Joanna Walaszek. Andrzej Wajda. Director of theatrical events
Joanna Walaszek familiarises the reader with the stage work of Andrzej Wajda. Using the example of his adaptations of Dostoevsky's work, she shows his staging strategies. She proves that Wajda did not allow the audience to watch peacefully and passively – rather, he was trying to include them into the stage events. The author presents Wajda's strategies of cooperation with stage actors and claims that “one cannot overestimate Wajda's role in shaping and consolidating the ensemble of the Stary Teatr in Cracow, which, in the 1970s, became not only the best repertory theatre in Poland, but also an important phenomenon of social and cultural life”.
Bad Acting. Jan Sobolewski in conversation with Monika Kwaśniewska
In the interview, opening a series of conversations with young actors, Jan Sobolewski talks about his methods of work in the theatre, giving numerous examples of particular scenes and performances. He explains why he has an ironic attitude towards his education at the State Theatre School, he says what fascinates him in “bad acting” and explains the term “iPhone actors”. He compares the work in theatre institutions to that outside them and tells how the work and stage condition of the actor can be influenced by their cooperation with visual artists, choreographers, musicians and non-professional actors.
On the stage, you can do anything. Jaśmina Polak in conversation with Monika Kwaśniewska
Jaśmina Polak tells about her very diverse expereinces at the State Theatre School, especially those outside the curriculum. She declares she would like to conduct perfomance art classes at the Faculty of Acting, outlining the basic guidelines of the course. She also explains why the body, postinternet and YouTube are so important in her work. She analyses the functioning of actors within and outside of theatre institutions. She also explains why she likes to understudy, referring to numerous examples.
Agnieszka Wanicka. Kazimierz Kamiński – Pawlikowski's actor
Agnieszka Wanicka describes the cooperation between actor Kazimierz Kamiński and Tadeusz Pawlikowski, director and theatre manager. The author traces the similarities and differences between their biographies, both on the professional and the personal level. She points out the pioneering characters of their shared artistic activities. She examines it against the background of the art of acting in the second half of the 19th century and compares it to the actor-director “collevtives” functioning today. Using the example of the professional relationship between Kamiński and Pawlikowski, Wanicka describes the organisational and aesthetic transformations taking place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska. Artists and officials
Ewa Guderian writes about the television series Artyści, produced by the Polish Television and the National Audiovisual Institute (screenplay by Paweł Demirski, directed by Monika Strzępka). The author uses the context of Józef Szczublewski's book Artyści i urzędnicy, czyli szaleństwa Leona Schillera, which describes Schiller's struggles with the Warsaw city authorities during his tenure as the director of the Bogusławski Theatre. Guderian notes that the conflict between artists and officials, which forms the essence of the series' plot, is shown in a very conciliatory and secure way. The author criticises the creators of the series for not taking a stance on the situation of the Popular Theatre presented in the series and lack of ideological direction.
Agata Adamiecka-Sitek. Human machines and street meat – the cabaret as a factory of desire
Agata Adamiecka-Sitek writes about the subversiveness of the cabaret at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries within the context of violent socio-economic transformations. She describes the repertoire of Warsaw cabarets, focusing on the “conventions of femininity” deconstructed by the cabaret. Referring to Gabriela Zapolska's work and cabaret songs printed in the press, she presents a detailed analysis of strategies they use in order to show the truth about the dramatic situation of prostitutes. She describes the paradoxes inscribed into the cabaret, which, itself being a space of sexual oppression and exploitation, allows to create a “utopian current”, which makes it possible to build a critical and emancipatory presentation of the repressed areas of social life.
Dorota Sajewska. Factory as a crime scene. Reconstructions
The point of departure for Dorota Sajewska's article is the Lumière film Workers Leaving the Factory. Sajewska regards the 1905 revolution as an unprecedented example of unity between workers' theatre and the proletariat's practices of participation in public life. Sajewska refers to manifestations, demonstrations, as well as aestheticised mass spectacles as the workers' exploration of the street as an open performance space. She places reconstruction practices referring to the October Revolution within the same order. She confronts the idea of the factory as a modern thatre stage with Alain Badiou's sketch The Factory as Event Site. The accident as a rupture in the continuity of work in the factory and the disintegration of the capitalist machine of exploitation becomes the source scene of the revolution and, at the same time, a repressed traumatic event.
Sławomir Wieczorek. “Pafawag vs mind candy”. The Workers' Opera in Wrocław
The article presents the history of the forgotten amateur opera ensemble created in 1947 in Wrocław by Stanisław Drabik. Its members were workers from various Wrocław factories who, in December 1948, performed Stanisław Moniuszko's Flis at the local opera house. The article is based on various sources and gives a detailed reconstruction of the subsequent phases of the institution's activity: its creation, the rehearsals, the premiere and the disbanding of the ensemble. The text also attempts to distinguish the factors shaping the history of the ensemble, especially the intentions of its founder and the propaganda contexts, as well as the relationship between them.
