Theater Gaming. Does Theater Need Video Games?

The author of this text uses concrete examples to search for relationships between computer games and theater. In the games The Tempest and Fatale: Exploring Salome he describes the process of “spatializing” the text. Then, with reference to A Real-time Art Manifesto by the Tale of Tales duo, and the Ultima VII and The Dark Eye games, he explores how the viewer’s body is engaged in the game, and the relationship between the viewer/actor and the role. He uses the example of Pathologic to problematize the notion of the player’s freedom and his/her capacity to alter the course of the plot. Finally, he investigates the ways theater and video games can be used to mutual advantage.

Art for the Digital Era. Games Shape Our Culture. Time to Start Taking Them Seriously

In an article written a decade ago, Jenkins claims that, considering the popularity and rapid development of computer games and their impact on contemporary cinema, they should be taken as a form of mass art shaping aesthetic sensitivities in the 21st century. He finds an analogy between the bad repute of popular arts (such as jazz, Broadway musicals, Hollywood cinema and comics) at the start of their development and today’s apprehension of computer games. Jenkins calls for a constructive, thoughtful criticism that could help in the development of games, such as once inspired experimentation in film.

The New Culture Is Being Made Now
Situating games in the same constellation as other arts and entertainment, Szewczyk explores the competition long underway between games and film. The most important point of his text, however, is the issue of the inspiration that both the music industry and theater could draw from games. The text concludes with a vision of the future of the theater, taking advantage of technological innovations to reestablish the relationship between the artists and the viewers.   

Between the Stage and the Joystick

A transcription of a discussion organized by “Didaskalia”: the Between the Stage and the Joystick panel (16 June 2010, Wrocław). The conversation regards the interplay between theater and computer games. The main issue dividing the panelists was that of the interactivity of the media, and the linked problem of the freedom of the viewer or the player, and the real impact they have on the course of the play or the action. Some directors also speak of ways in which games have influenced their theatrical work. Jan Klata tells of how he worked on Orestes and H., and of his collaboration with Marcin Czarnik, while Wiktor Rubin describes his most recent play – Orgy, and Paweł Passini talks about his work on the neTTheater.

Colorful Deputies in the Best of Lands

A review of Best Before by Rimini Protokoll (premiere: 29 January 2010 at The Cultch in Vancouver). The play follows the convention of a “play on civilization,” with the participation of the standard Rimini Protokoll “experts on everyday life” and viewers who use joysticks to control their avatars (projected on a cinema-size screen), thus co-creating the virtual reality of BestLand. As Irmer concludes, this allows the viewer to “take part in a kind of post-Brechtian Lehrstück, which poses questions about the vague nature of social and demographic diagnoses, and as such, their superficial value.”

 

The Performative, Performances and Texts for the Theater
This text examines the turn towards the performative, indicating its sources, and ways of understanding the influence it has exerted on the look of social phenomena. The author points out that the performative turn is the antithesis of the textual turn – thus leading to a marginalization of text in favor of cultural phenomena that are marked by the spectacular, materiality and interactivity. She presents two ways of understanding the performativeness of contemporary culture (Peter Kivy and Jon McKenzi), and introduces two ways of grasping the relationship between drama and theater, as contained in the texts of Dobrochna Ratajczakowa and William B. Worthen. These comparisons aim at rethinking the basis of the performative turn, and at attempting to see the text as a medium marked by materiality, and at reading as a performance. 

Entangled Within Stories. Towards a Narrative Theory of Performance

This text begins with a review of 2½ Millionen by Uwe Mengel, which unwinds as a process of collective and interactive act of storytelling. In the author’s view, in describing this and other like plays, by such groups as Forced Entertainmant, She She Pop, Gob Squad, Lone Twin, Signa or Blast Theory, the narrative concept put forward by theatrologists is insufficient. Tecklenburg draws from two concepts of theatrical narration: those of Bertolt Brecht and Hans-Thies Lehmann, to propose her own definition of narrative, based on the concept of the performative. In her conception, it is the storytelling process in experimental theater – like the tale that emerges from it – that becomes the subject of the performance.

Peeking into Other People’s Apartments

A description of the Apartments – X project organized by the Nowy Theater in Warsaw (17-20 June 2010). This was a journey through three districts: Mokotowie, Mirowie and Bródnie, during which the participants visited private homes and took part in events organized for them there. Kosiewski describes all the situations arranged in the apartments, then goes on to analyze and evaluate both the project as a whole, and its various parts. The author regards the action as an attempt at spatial architecture; he also notes how some of the projects aim to manipulate the present, to bend genres, and to escape from art institutions.

