Iwona Kurz. Between baptism and self-immolation. „Polish theatres” of the second half of the sixties.
The point of departure for Iwona Kurz's article is Ryszard Siwiec's act of self-immolation at the 10th-Anniversary Stadium during the state celbrations of the harvest festival. The author analyses the possible reasons for which Siwiec's deed, even though it definitely took place in front of many people gathered at the Stadium, was neither noticed nor remebered. Kurz describes the forms of communal manifestations offered both by the government and the Catholic church, showing that Siwiec's disconcerting act does not fit within their frameworks.
Grzegorz Niziołek. Landscape after the disgust. The fate of a metaphor
Grzegorz Niziołek argues that the events of 1968 undermined the communal legitimisation of Polish theatre. He analyses the modifications undergone by the metaphor of the nation as lava, taken from part III of Adam Mickiewicz's Forefather's Eve, and the way in which the Warsaw Salon scene formatted the narrative of 1968. He looks at examples taken from, among others, the work of Czesław Miłosz and Melchior Wańkowicz. He juxtaposes the metaphor he focuses on against conceptualisations of the category of disgust.
Małgorzata Dziewulska. Tears of things. What we know about the music in Dejmek's Forefather's Eve
On the basis of conversations and surviving documents, Małgorzata Dziewulska meticulously reconstructs information about the music in Forefather's Eve directed by Kazimierz Dejmek. The author shows the links between the musical structure of the performance and the opera, examining the affective results of this relationship. She also points out the musical instruments used in the creative process and the kinds of religious songs included in the performance.
Agata Adamiecka-Sitek. The story of sin. The Undivine Comedy, Jews and aesthetic experience
Agata Adamiecka-Sitek critically reflects on the cancellation of the premiere of Nie-boska komedia. Szczątki (The Undivine Comedy. Remnants) directed by Oliver Frjić in Cracow's Stary Teatr in November 2013. The performance, cancelled in an aura of scandal, was meant to be a contemporary reply to The Undivine Comedy directed by Konrad Swinarski in 1965. The author reconstructs Swinarski's performance and recalls its earliest reception, visible mostly in the reviews, and goes on to attempt an analysis of the assumptions of the Croatian director working on a performance based on Zygmunt Krasiński's play. In her article, Adamiecka-Sitek focuses predominantly on the question of anti-Semitism, discussed both in the 1965 performance and the ultimately unrealised project by Frljić.
Marta Bryś. Lack and overpresence – the image of the Polish experience of March '68 in Andrzej Wajda's films Everything for Sale and Layer Cake
Marta Bryś analyses two films by Andrzej Wajda, both created in 1968: Everything for Sale and Layer Cake. According to the author, both productions are comments on the contemporary experiences of Polish society. Giving a detailed account of selected scenes and devices, Bryś points out that even though the films are very different, they contain traces of the dissolution of social bonds resulting from the mass emigration of Jews and the consequences of the government's usage of anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Monika Kwaśniewska. ...and Others. Homoeroticism and sentimentalism as figures of civil disobedience in Andrzej Wajda's Pilate and Others
Monika Kwaśniewska aims to show the particular status of homoerotic subjects in Andrzej Wajda's films created from 1968 until the late seventies. Referring to the theories of Samuel Weber and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, she analyses the homosexual motifs present in Pilate and Others, made in West Germany. Then, recalling the functioning of the figure of Jesus in counterculture and Wajda's unrealised project of filming Grotowski's Apocalypsis cum figuris, she argues that homosexualism and the accompanying sentimentalism acted as a figure of civil disobedience in Wajda's films of that time.
Katarzyna Tórz. Art that interrupts sleep. The order and ruins of the world in the theatre of Forced Entertainment.
Katarzyna Tórz's article opens a block of texts devoted to the group Forced Entertainment. The author presents the history of the British ensemble which has functioned with the same members for over thirty years. She also describes selected performances (i.a. 12 am. Awake and Looking Down, Quizoola!, Broadcast & Looping Piece, The Notebook), focusing on the trademark signs of the collective's originality. She points out that the actions of the group can be characterised by a feeling of distance and mistrust towards theatricality, which becomes revealed and thematised in the performances.
