“Café Bonheur” brings together a dozen short plays by the French-Romanian playwright Matéi Visniec, originally published in 1996 in the book *Decomposed Theater or The Trash Man*. Directed by the author himself, the play offered us a poetic vision of the world in which we live and of the many ways in which individual consciousness is manipulated by different forms of power. The title evokes the Parisian tradition of cafés as spaces for gathering and socializing, for debate and reflection, and draws attention to the “obsession” that the individual pursuit of happiness (“bonheur”) has become in Western societies—a reflection of individualism and a form of blindness and toxicity.
This book also includes other short plays by the author not used in the performance.
Matéi Visniec is the author of some forty plays that have been performed throughout Europe, as well as in Brazil, the United States, Japan, and Turkey. Born in Romania in 1956, Matéi Visniec discovered a space of freedom in literature at a very early age. In his youth, he drew inspiration from Kafka, Dostoevsky, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, and Lautréamont. At that time, in Ceaușescu’s Romania, he particularly appreciated the Surrealists, the Dadaists, fantastical narratives, the theater of the absurd...Matéi Visniec is the author of some forty plays that have been performed throughout Europe, as well as in Brazil, the United States, Japan, and Turkey. Born in Romania in 1956, Matéi Visniec discovered a space of freedom in literature at a very early age. In his youth, he drew inspiration from Kafka, Dostoevsky, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, and Lautréamont. At that time, in Ceaușescu’s Romania, he particularly appreciated the Surrealists, the Dadaists, fantastical narratives, the theater of the absurd and the grotesque, dreamlike poetry, and even Anglo-Saxon realist theater. ““In short,” he states, “almost the entire literary experience, except for the socialist realism imposed by the regime.” Later, after moving to Bucharest to study philosophy, he became very active within the 1980s generation that transformed Romania’s poetic and literary landscape. Having become a banned author in his native country, Matéi Visniec chose exile in 1987. He managed to leave for France, where he was granted political refugee status and, later, French citizenship.
He began writing directly in French in 1990 and worked as a journalist in Paris for Radio France Internationale from 1990 to 2022. After the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, Matéi Visniec became the most frequently staged playwright in Romania. He has always lived between France and Romania, between East and West, between two cultures, two languages, and two sensibilities. “Deeply committed to the values of the European Union,” Matéi Visniec considers himself “a socially engaged, humanist author with a universalist outlook.”
“Teatro Decomposto & Café Bonheur”, by Matéi Visniec
“Our Authors” Collection No. 2 / A Escola da Noite 2024
dimensions: 120 x 205 x 10 mm
paperback, 128 pages
