. But the older Bogdan Voivode was getting, the taller Ştefăniţă was
growing, just like a young oak-tree.
Never could he have forgotten the terrible death of Mitruţ, even in his sleep.
As soon as he had put Moldavia's crown on his head, he
wanted to put an end to the suffering brought by the Tartars. He didn't tread
their land, but he sent some of his men to ask them: do they want to calm down
or not? Because they had filled up this world with too much blood and too many
invasions.
He advised them peacefully in the Moldavian style, to
stop the invasions and to start working, like the people from Moldavia, because
they would never get too far with their way of life! It was necessary that their
khan should know that Moldavia had a young and fearless leader and it would be
a bad luck for those who would tread that land again...
The leader of the Tartars received the message from Steven the Great with terrible anger.
'I
will go and teach that little audacious boy...' he said gnashing his teeth.
And
so, they put on warning fires from hill to hill, again from Prut to Suceava's
citadel. The villagers from the Southern Country gathered in at Borzeşti, near
the Tartars' ford.
Steven
was climbing down with many country people when he heard the news of danger.
One night, the sky turned red up to the horizon. The villages and plains were
burning. The only people remained in life were terrified and they entered Steven’s army.
The
terrible battle was more powerful than ever. The valley was filled up with the
horses' neighs and the shields' thuds. The spears were shining. The arrows were
buzzing. Steven the Great opened a
way to the heart of the battle, to the leader of the Tartars. He struck in the
left; he struck in the right with the mace! He shouted:
'Fight, my boys, for Mitruţ’s revenge...
Where are the yeomen from Borzeşti? Fight, fight!'
Suddenly,
Steven the Great arrived in front of
the khan. With one strike of his mace, Steven flung down the Tartar’s sword! He
could have killed the enemy with the second strike but he obliged him to step
aside. Meanwhile, the invaders were running far away.
Then,
at sunset, the Moldavians went up the hill to rest.
'Now let's punish the khan !' said Steven the Great in front of the tent,
placed under the oak-tree. 'How shall we
kill him, yeomen?'
'Let's pull out his eyes...' said
thousands of voices.
'Let's kill him with the sword...' said
others.
'No!' said Steven the Great and tears came into
his eyes when he remembered the tragic happening from his childhood. 'No, because there is something he has to
account for! You khan, do you remember?
It was you that killed Mitruţ on branches of this oak-tree... Raise him, my
boys, with the rope...'
After
the invader received his punishment, they celebrated his death for three days
and nights. That's the way Steven the
Great punished the invaders, cutting away their appetite of foreign bread!
Class 4C - they worked with the same story as class 3D. They played in two groups, so there are two videos
https://youtu.be/8DdtDl6WKDI
https://youtu.be/ZYFk1oiHC38
Class 4B - they worked in groups, so they have separate videos. The name of the drama is ''Mircea the Elder and the Sultan Baiazid'' - and the screenplay is based on a poem written by our great poet Mihai Eminescu. Here you can read the translation of this poem in English.
http://www.gabrielditu.com/eminescu/satire_3.asp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTBEdCnWvoU
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