ROMANIAN theatre director Gianina Carbunariu will present a work-in-progress performance of Common People in the De Grey Rooms ballroom in York tomorrow night.

Her Romanian theatre group is working at York Theatre Royal as part of a new European project, BeSpectACTive!, creating a new piece of theatre based on the experiences of whistleblowers.

Research has involved interviewing people who have blown the whistle within the National Health Service, and the resulting piece, Common People, will be performed to an invited audience in Romanian with English subtitles at 7pm. Afterwards will come the chance to discuss the work with the artists and director.

Director Gianina said: "In a time where austerity measures are taken and the old systems are confronting new challenges, there are few people who don’t hesitate to express their way of thinking. Faciani or Snowden are the cases more discussed by the international media.

"If we search through the local press, there are people who are denouncing irregularities in many fields of our society. The project Common People aims to research through interviews with whistleblowers from different countries, to create a fictional work based on our meeting with these people and with their stories and to open public discussions with the audience participating at the event."

Gianina Carbunariu made her theatre debut in 2003 with a show called Stop The Tempo and her productions have been invited to festivals such as the London International Festival of Theatre, Festival TransAmeriques in Montreal, Nitra Festival, Biennale New Plays in Wiesbaden and New Drama in Moscow.

York Theatre Royal is one of nine theatres taking part in the BeSpectACTive! project, along with three universities, spread across nine European countries interested in audience development through the active involvement of spectators.

This month, the Theatre Royal is playing host to a number of European theatre companies and artists-in-residence as they research and create new pieces of work that are made "in discussion with and in response to people in our community".

BeSpectACTive! is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.