Rubens Never Used Green. Emotional Shifts in the Work of Jan Lauwers

Luk Van den Dries presents the work of Jan Lauwers against the backdrop of the theatrical climate of the 1980s in Flanders. He analyzes the impact performance art had on the Flemish theatre of the time. He recalls two of Lauwers’s successive groups – Epigonentheater and Needcompany – isolating the transformations in his work, from the motto “real time, real actions” to the explorations of “fictitiousness” in theater. Using the example of Images of Affection he characterizes the work of Needcompany: the growing impact of a pop aesthetic, the fragmentation of time and space, memory and death as the central themes conditioning the composition of the performance, and the beauty, which serves as an antidote to the horror.

in[FIN]ITO

This text is an attempt to describe the specifics of Needcompany’s work and performance style. On the basis of a few plays, including some that have never been presented in Poland, Żelisławski describes the mutual relationships between the space, the actors and the story being told, and indicates common categories that could serve to describe the narrative in Needcompany’s plays, such as: memory, retrospection, nostalgia and trauma. He also surveys the ways in which man functions in Lauwers’s plays – beginning with the physical presence of the actor, on to the subjects presented on stage, and concluding with the attempts to grasp the condition humaine, which the author considers the central theme of Needcompany’s plays.

Love is Most Important: Ana Brzezińska speaks with Jan Lauwers

Jan Lauwers speaks of how he set off on his creative path, of his ways of selecting partners, and his work method. He also describes both his first and his more recent plays, and reveals some details on his future projects. The interview also includes his reflections on the role of art and the artist in the contemporary world, the artist/viewer relationship, the condition of art faced with the death of God, and the functioning of the arts and theater market. As a result, the conversation outlines the Needcompany creator’s philosophy of life and art.

Who’s Who in Needcompany

Ana Brzezińska describes the phenomenon of the Needcompany group, composed of individuals hailing from various cultural spheres and fields of art. She lists a few principles that allow the group to function, including a constant exchange of experiences and inspirations, respect for one’s partner, and a readiness to work without worrying about the outcome. He then present outlines of the most important artists (Grace Ellen Barkey, Hans Petter Dahl, Anneke Bonnema, Maarten Seghers, Viviane de Muynck), describing both what they do both within the group, and outside of it.

How the Flemish Dance

Julia Hoczyk writes on the focus on Flemish theater during this year’s edition of maltafestival (25 June – 3 July 2010). Analyzing the phenomenon of Flemish art in the introduction, situated on the verge of theater and dance, Hoczyk describes the trends and names the most important figures, while making her own comments on the program decisions. She then analyzes plays by selected artists presented during the maltafestival (Alain Platel, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Ugo Dehaes, Jan Fabre), paying particular attention to the discourse of physicality present in these performances.

The Mechanics of Truth

A review of the play The Truth About The Kennedys directed by Luk Perceval, presented during maltafestival. Kwaśniewska describes the genesis of the play, and then details the way the narrative is run, and the stage form of the play. She chiefly concentrates on the demythologization of both the Kennedys and American democracy as such which Perceval, in his view, undertook. To conclude, she notes that: “Though setting his sights on America, Perceval sent a ricochet straight into the heart of contemporary Polish ‘values,’ such as democracy, the family, and Catholicism […] revealing the cynicism, manipulation, power relations, and the gap between myth and reality that stand behind them.”

What Joins Us Is Suffering: Aleksandra Jeżewska Speaks with Luk Perceval

Luk Perceval speaks about the now (in his view) defunct phenomenon of the “Flemish wave,” which he once co-created. Relating the various steps in his career, he explains the factors that shaped the phenomenon and its creators in the 1980s and 1990s, which include: a response to the traditional theater in Flanders at the time, the necessity of working abroad, and the shortage of traditional literature and plays in the Flemish language. Perceval then speaks of the genesis and the process of the play The Truth about the Kennedys and the film The Concealed City, screened during maltafestival.

“Almost Two Millennia and Not One God in Sight!”

A text delivered at the maltafestival forum. Grzegorz Niziołek paraphrases Nietzsche, writing that we have had two decades, and not a single example of a new theatrical model. He claims that repertory theater continues to reign in Poland, causing a wide range of conflicts and frustrations (such as those between the artistic director and the director, or the director and the actors) and inhibiting creativity. Directors who, in his opinion, stand a chance to move beyond the framework of repertory theater, i.e. Krystian Lupa and Krzysztof Warlikowski, submit to its formulae for various reasons. The author explains this state of things with reference to the conviction that art can be autonomous within the invisible framework of the institution, and by the undermining of the romantic model by which Polish society and culture has been apprehended since 1989.

