Constantin Tanase

Life

Born into a working-class family living in a peasant house in Vaslui, Romania. An adequate but unexceptional student (although he did apparently learn good German), his first exposure to the stage was by attending plays at "Parjoala" garden, where he saw popular theater, including actors such as Zaharia Burienescu and I.D. Ionescu. This inspired him to start an amateur theater group among his friends; they worked up scenes from the plays Mesterul Manole, Capitanul Valter Maracineanu and Constantin Brancoveanu; their closest thing to a stage was a barn.

His first professional experience as an actor was in the Yiddish-language theater troupe of Mordechai Segalescu: they were short an actor for a performance in Vaslui and drafted the youthful Tanase. In 1896 he completed gymnasium. Despite his wish to become an actor, at his parents behest he enrolled in the Military School at Iasi, but his rebellious behavior there quickly got him booted out. He headed to Braila, where he briefly attended the "Nicolae Balcescu" High School, but after a few weeks he dropped out due to lack of funds.

In Braila he met the schoolteacher and writer Ion Adam, who suggested that the 18-year-old Tanase take over his teaching post in Cursesti, Rahova, since Adam was headed to take some courses in Belgium. He didn't do badly at the job, but hit it off badly with the headmaster and some of the other teachers. With Adam's support, he got another teaching job at Harsoveni, Poenesti, where poet Alexandru Vlahuta also taught. Tanase promptly developed his own style of teaching, bringing music and gymnastics to a central role, which drew new students to the school. He also involved his students' parents through field trips which he used to teach history and geography. He soon became a generally beloved local figure, but apparently the local notary and certain lawyers disapproved of him and his methods and managed to have him fired.

Out of work, he headed for Bucharest on October 14, 1899, where he volunteered to join a military regiment, the 1st Engineer Regiment (Regimentul 1 Geniu). After his military service, he worked in theater, and in 1917, he married Virginia Niculescu.

In Bucharest in 1919, he founded the theater troupe "Carabus" (meaning cockchafer). Over the course of 20 years, he would establish a tradition of humorous cabaret/revue theater that still continues in Romania today, most notably at the "Constantin Tanase" Revue Theatre, the former home of "Carabus" at 33-35 Calea Victoriei in the heart of Bucharest. At "Carabus", Tanase launched the careers of numerous performers, notably Maria Tanase and Horia Serbanescu. "Carabus" frequently toured Romania and on at least one occasion toured Turkey. Tanase himself also performed in Paris.

According to at least one source, he also founded 3 schools for children and a church.

Death

According to the official account, he died of complications from a tonsillitis on August 29, 1945, in Bucharest.

However, it is rumored that he was killed by the invading Red Army, as reported in the following account. Tanase was still performing in Bucharest a year after the arrival of the Russians, and was killed for satirizing the Red Army soldiers' habit of "requisitioning" all personal property in sight, in particular of taking people's watches, demanding them by saying, "Davai ceas" (davai - Russian for "Give me", and ceas - Romanian for "watch"). Tanase made up a verse:

Rau era cu "der, die, das"Da-i mai rau cu "davai ceas"De la Nistru pan' la DonDavai ceas, davai paltonDavai ceas, davai mosieHaraso tovarasieIt was bad with "der, die, das"But it's worse with "davai ceas"From Dniester to DonDavai watch, davai overcoatDavai watch, davai landHaraso comradeship

Another variant of these verses in loose translation:

It was bad with "der, die, das"But it's worse with "davai ceas"From the Dniester to the DonDavai watch, coat and long-johns,You can forego your ownership,Haraso comradeship

After several performances he was arrested, threatened with death, and told not to do the sketch again. However, Tanase was not a man to be intimidated. At the next performance, he came on stage in a giant overcoat, with his arms festooned in watches. The audience applauded wildly as he simply stood there. Then he opened the overcoat, revealing a pendulum clock. Pointing to it, he said "El tic, eu tac, el tic, eu tac" (punning on tic-tac, the Romanian equivalent of "tick-tock", but also meaning "It ticks, I am silent, it ticks, I am silent"). Two days later he was dead.

He is buried in Bellu cemetery, in Bucharest.

Works

Tanase's theater was often political and avant garde. Simona Pop quotes some lines from a song or his as typical: [Pop, 2001]

In tara asta, tara painiiSa aiba paine pana si cainiiGuvernul nostru ne obligaS-avem o zi de mamaligaLor ce le pasa cum e traiulScumpira trenul si tramvaiulScumpira tot, la cataramaPana si painea si tutunulSi cand injuri pe sleau de mamaEi, cica, eu fac pe nebunul.In this land, the land of breadEven the dogs should eat breadOur government obliges usTo have a day of mamaligaWhat do they care how good the living is?Expensive trains and tramsExpensive everything, to the limitEven bread and tobaccoAnd when I openly curse their motherThey claim I'm playing the fool.Teoria mea-i usoaraToata viata e o scaraCare, pe rand, ca si la moaraToti o urca si-o coboara".My theory is easyAll life is a staircaseWhich, by turn, just like at a millEveryone climbs and descends.

Works about Tanase

The 1975 film Actorul si salbaticii ("The Actor and the Savages") starred Toma Caragiu (who died soon afterwards in the 1977 Bucharest earthquake) as "Caratase" - a mixture of Caragiu and Tanase and a transparent allusion to Tanase. However, even with Romania's increased independence from the Soviet Union, it was politically impossible to show the Red Army as responsible for his death; in the screenplay, only the conflict with the Iron Guard is illustrated, repeatedly irritating them with antifascist satire. His death is caused by a heart attack.

Quotations

"Ideals are like stars: you can't actually reach them, but you can orient yourself by them."

Filmography

Peripitiile calatoriei lui Rigadin de la Paris la Bucuresti (1924, silent, The Adventures of Rigadin During His Travel from Paris to Bucharest

Visul lui Tanase (1932, Tanase's Dream)

Rabdare Tanase! (1943, Have patience, Tanase!)

Legacy

From the time Tanase moved to Bucharest, his only visit to Vaslui and to his parents was on a tour by his theater troupe. Nonetheless, Vaslui has named one Casa de Cultura ("House of Culture") after him (one of two such institutions in Vaslui), his personal archives and many of his possessions now reside in the Vaslui county museum, and since 1970 Vaslui has memorialized him with a theater festival under the leadership of another native son of Vaslui, Valentin Silvestru, which at least since 1980 has drawn comedians from all over Romania. The festival is now also an international festival of caricature.