Jussi Parikka. Architectures of Air: Media Ecologies of Smart Cities and Pollution
Jussi Parikka writes about the strategies of gathering and processing information on urban air pollution (he focuses predominantly on smog): apart from sensory perception, there are a number of mediatising methods of registering pollution (such as sensors linked to IT systems): the pollution appears not only as a chemical phenomenon, but also a powerful database with a great political, economic and social potential, used by activists, authorities and companies. The author also points out the visual, media aspect of pollution and calls for the creation of “ecological art history” which would provide tols allowing to describe a number of phenomena characteristic of the anthropocene.
Grzegorz Stępniak. „My Daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana”: queer witches, cruel racists, macabre tales and the myth of the backward American South
Grzegorz Stępniak attempts a queer reading of the South of the US. His analysis functions within the context of the notion metronormativity, coined by Judith “Jack” Halberstam, which refers to the construction of the identity of homosexual people through migrating from rural areas to cities, where they can come out. Stępniak regards rusticity as the basic category used to refer to the American South, determining standards of shaping queer identities that are far removed from urban standards. It is within this context that he analyses, among others, the video clip for Beyoncé's Formation, filmed in New Orleans, Patrick Johnson's book Sweet Tea. Black Gay Men of The South and the performance based on it, the third season of the series American Horror Story and Lee Daniels' The Paperboy.
Patrycja Cembrzyńska. The semper fi and their prostheses
Patrycja Cembrzyńska claims that the merging of the body and metal armour rooted in the image of the indestructible soldier finds its continuation in the image of the war veteran with metal prostheses. The author analyses the cultural presence of prosthesis wearers on the basis of, among others, Otto Dix's paintings, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's accounts or Ernst Friedrich's anti-war initiatives. She juxtaposes Michael Stokes' nudes of the veterans of the war in Afghanistan, organised by military rhetorics, with Bryan Adams' works from the album Wounded. The Legacy of War, showing mutilation in a blunt way. Cembrzyńska also writes about Krzysztof Wodiczko's projects, which give voice to veterans talking about the experience and trauma of war, as well as the life after returning from the front.
Zuzanna Berendt. Nothing to be done?
In her review of Waiting for Godot directed by Michał Borczuch (Teatr im. Stefana Jaracza w Łodzi, prem.: 15 Oct 2016) Zuzanna Berendt focuses on the strategies used in the staging of Samuel Beckett's classic text. The author describes Dorota Nawrot's stage design and costumes. She also traces the operations performed on the text, such as mediatisation through offstage voice, migration of roles between the characters or dubbing. She emphasises the fact that in staging Waiting for Godot,Borczuch problematises the position of the director vis a vis the classic drama and searches for the boundaries of his own freedom in working on it, and he establishes contact with the play precisely by struggling against the text.
Maryla Zielińska. Handiwork
Maryla Zielińska reviews Wojtek Ziemilski's preformance Jeden Gest (Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury Nowy Teatr w Warszawie, prem.: 24 Sep 2016). The author presents the main subject of the performance – the question of the relationship between the worlds of the deaf and the hearing. Thanks to a vivid description, the reader learns about the course of the performance – the appearance of the scenes and the language used by the characters. Referring to one of the scenes in which the characters present body language according to a sign language manual, the author claims that the sequences of manual signs are similar to the illustrations in Wojciech Bogusławski's Mimika, and the expression is similar to Japanese comics and films.
Piotr Dobrowolski. Don't go out without an umbrella
Piotr Dobrowolski writes about the performance Żony stanu, dziwki rewolucji, a może i uczone białogłowy, based on a text by Jolanta Janiczak and directed by Wiktor Rubin (prem: 29 Oct 2016). The author notes that the performance rebels against both the present socio-political situation and the conventions of political theatre, unable to bring about real changes. Dobrowolski analyses the performance, based on the biography of Théroigne de Méricourt, a participant of the French Revolution, within the context of the present debate on women's rights in Poland. He notes that the show, which uses various strategies and stimulates the audience, refers to the tradition of the avant-garde.
Jan Karow. See nothing, hear nothing
Jan Karow writes about Wojtek Blecharz's Soundwork (TR Warszawa, prem.: 15 Oct 2016). The author presents the field of the musician's interests and his most recent projects. He rates Soundwork as an enterprise with a great, but unfulfilled theatrical and musical potential, as well as rough dramaturgy. Karow describes the structure of the musical performance and the space of TR Warszawa, rearranged to suit its needs. The author introduces pieces important for the history of modern music (as well as their renditions) used in the performance, at the same time noting that Blecharz's work lacks the radical character of the experiments to which he refers.