The Play in the Society of the Play

A paper delivered during the forum at maltafestival. The point of departure is the question: “What is a play in the society of the play?” Drawing from Guy Debord’s notion from the 1960s counter-culture era, Leder wonders why it is that today, in spite of another crisis and the popularity of confrontational discourse, the symbolic order has undergone no significant change. The response, he contests, is in how the position of the subject is conceived. Shifting this issue into the field of theater, Leder notes that the creators of political theater take advantage of all the privileges of the society of the play. In criticizing the symbolic order, putting themselves in the position of those in the know, in shattering the symbolic system, they render the viewer defenseless and intensify his/her passivity. A way out of this situation could be the critical subject taking a (complex) sort of responsibility for what (s)he subjects to criticism.

A Listening Lesson

A report on the International KONTAKT Theater Festival in Toruń (22-28 May 2010). Wichowska focuses on plays which allude to the tradition of documentary theatre in a variety of ways: Vùng biên gió’i by Rimini Protokoll, Mothers by RO Theater, and Marta of Blue Hill and Grandpa directed by Alvis Hermanis. The basic issue is the clash between “professional” and “unprofessional” theater, and the question of whether the fiction loses out to the reality in this theater. “Two ‘unprofessional’ productions – to the same degree as Hermanis’s plays – raised the bar a few levels higher than those of, say, Jerzy Jarocki (...), or Thomas Ostermeier (...) – with the social scope of the topics, the simplicity and precision with which they were executed, and the readiness to subvert the customs and expectations of the festival public.”

Money and Other Dragons

A report from Berlin’s Theatertreffen Festival, presenting the ten best German-language plays of the previous year. According to the author of the text, this year’s edition focused on the theme of the world economic crisis. The majority of the plays invited were premieres of recent texts. Derejczyk analyzes three: Der goldene Drache by Roland Schimmelpfenning, directed by the author (Burgtheater, Vienna), Liebe Und Geld by Dennis Kelly, directed by Stephan Kimmig (Thalia Theater, Hamburg) and Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Nicolas Stemann (Thalia Theater, Hamburg in a co-production with Schauspiel Köln).

The Heart of Darkness

A review of Metaphysics of a Two-headed Calf directed by Michał Borczuch (TR Warsaw, premiere: 17 September 2010). Maryla Zielińska notes that the dominant tendency in the play is to reverse expectations on the playwright and the text (“Borczuch’s tropics are all blackness and silence”). The play does lack, to her mind, puissance – both in terms of the staging and the acting. Zielińska concludes: “Witkacy often left behind material that allowed a director to find his own, original form of theatre (...).Michał Borczuch’s Metaphysics of a Two-headed Calf is not among these instances. It will go down, however, in the annals of the Witkacologists.”

“We Croak – End of Story,” or: Witkacy’s Normal People

The text of a lecture delivered at TR Warsaw one week before the premiere of Metaphysics of a Two-headed Calf, also linked to the project on transhumanation in Witkacy’s work at Krakow’s PWST. Niziołek claims on the basis of surviving fragments of A Normal Man that Witkacy created cultural instructions tied to the experience of shock in the social order, and applied a shock strategy in the structure of his art. He brings the content of the drama head up against the notion of transhumanation, showing this process in the main protagonist. He also writes why “Witkacy’s protagonists can be entirely good, much like the heroes of the classic comic strips.” To conclude, he inquires into the nature of the viewer’s presence in the theatre Witkacy designs.

Suicide and Poisoning, or: On the “We Know, We Know” Fatalities in Wałbrzych

Kwaśniewska describes two premieres that took place at the Dramatyczny Theatre in Wałbrzych during the “We Know, We Know!!!” season: Once Upon a Time There Was Andrzej, Andrzej, Andrzej, Andrzej by Paweł Demirski, directed by Monika Strzępka (premiere: 22 May 2010) and The Bald Men on Board the Ida in Radek Rychcik’s direction (premiere: 12 June 2010). She states that insofar as Bald Men… seeks to address universal issues and falls into cliche, Andrzej… is a play very strongly rooted in the concrete, it is socially and politically engaged, blasphemous and impudent, and appears to address a number of vital questions. To conclude, she tries to sum up the first season of “We Know, We Know!!!” in Wałbrzych, pointing out certain commonalities in its performances.