The uncertainty machine? Katarzyna Tórz interviews Tim Etchells
In his conversation with Katarzna Tórz, Tim Etchells tells about the assumptions behind the work of Forced Entertainment. He explains why he is interested in a theatre allowing failure and lack of control over all elements of the performance. He talks about various deconstructive strategies used in his performances. Finally, he points out the tension between theatricality and banal everyday presence, which the group has been interested in since the beginnings of its work.
Tim Etchells. An island, a prison cell, a hotel bed, no man's land. A few thoughts on Quizoola! 24
In his essay, Tim Etchells, the artistic director of Forced Entertainment, shares his thoughts about the performance Quizoola!. This durational, completely improvised event consisting in the performers incessantly asking questions and formulating answers, leads its participans and viewers into a kind of trance. Tim Etchells tells about the birth of the idea for the performance, its meaning and the problem it describes, which touch upon the subjects of presents, individual and collective experience, the truth and the materiality of time.
Annemarie Matzke. Performing games. How to be cast as a Forced Entertainment performer – seven hypotheses
The text is a collection of thoughts about the functioning of Forced Entertainment. The performances created by these artists are sets of mainly improvised dialogues and monologues based on a pre-planned scheme. Their creators play with the forms of interview or confession. In projects lasting many hours, such as Emmanuelle Enchanted, Speak Bitterness and Quizoola! it is important to get and retain the attention of the viewer. Such form of the performances reveals the problems connected with the questions asked by the artists, concerning identity and the strategies of performing one's image in front of others.
Mateusz Szymanówka. Moving in the margins
Mateusz Szymanówka writes about the Polish Dance Platform in Lublin (7-9 Nov 2014) as a showcase of dance, aimed to draw the attention not only of foreign curators and journalists, but also that of the Polish press, artistic and academic milieu, as well as the authorities. The first edition organised by the Institute of Music and Dance (before that the event was organised by Stary Browar), provoked the author to pose a number of objections concerning the formula, logistics and efficiency of the dance festival. The reflection on the diversity of the program is accompanied by the conclusion stating the lack of a distinct curatorial vision and any creative debate concerning both the formula of the festival and the condition of the Polish dance. „So far the PDP […] has been a relatively typical hybrid of a dance festival and a trade show, entirely focused on the product”, Szymanówka concludes. The criticism is accompanied by a number of proposals and an introductory project of the possible strategies of implementing them.
Małgorzata Sugiera. Theatre of the Enlightenment as a laboratory of a new reality
Małgorzata Sugiera introduces the reader to the eighteenth-century lineage of the idea of theatre as a laboratory. The author juxtaposes the views of, for example, Bertolt Brecht with those of Denis Diderot, especially those present in The Paradox of Acting and Conversations on The Natural Son. She notices that the links between science and theatre have always been very strong and based on mutual benefit. Referring to Joseph Jacotot's theory of education (known mainly thanks to Jacques Rancière’s book), the author emphasises that the aims of science and theatre in the Enlightenment were in fact the same.
Katarzyna Osińska. From the creative act to action – the history of performance in Russia
The point of departure and the core of the article is the exhibition Performance in Russia: cartography of history 1910-2010, opened in Moscow Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. Commenting on the exhibition (curated by Julia Axyonova and Sasha Obukhova) and the events preceding it (i.a. the publication of a Russian translation of Rose Lee Goldberg's Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present) or accompanying it, Osińska is trying to familiarise the reader with the rich history of the broadly understood performance in 20th-century Russian culture. She gives a detailed description of the most important projects, the achievements of the Russian futurists, Nikolai Evreinov (according to the author – the precursor of Russian performannce studies), the creators of soc-art, conceptualists, neo-actionists and many others.