Katarzyna Lemańska. The human beings entangled in their own works
Katarzyna Lemańska writes about Paweł Miśkiewicz's performance Nauka chodzenia, based on Tadeusz Różewicz's texts (Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny, prem.: 7 Oct 2016). Lemańska skilfully points out the poet's texts used in the script, but she wondres whether Miśkiewicz's performance will not prove difficult to viewers who are not familiar with Różewicz's work. She claims that the multiplicity of subjects, digressions and styles taken from Różewicz's texts which are reflected in Miśkiewicz's onstage world forms a singular whole - “a tale of the life of a writer, thinker, son, brother, man afflicted by the war; a life, also private, which Różewicz shared with others only in fragments”.
Natalia Brajner. Tasting the community
Natalia Brajner writes about Thomas Richards' The living room – opus (this is what its creators call it, avoiding the word “performance”), which consists of folk songs from different continents. It was shown in June 2016 in Wrocław. The author notes that the main subject of the event is the cycle of human life (the artists develop the motifs of, among others, birth, travel and death). Brajner emphasises the fact that Richards' work leaves a lot of freedom to the viewers. She moves on to an analysis of the possible ways of experiencing the event on part of the audience, stressing the primacy of emotion and intuition over intellect.
Paweł Schreiber. Europes
An account of the Festival of New Dramaturgies in Bydgoszcz (24 Sep-1 Oct 2016). Paweł Schreiber writes that it was Europe, a construct falling apart before our very eyes, was the most important point of reference for the performances presented at the festival. He analyses, among others, Oliver Frljić's Our Violence, Your Violence, pointing out the all too simple juxtaposition of abstract visions of the East and the West. The author finds a very different model of dealing with the same subject in the documentary performance Case Farmakonisi or the Right of Water by Anestis Azas and Empire by Milo Rau, which he considers to be the best performance of the festival. He also writes about Late Night by Blitz Theatre Group and Europeana from Divadlo na Zábradli.
Joanna Braun. Puppet trouble
Joanna Braun describes the performances shown during the 11th International Festival of Puppet Theatre and Animated Films for Adults “Puppet is a Human Too” (9-16 Oct 2016). The author divides them into three groups, skilfully characterising each one and showing the differences between them. The first contains performance with folk origins, in which the most important aspects are the puppet and the search for contact with the audience. The second consists of performances communicating with the audiences by means of the new media. Here the most important element is the visual form, in which it is the actors, and not puppets, who are animated. In the third group Braun places “seven performances independent of any formal , temporal or ideological trends, each searching for its own form used to tell its own story”.
Jolanta Łada-Zielke. The mystery of blood and water
Jolanta Łada-Zielke's review of Richard Wagner's Parsifal directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg (prem.: 25 Jul 2016) begins with a reference to the anxiety linked terrorist attacks in Europe (three of them in Bavaria), accompanying this year's Bayreuth Festival. The author focuses on Laufenberg's interpretation – his deviations from Wagner's opera, the shifting of the place of action from mediaeval Europe to the Middle East and the addition of the subject of refugees. Łada-Zielke claims that in Laufenberg's staging of Wagner “compassion as a form of empathy and ability to adopt the viewpoint of a suffering human being comes to the fore”.
Katarzyna Lemańska. I prefer to remember things my way
Reviewing the premier of the opera Lost Highway, directed by Natalia Korczakowska, the author points out Olga Neuwirth's music, which, when performed by the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra adds a new quality to the plot known from David Lynch's film. According to Lemanska, the musical score organises the vocal and physical actions of the performance, which is a particular challenge for the dramatic actors featured in the performance. The author characterises the existential and psychological aspects of the functioning of the characters, finding similarities and differences between the opera performance and Lynch's film. An analysis of visual means of expression allows Lemańska to see the project within the context of the program of the New Horizons festival, one of whose aims is to cross the boundaries between cinema and other arts.
Agnieszka Sosnowska. Flashpoints
Agnieszka Sosnowska writes about ImPulsTanz – an international dance festival taking place in Vienna (14 Jul-14 Aug 2016). The festival features performances as well as workshops for dancers and choreographers. The author mentions, among others, performances by the Bulgarian choreographer and performer Ivo Dimchev, who, in his Operville, presented in Vienna, clashes the traditional form of the opera with contemporary performance. Sosnowska is critical towards the performative exhibition at the Leopold Museum, attempting to thematise the relationship between dance and visual arts. On the other hand, she appreciates the performance Critical Joy created within the space of Mumok Museum. The production, created in three days, was the result of cooperation between the electro music star Peaches and the Canadian performer Keith Hennessy, but it also involved about twenty young performers, dancers and drag queens.
