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„Stupid F***king Bird” explores the fragile relationships between a group of artists and dreamers brought together in a lakeside house, where their desires for love, recognition, and purpose inevitably collide with reality. At the heart of the story is Conrad, a troubled young playwright searching for a new form of artistic expression and for emotional validation from Nina, the aspiring actress he is deeply in love with. Surrounding them are Conrad’s mother, Emma, a famous and domineering actress; Trigorin, a successful novelist caught between admiration and inner emptiness; and a circle of friends and family, each burdened by unfulfilled desires and personal compromises.

After the devastating failure of Conrad’s experimental play, the relationships between the characters begin to fracture. Unrequited love, artistic ambition, and the need for recognition lead to betrayal, abandonment, and existential crises. Drawn by the promise of an authentic artistic life, Nina leaves behind her familiar world, only to discover the profound cost of that choice. Over time, idealism turns into disillusionment, and artistic dreams are tested by reality, loss, and loneliness.

Structured through a metatheatrical language that breaks theatrical conventions and brings characters into direct dialogue with the audience, the play reflects on the nature of art, failure, and human vulnerability. Balancing humor and despair, „Stupid F***king Bird” becomes a powerful meditation on love, identity, and the fundamental human need to be seen, heard, and understood.

Robert Prior is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist who has worked as a director, designer, actor and playwright.

In 1994 he founded Fabulous Monsters Performance Group in Los Angeles, featuring a diverse group of actors, acrobats, drag artists and musicians. The company was celebrated for their humor, insight and bold theatricality, creating over twenty pieces in as many years, including adaptations of Wilde, Genet, Shakespeare and world mythology. The company toured nationally to Chicago, to the Burning Man Arts Festival in Nevada, and to the La MaMa Theatre in Manhattan, winning numerous awards and accolades.

Robert's exploration of Chekhov started early in his directing career with a production of The Seagull. To be able to revisit the world of that play decades later in Aaron Posner's powerful adaptation has been a very satisfying creative experience, and Robert is very grateful to be able to share his and his collaborators' work at FITS.

Robert currently teaches theatre at California State University Long Beach and continues to pursue new projects.

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Cast: Finn Holmgren, Lucca Carr-Veramo, Peyton Johnson, Aryan Chhabra, Charlie Southall, Christina Du Chene, Amelia Priestley

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Performance in English, with translation into Romanian
Duration: 2h
Date of premiere: 01.11.2025
Original title: The Seagull
Special effects: three gunshot sounds; vapor from electronic cigarettes
United States of America