Dorota Jarecka. Triple Metre
Dorota Jarecka describes selected elements of the curatorial project „The avant-garde and social realism”, devoting most of her attention to the montage Sztuka jest największą radością, jaką człowiek daje samemu sobie (Art is the greatest joy human beings give to themselves) by Joanna Krakowska, Michał Kmiecik and Michał Januszaniec (Teatr Nowy, Łódź, 15-16 Nov 2014). Jarecka thinks that in the reflection on social realism one should use tools created by the study of affects. The author also shows points in which the work of the artists participating in the whole project undermined its assumptions. She emphasises that the views of the artists on the pair „avant-garde – social realism” were nuanced and entangled both notions into a dialectical, multidimensional relationship.
Patrycja Cembrzyńska. A living ornament – the absent community (reconfiguration)
The text is an analysis of the use of photographs in political propaganda. Most of the examples discussed by the author come from totalitarian countries such as the USSR or North Korea. However, Cembrzyńska also describes photographs made in the USA. Referring to the theories of, among others, Siegfried Kracauer, she analyses photographs of leaders surrounded by crowds, athletes and the army (e.g. The Red Army by Rodchenko and Styepanova).She also reflects on collages of different photographs making images such as the faces of John Paul II or Abraham Lincoln.
Olga Katafiasz. Playing in the abyss
Olga Katafiasz reviews The Tempest (prem: 7 Feb 2015), based on William Shakespeare's play and directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski at Polski Theatre in Wrocław. Thoroughly examining the world created in the performance, the author focuse above all on the interpretation of the female characters and their relationships. According to her, the most interesting roles are those performed by Ewa Skibińska (Prospera) and Małgorzata Gorol (Miranda). Moving to the subject of the metatheatricality and – above all – intertextuality characteristic of Garbaczewski's work, Katafiasz finds no answer to the question concerning the purpose of the incessant and spectacular games played with Shakespeare, the idea of The Tempest and the expectations of the viewer.
Katarzyna Lemańska. The invisible radio
Katarzyna Lemańska reviews Niewidzialny chłopiec (The Invisible Boy), directed by Weronika Szczawińska (Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny, prem.: 14 Feb 2015). The author points out the correlation between the assumptions of the adapted text (written by Tymoteusz Karpowicz) and the stage devices proposed by the director. Lemańska gives a detailed account of the characters' actions and the structure of the sound design of the performance, and points out that it is the analysis of the process of communication that becomes the main subject of the performance. She also notices that the feeling of coldness and reserve present in the show is only apparent, and the most crucial part of watching the performance is to filter its contents through the private associations and imagination of the viewer.
Piotr Dobrowolski. Among others
Szymon Kaczmarek has directed a performance based on Zofia Nałkowska's novel The Frontier at the Polish Theatre in Poznań (prem. 14 Dec 2014). Piotr Dobrowolski focuses mostly on the very good acting, which, despite excessive psychological realism, suitably represents the subject matter of the work. Although Dobrowolski points out the proliferation of themes and insufficient modification of the dialogues and monologues of the characters, he has a positive opinion of the performance.
Pola Sobaś-Mikołajczyk. And yet it's a Medea of the Youtube era
Pola Sobaś-Mikołajczyk reviews Aalst (Turkish premiere: 20 Oct 2014, Polish premiere: 17 Jan 2015), the result of cooperation between Salon iKSV in Istanbul and Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw, in celebration the 600th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between Poland and Turkey. The plot of the show, directed by Radosław Rychcik on the basis of a play based on fact, focuses on an interrogation of a pair of child-killers. To a Polish viewer, the plot and the way it is presented may bring associations with the case of „the mother of little Madzia from Sosnowiec”. However, the author emphasises the links between the performance and the Medea myth and Krystian Lupa's Persona. The Body of Simone.
