Edith Alibec's "Glitch" Premiers in Edinburgh

officelondon
Aug 25, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Aug 1

Romanian theatre is back in Edinburgh Fringe at the Assembly George Square, The Crate.

Between July 31 and August 26, 25 performances of the play Glitch, written and performed by Edith Alibec and directed by Dana Paraschiv, took place at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show took place at Assembly George Square, The Crate hall, with a capacity of 70 seats. The Romanian Cultural Institute and the Romanian National Film Council financed the presence of the show in Edinburgh. Benefiting from the support of Assembly George Square, an important player on the Edinburgh Fringe stage, the largest festival of its kind in the world, and the involvement of one of the most successful PR agencies in the field, Chloé Nelkin Consulting, the show created by Edith Alibec and directed by Dana Paraschiv enjoyed a record press and audience success for plays presented in the fringe category. Thus, approximately 500 people were present at the show throughout the entire performance period, and the play attracted the attention of no less than 20 general and specialized publications. Among these, we mention the interviews that the Romanian actress and playwright gave to Theatre Weekly, Theatre and Tonic, The Phoenix Remix, and Close Up Culture, and the four and five-star reviews given to the show by the London Daily News, Ed Fringe, and The Real Chris Sparkle.

At the performance held on 15 August, the audience included the Consul General of Romania in Edinburgh, Andreea Berechet, the Deputy Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, Raluca Cimpoiasu and the Project Coordinator of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, Raluca Moisan. The two representatives of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London held discussions with representatives of Assembly George Square to facilitate the presentation of other Romanian shows within Assembly George Square, part of the so-called Top 4 (the top 4 best spaces of the festival). Unlike the vast majority of spaces where shows are held during the Edinburgh Fringe, these are stages on which only shows selected in advance by specialists in the field of theatre, based on qualitative criteria, are presented. This ensures a much greater visibility for the projects, which distinguish themselves from the majority of productions presented.

Travelling between 'here' (London) and 'there' (Bucharest), with two different timelines, Glitch follows the journey of a woman who is going through a moment when her entire life is falling apart. Freshly separated, stuck in London in a job she doesn't like, she returns home for the 10-year reunion after graduating from high school, inevitably meeting up again with her mother. Full of black and sharp humour, the show sheds light on the complicated nuances of the relationship between mother and daughter in the context of the challenge of life abroad, sporadic reunions, broken dreams from youth and the void that forms when so many things remain unsaid.