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Turning the Radio up to speak: 
Since in the Vladu family household there was a person with connections abroad (Lucia marrying Wayne), it was very likely that their house was 
bugged. So in order to have some "privacy" of their conversations, they 
turned the radio up so that the bugs wouldn't catch the discussion. 

Waiting in lines: 
The waiting in lines was very common for products that Ceausescu was exporting abroad to come up with the money that he needed to pay for the huge debts he accumulated to "industrialize" the whole country...as well as satisfying his personal extravagances. 
        The lines could last anywhere from 30 minutes to days. Th retirees were famous for staying in line all day to provide for their children that worked and didn't have time to do it. If the line was longer than a day, everyone would put themselves on a list with the names of the people in line. Then they went home and returned the next day; some were using folding chairs. 
        The longest lines were for gas, meat, sugar, cooking oil, flour and dairy products. 

THE FRONT: the group of people that took control over Romania during the "vacuum of power" created by the hasty execution of the Ceausescus.  It was formed by people that occupied smaller leading positions  in Ceausescu's  gov't and the Communist Party - people  that just  "happened" to be at the right time at the right place . 
        We don't know to this date what was their contribution to the revolution itself. I personally think they didn't do anything and were just riding the wave created by the popular uprise.  
        The front was supposed to be temporary, and I remember hearing  Iliescu (the leader of the Front) guaranteeing that they will not candidate for elections.  They did, and won . Their major supporters were the largely  uneducated masses, that refused to elect the Peasant's Party and the  Liberal Party leaders because, during the communist rule, they lived in exile abroad, were wealthy, and "didn't eat soy salami and chicken feet" like we all did.  During the campaign, Iliescu was very good at exploiting this obvious class envy.  He managed to stay in power between December 1989 and November  1996. 
        Iliescu also tried to create a nice image of himself, to make a stark contrast with the old- communist-style serious look of Ceausescu. His campaign posters showed him smiling, holding a rose, etc.  His campaign logo was: "A smile for our peace". 
        His opponents, who didn't buy into this strategy, used to call him "a communist with a human face", or a "neo communist". 

THE HOOLIGANS : After the excitement of the newly found freedom wore off, a lot of the young students and intellectuals in Bucharest became increasingly unhappy with Iliescu being in power.   As they believed (and so did we), the purpose of the Revolution was not only getting rid of the Ceausescus, but also getting rid of the communism in general. Or, Iliescu, (graduated from the engineering college in Moscow), was nothing else but a sleek and sly modern communist. 
        So, in the spring of 1990, the youth of the capital (them, again) started demonstrating and protesting against the Front in the University square -where most shrines for the victims of the Revolution were located. University square is the same place where we have witnessed people being run over by tanks and being shot by securitate on the night of 21st of December. 
        The character Radu in the play is part of this movement. 

        Since the protests didn't lead to anything, the youth started camping out in the University square and refused to go home even at night. They placed signs that read "First zone free of neo communism in Romania" and blocked the traffic on this major road. Several of them decided to  go on hunger strike. 
        Iliescu, who had all the media under his control called them "hooligans" and "antisocial elements " every chance he had. 

        This movement attracted a lot of the foreign media who were constantly watching it.  In early June, Iliescu became very frustrated with this situation and started broadcasting appeals on the TV and radio .  These appeals for help were directed to   the miners situated in Valea Jiului (the biggest source of coal in Romania).   Iliescu was basically saying that he is losing control over Bucharest because of the hooligans and that he needs the miners' help to,"clean" the capital of "ruffians". 

        The miners are a group consisting of a few thousands people. They are extremely primitive and uneducated - hence, easy to manipulate. During Ceausescu, their life conditions were extremely rough.  Iliescu has increased their salaries shortly after getting the power, which turned them into faithful followers. 
        As a consequence of these appeals, the night of June 12 to 13, 1990, the miners came by train from Valea Jiului to Bucharest (a 3-4 hours train ride).  There were later rumors that they were led by the still alive and well Securitate agents disguised in miners.  They came directly from work, wearing their coveralls, metal helmets and armed with metal pipes.  
        I was "lucky" enough to witness this event also, because at the time I was a patient in the Coltea Hospital, which is situated in the proximity of the University square.  The reason that I was still there was the fact that on the 9 th of June 1990, Alexandra was born through a C- section. So, that night she was four days old.  I was in the C-section ward, along with five other  women that just had babies.   At about 1 am, we were awakened by noise coming from outside. A nurse rushed in and told us that "the miners are here, and are chasing the hooligans everywhere, including in here". All we had to do, she said, was to sit tight in our ward. 
        After the nurse left, four of the women in our ward opened wide the windows and started yelling to the miners, encouraging them to "kick hooligan's butts".  Me and the sixth woman  in there, looked at each other and didn't say anything.  Sorin was a "hooligan" himself, whenever he had the time to be there.  Fortunately, I knew he was at home, because he was busy getting the house ready for Alexandra's arrival.  Anyway, I called him and told him not to leave home until I called him again.  Then I looked through the window and saw the miners brutally beating up some fellows on the street, and breaking  into the next door church's door to make sure there are not "ruffians" hidden in there... 
        A few minutes later, we heard screaming on the hospital hallway : there were a few protesters that were seeking refuge into the hospital , but the miners had found them... 
        Shortly after that, a miner, face and clothes still covered with coal 
dust, paid us a visit and looked through  the ward and our things to make 
sure nobody had photo cameras or camcorders to tape what was happening.  I never felt so much hate and frustration before and I never felt so betrayed and powerless.  
       I had to keep quiet: he had a pipe in his hand. 
        The next day, the four months long peaceful demonstration was over. Iliescu was probably happy and relieved  - but me and Sorin decided we owe it to ourselves to leave Romania for good..  We felt that we have risked our lives for nothing in December, and that a government that is conducive to such an event is not any better than Ceausescu's. 
        Four months later  almost to the day, we have defected. It was my 
thirtieth birthday that day - and that was the best birthday  gift ever. 
        We never looked back.