Agata Chałupnik. Fredro. Nobody knows him
Agata Chałupnik reviews the cycle of readings Fredro. Nobody knows me, organised this season by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. The cycle, like the preceding conference Nobody knows me, or the non-canon Fredro (Dec 2013), inspired to reach for the less popular texts of the author of Maiden's Vows, and, above all, to look for new interpretations of the forgotten pieces. Chałupnik describes and analyses four projects realised so far: Wychowanka (The Charge)by Michał Zadara, Piczomira (Queen Cuntilina) by Michał Kmiecik, Dożywocie (Life Sentence)by Ewelina Marciniak and Brytan-Bryś (Bryś the Brittany)by Paweł Passini.
Katarzyna Lemańska. A slightly absurd lesson of morality
Diabełek Pawełek (The Good Little Devil) directed by Mikołaj Mikołajczyk and based on Pierre Gripari's tale adapted by Marcin Cecko is a performance for children (Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz, prem.: 6 Dec 2014). The eponymous character, as a result of his hard work on self-improvement, nonconformism and exceptionally moral behaviour, transfers to the Heavens and changes his status to become an angel. The imperfections of the plot and the disrupted linearity of the performance are balanced by the beautiful visuals and the social meanings of the tale, in which tolerance towards differences (also religious ones) and assertiveness in the face of evil become the main priorities.
Karolina Leszczyńska. A recipe for instant war
A review of War and Peace, staged at Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw (prem: 13 Dec 2014). The first part of the performance is based on the plot of Leo Tolstoy's novel which provided Marcin Liber's performance with its title. The second part has been written by Paweł Sztarbowski. The reviewer appreciates the visual aspect of the performance – especially its first part. However, she thinks it does not correlate with the asethetics of the acting. Leszczyńska also claims that the show, filled with allusions to contemporary politics and particular Russian politicians, overly simplifies the depth of its literary model.
Katarzyna Niedurny. Pakuła's transformed memory
Katarzyna Niedurny analyses the performance Lordy. Lord Kantor/Lord Milord/Lord Herling (Lords. Lord Kantor/Lord Milord/Lord Herling, prem.: 7 Mar 2015), directed by Eva Rysova and Mateusz Pakuła at the Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce. As their point of departure, they used memoirs concerning Tadeusz Kantor, Miron Białoszewski and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński - „artists dealing with the problem of memory”. The performance is divided into three parts – each of them devoted to a different artist, and each using a different poetics. The author notices the advantages of Rysova and Pakuła's project, but she also thinks that the show relies too much on spectacular effects and becomes chaotic.
Natalia Brajner. Słowacki. Remix
The author reviews Balladyna. Kwiaty ciebie nie obronią (Balladyna. Flowers Will Not Defend You)(prem.: 27 Feb 2015) performed at Teatr Dramatyczny in Wałbrzych, as part of the Contest for Stagings of Classic Polish Literature „Klasyka Żywa” („The Living Classics”). The performance, directed by Wojciech Faruga, is a collage of five plays by Juliusz Słowacki: Balladyna, Beatrix Cenci, Mindowe, The Constant Prince and Mary Stuart. In their adaptation, Faruga and Dorota Kowalkowska have focused on the leitmotifs of Słowacki's work, making them the organising principle of the show. Manipulating the texts, they have shown a completely different face of the eponymous protagonist, at the same time starting their own polemic with the traditional reception of Słowacki's plays.
Rafał Kołsut. „And you will see I am the lord”
Rafał Kołsut reviews the „political theatre series”, a cooperation between the Imka Theatre in Warsaw and the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Cracow. - Klątwa. Odcinki czasu beznadziei (The Curse – Episodes from a Time of Hopelessness). Paweł Demirski (author of the text) and Monika Strzępka (director) have created three out of the planned four episodes: Don't mess with Jesus, Religion class and Sabat dobrego domu (Coven of a respectable home). According to the reviewer, all the valuable fragments of the project could fit into one performance. Kołsut claims that the idea of a theatre series proved to be a failure due to an excess of badly developed themes. Despite numerous good roles, the image of a postapocalyptic world in which the boundaries between good and evil become blurred, and people attempt to restore order by returning to the past, reaches only the level of a glitzy comedy show.