After Deconstruction

A review of Dynasty directed by Natalia Korczakowska, performed at the Dramatyczny Theater in Wałbrzych (premiere: 20 May 2010). Dziewulska demonstrates that the series and its protagonists serve as a framework for a plot transposition of Sophocles’s Philoctetes. There is a clash between the dying Steven (Philoctetes) and the acting techniques of the actor (Krzysztof Zarzecki) and the other actors and figures. The author also notes that the series serves Korczakowska as a “vehicle, a trampoline, a stuffing for the stage, allowing her to vividly define her images.”

Voices from the Jerzy Szaniawski Dramatyczny Theater Forum in Wałbrzych

Commentaries on two presentations, by Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski, given during the first season of “We Know, We Know!!!” and featured on the Dramatyczny Theater in Wałbrzych web page (http://teatr.walbrzych.pl/). The texts on the plays that raised the most interest and controversy among those attending the forum were reprinted, as they provoked discussion on both the image and the repertoire of the Wałbrzych theater.

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

A review of The Possessed, directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski and performed at the Polski Theater in Wrocław (premiere: 17 June 2010). The author claims that the play is an innovative vision of Dostoyevsky’s novel. In describing the play’s structure, Bryś shows Garbaczewski’s interpretive movement, from the general to the detail, aiming less to show the plot than to examine its strands and figures from various angles. As a result, in spite of its apparent chaos, The Possessed is a meticulously structured “analysis of the violence that imperceptibly subsumes reality, becoming an inevitable part of it.”

Breaking the Illusion: Żelisław Żelisławski Speaks with Katarzyna Warnke and Krzysztof Garbaczewski

An interview with Katarzyna Warnke and Krzysztof Garbaczewski on The Possessed, produced at Polski Theater in Wrocław. The actress and director comment on the decision to place a woman in the role of Stavrogin, recognizing the character as a borderline case – a person functioning between the categories of masculinity and femininity. Using psychoanalytical categories, they also remark on the issue of a lack of trust in language, and the affiliated turn towards babble, and the search for non-verbal communication. They also discuss their thoughts on the novel, and its suitability for the theater.

The Humbug Savior

A review of The Wedding of Count Orgaz based on the novel by Roman Jaworski and directed by Jan Klata at the Stary Theater in Krakow (premiere: 11 June 2010). The author of the text describes the various levels Klata has constructed for the spectacle, stating that the director drew the essence of its brilliant style from the novel, emphasized its theatricality, pastiche and universality. Dorota Jarząbek also notes that: “In the forward-thinking and inhuman-sounding speech of Jaworski’s work, Klata found a harsh condemnation of the folly and drolleries of our civilization.”

Now You Hit

A review of Anna Augustynowicz’s Getsemani at the Współczesny Theater in Szczecin and at the Wojciech Bogusławski Theater in Kalisz (premiere: 9 May 2010). To the author of the text, Getsmani is the most restless of Augustynowicz’s productions, and a deep reflection on the nature of asserting authority and the hypocrisy of the democratic system. The play does not limit itself to accusing those in power, but reveals the participation of all of society in the bright and dark sides of politics.

Iwona in Good Form

A review of Iwona, Princess of Burgundy directed by Marián Pecko at the Alojzy Smolka Opole Theater of Puppets and Actors (premiere: 24 May 2009) presented during the 24th International Festival of Puppet Arts in Bielsko-Biała (22-26 May 2010). The author notes that the performance’s fame increases from one festival to the next. Analyzing the various elements of the staging – the acting, the appearance and function of the puppets, and the set design, she claims: “The trapping of the human being in form, so vital a concept in Gombrowicz, was rendered brilliantly through the formal explorations in puppet theater.”

Self-portrait, Camp Style

A review of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski at La Monnaie in Brussels (premiere: 11 June 2010). Pickels, while appreciating the artistic value of the staging, accuses Warlikowski of having turned Macbeth into a well-designed play with no dimension of transgression. The author accuses the director of having ignored the opera’s political strain to concentrate on the psychology and physicality of the figures. In this way, presenting Macbeth in the political arena (Brussels), where the economic leaders sit comfortable in their chairs, he submitted to the system of the opera, which he so recently sought to change, and created a campy self-portrait of an artist enjoying Western fame.

One-way Ticket

A review of the opera Sudden Rain / Between directed by Maja Kleczewska at the National Opera in Warsaw (world premiere: 13 May 2010). Maryla Zielińska describes both parts of the opera diptych, scrupulously noting the changes and alterations made by the director. In sum she claims that: “Maja Kleczewska, originally a psychologist by education, seems the right partner for the subjects the composers address.” She does add, however, the radicalism of the stage solutions typical of this director has been toned down for her opera debut, in the first part exchanged for illustration and genre scenes, and in the second hiding behind the radicalism of composer Agata Zubel.

