theater was often political and avant garde. Simona Pop quotes some lines from a song or his as typical: În țara asta, țara pâinii Să aibă pâine până și câinii Guvernul nostru ne obligă S-avem o zi de mămăligă Lor ce le pasă cum e trăiul Scumpiră trenul și tramvaiul Scumpiră tot, la cataramă Până și pâinea și tutunul Și când înjuri pe șleau de mamă Ei, cică, eu fac pe nebunul. In this land, the land of bread Even the dogs should eat bread Our government obliges us To have a day of mămăligă What do they care how good the living is? Expensive trains and trams Expensive everything, to the limit Even bread and tobacco And when I openly curse their mother They claim I'm playing the fool. Teoria mea-i uşoară Toată viața e o scară Care, pe rând, ca și la moară Toți o urcă și-o coboară". My theory is easy All life is a staircase Which, by turn, just like at a mill Everyone climbs and descends. Works about Tănase The 1975 film Actorul şi sălbaticii ("The Actor and the Savages") starred Toma Caragiu (who died soon afterwards in the 1977 Bucharest earthquake) as "Caratase" – a mixture of Caragiu and Tănase and a transparent allusion to Tănase. 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 Peripițiile călătoriei lui Rigadin de la Paris la București (1924, silent, The Adventures of Rigadin During His Travel from Paris to Bucharest Visul lui Tănase (1932, Tănase's Dream) Răbdare Tănase! (1943, Have patience, Tănase!) Legacy From the time Tănase 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 Cultură ("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