Friederike Felbeck. The ugly mother
A review of Rats, directed by Volker Lösch (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, prem.: 29 Nov 2014). For the director, the 1911 naturalist play by Gerhart Hauptmann became a point of departure for very contemporary questions concerning the social status of the mother. Apart from the professional acting team, the show features also a choir of sixteen single mothers, telling about their social exclusion. Hauptmann's text has been combined with the political demands of the mothers. Although Falbeck is sceptical in regard to the artistic merits of the staging, she appreciates its real-world social influence, as several of the choir members have found employment in subsequent Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus performances.
Klaudia Laś. Wojna kompleksowa
In Kaputt, staged at the Berlin Volksbühne (prem. 8 Nov 2014) Frank Castorf examines the life of the Nazi elite in the thirties of the twentieth century and during the Second World War. Inspired by Curzio Malaparte's book, the director arranged a strange meeting of the members of that time's political elite. However, Klaudia Laś notes that despite the grotesque, scathing aesthetics characteristic of Castorf's work, the critical potential of the subject matter has not been fully exposed.
Thomas Irmer. To wake up from the nightmares
Reviewing Metamorphosis, directed by Andriy Zholdak (Theater Oberhausen, prem.: 24 Oct 2014) Thomas Irmer also attempts to characterise the aesthetics of the Ukrainian artist's work. He examines the beginnings of his career in Moscow and the Ukraine, and recalls his first premiere at the Berlin Volksbühne. After ten years, already as a well-known European director, Zholdak has returned to the German stage with a far from obvious, surprising interpretation of Franz Kafka's short story, which, according to Irmer, is a big stage success.
Karolina Wycisk. The Judy Garland Show
Karolina Wycisk reviews An Evening with Judy,a performance by the German choreographer and dancer, Raimund Hoghe. The last part of a trilogy devoted to tragic figures of singers has been presented to the Polish audience at Cricoteka (Cracow) and Stary Browar (Poznań). The Judy from the title is of course the American film and stage star – Judy Garland. The author recalls the turbulent life of the protagonist and reflects on how Garland's biography was used by Hoghe.
Joanna Braun. Spirit wrestling with matter
In her account of the 3rd International Festival of the Form Theatre Materia Prima (Cracow, 21-28 Feb 2015), Joanna Braun analyses Anna Peschke's performance Elsa's Garden and the performances Pandora Frequency by the duo Anjte Töpfer & Florian Feisel, Membrane by Yaniv Shenteser & Meirav Ben David, Plan B by Aurélien Bory and Phil Soltanoff, and Here and Now by Compagnie L`Immédiat. According to the autor, each of the projects has a different way of dealing with the theme of looking for one's place in the „Materia Mundi”. She claims that all performances presented during the festival succeeded in appealing directly to the senses of the viewers, forcing them to rethink the limits of their intuition and sensitivity, and examine their fears and dreams connected with the untamed fabric of the world.
Maria Kobielska. Above all – history
According to Maria Kobielska, Soc, sex i historia by Krystyna Duniec and Joanna Krakowska (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2014) is „a book engaged with the present”. The reviewer meticulously reconstructs the intentions of the authors. Therefore, the subject of the book is „the present state of Polish culture seen through the three eponymous categories, i.e. how it expresses the social, the sexual and all that which is linked to the attitude towards the past”. Although Kobielska signals a certain feeling of disappointment which accompanied the reading, she also claims that it results from the great promise of the original intention behind the book.
Diana Poskuta-Włodek. The Wierciński family – a document of a life with theatre in the background
Diana Poskuta-Włodek reviews a two-volume letter collection of the Wierciński family, edited by Marek Piekut (Maria i Edmund Wiercińscy. Korespondencja, Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, Warszawa 2013). The monumental publication is a collection of letters and memoirs from 1925-1957. According to the reviewer, the most interesting and valuable fragments from the perspective of theatre history are the accounts of Reduta's tour around Poland. However, Poskuta-Włodek notices that theatre occupies little place in the books, and therefore she considers it first and foremost a document of life in three different periods – the pre-war years, the time of the occupation and the years right after the war – with theatre placed in the background. |