Eurydice Flees, Orpheus Retreats. Haydn on Stage at the Hungarian National Opera.

Natalia Jakubowa provides readers with an outline of Hungarian director Sándor Zsótér, known to Polish audiences for his staging of November Night. The various steps in the director’s career are outlined in brief, and a description is provided of his new work, The Soul of a Philosopher, or: Orpheus and Eurydice by Joseph Haydn. Jakubowa points out that the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, known to be one of the central myths dealing with vision and the gaze, in Zsótér’s interpretation becomes a tale of voicelessness. Jakubowa also devotes a great deal of space to the creators of the main roles: Andrei Rost as Eurydice and Brickner Szabolcs as Orpheus – admiring the vocal capabilities, and above all the interpretations of the characters.

City in the Looking Glass. Schauspiel Frankfurt Directed by Olivier Reese.

Friederike Felbeck takes a look at the year-long directorship of Olivier Reese at this Frankfurt theatre. He sketches a portrait of the director, describing the tradition of director/dramaturges in German theatres, and the history of this particular stage. Highly evaluating Reese’s directorial achievements, he maps out the troupe of actors, directors and dramaturges that has been organized, the main premises of the program, and recalls the statistics that gave Reese the nickname “Lord of the Numbers.” He focuses most, however, on the premiere of a work by Michael Thalheimer from the previous season, and the director’s rendition of Phaedra.

Two Poor Romanians in Sydney

A review of a play based on a text by Dorota Masłowska, A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians, directed by Alice Livingstone, whose premiere took place on 14 July 2010 at the Focus Theatre in Sydney. Although the play was a success, it seems to the author a fine example of theatre that has not been created to speak the truth about the world. Piber sees this in the fact that the director has kept it in a Polish context, and political correctness along with it. This is, to the critic’s mind, symptomatic of Australian theater, where few feel at liberty to speak critically about certain widespread problems.

The Creative Power of the Russian Theater

A review of Katarzyna Osińska’s book Russian Theater of the 20th Century against Tradition (słowo obraz/terytoria, Gdańsk 2009). Osińska’s book, to the critic’s mind, shows familiar phenomena in a brand new light, unearthing many sources of inspiration, and broadening the sphere of our knowledge on the history and latest endeavors of Russian theater. Walaszek doesn’t skimp on the praise in guiding the reader through the book – he admires both its contents and the process of the reading – and brings up the questions it raises.

Stories Full of History

A review of a book by Dariusz Kosiński: The Theatres of Poland. A History (PWN Academic Publishers, Theater Institute, Warsaw 2010). The innovation of this work, according to Kornaś, is in its broadening the current horizon – the book concerns all of Polish performance: from rituals, through social and political pieces, to theater and the performative aspects of the visual arts. Kornaś also stresses, however, that a shift in strategy in telling the history of the theater will make no fundamental difference in the way theater is made. In spite of his admiration for Kosiński’s work, the critic accuses the author of certain inaccuracies, exaggerations and inconsistencies in the analyses and descriptions of the various parts.

A Liver’s Throw

A review of a book entitled: The Liver. A Dictionary of Polish Theater after 1997, edited by Roman Pawłowski (Krytyka Polityczna Publishers, Warsaw 2010). The author lists many flaws of the publication. She criticizes, for example, the fact that the book was prepared five years ago, and published in 2010, making it already out of date. Moreover, the entries written by young theatrologists reveal, in her opinion, the authors’ lack of familiarity with the subject, superficiality, and an absence of reflection. Targoń also points out numerous editorial mistakes. In sum, she concludes that “the authors surely expected some heated debate on their (...) work. The Liver makes one less want debate, however, than simply irate.”

Two Times Grotowski

A review of two books on Jerzy Grotowski: Jerzy Grotowski: Sources, Inspirations, Contexts and Dariusz Kosiński’s: Grotowski. A Guide. The author begins the text by reflecting on the history of theater and historical facts, stating that the two publications she is dealing with reflect entirely different methods of approaching history, and different testimonies of knowledge of Grotowski’s work. Osiński, who accompanied Grotowski on his theatrical path, “tries to indicate what Grotowski had to say, moving from documents to descriptions of live creative contact.” Kosiński, who knows his work mainly from archival materials, “delivers a re-interpretive history; he poses questions in an unexpected and exploratory fashion, bringing theater into a new context.”