Julia Hoczyk. Fluid reality in dance
Julia Hoczyk gives an account of the 15th International Body/Mind Festival in Warsaw (30 Sep – 8 Oct 2016). The author descries, among others, Sideways Rain choreographed by Guilherme Botelho, Audycja V by Kaja Kołodziejczyk, The ox – Pictures of Nothing by Csaba Molnar. She pays particular attention to the performance Bataille and the Dawn of New Days by Sławek Krawczyński and Anna Godowska – she analyses it within the context of the philosophy of Georges Bataille, who inspired it. The author observes the festival events from the perspective of their common themes of fluidity and transience.
Teresa Fazan. An image too far
Teresa Fazan reviews the dance performance Made in Bangladesh, directed by the German choreographer and stage designer Helena Waldmann (shown at the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw: 17 Jul 2016). The author notes that the performance was inspired by the exploitation of workers in late capitalism. Fazan describes the contents, choreography and kinds of dance used in Made in Bangladesh. She skilfully shows that identifying the work of a dancer with that of a worker is too hasty. However, she claims that the language of dance is suitable for political statements and works well as a means of telling the tale of physical, rhythmical work in a factory.
Jakub Kłeczek. Dance in the time of hybridity. The media performance of Anarchy Dance Theater
Jakub Kłeczek writes about Second Body, a performance by the Taiwanese group Anarchy Dance Theater, whose work combines dance and cutting-edge technology, such as motion controllers and generative graphics software. The multimedia dance performance was divided into three parts. The first one was dominated by sound, the second one – by the movement of a dancer in a spotlight, and the third combined movement with live mapping. Kłeczek stresses the fact that, according to the creative philosophy of the Taiwanese group, choreography consists not only in planned movement in space, but also in using computer systems. The reflection on the performance is supplemented by the question of hybrid forms of the human body augmented by media.
Estera Żeromska. To experience the improbable: shards of life in Japanese theatre after the tsunami
Estera Żeromska introduces Japanese drama and theatre created after the tsunami which struck the T?hoku region on March 11, 2011. The author presents the dilemmas facing the theatre community – the search of ways of supporting the victims of the tragedy, resulting from the theatre's need to function after the natural disaster. She describes two genres of theatre created as a result of the tsunami: the work of direct witnesses and the work of those who know the events of March 11, 2011 only from other people's accounts.
Katarzyna Tórz. Rehearsal or reality?
Katarzyna Tórz reflects on this year's Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, 6-28 May 2016). The author looks at the festival in the context of the refugee crisis and the recent terrorist attacks taking place in the Belgian capital. Tórz analyses the performance Five Easy Pieces about Marc Dutroux – murderer, rapist and child kidnapper, which Milo Rau directed with the participation of children. The author notes that the performance poses questions concerning the violence of theatre without exploiting the defencelessness of the performers. In the second part of the text, she describes Alessandro Sciarrone's Aurora, which features blind and visually impaired performers playing goalball.
Anna R. Burzyńska. Inter faeces et urinam nascimur
Anna R. Burzyńska reviews The Republic of Slovenia, a performance created at Slovensko mladinsko gledališče in Ljubljana (prem.: 20 Apr 2016). The politically bold production is an anonymous work, because, as its creators claim, the Republic of Slovenia itself (no italics or quotation marks here) is a huge performance produced 25 years ago with the money of the taxpayers, a performance which is still running and which features all citizens of the country. The tripartite production uses means characteristic of documentary and verbatim theatre to pose questions about the criteria of the truth and political ethics.
Jacek Kudera. „I'm one of ours, my lord”
Jacek Kudera writes about Teferič (prem: 7 Mar 2016), directed by Aleš Kurt and based on the text by Derviš Sušic. The author summarises the plot of the satire telling the story of a Balkan village occupied by a series of different invaders and describes its social and historical context. He pays special attention to the elements of the performance which are rooted in Balkan tradition. He points out that the performance praises rural independence and solidarity.
Łukasz Grabuś. A musical update
Łukasz Grabuś reviews the anthology of Heiner Goebbels' texts Przeciw Gesamtkunstwerk prepared by Lukáša Jiřičkę (Korporacja Ha!art, Cracow 2015) and the book Rewolucja cyfrowa w muzyce. Filozofia muzyki by Harry Lehmana (Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, Cracow 2016). He introduces the context of the work of both authors and describes the earlier reception of their ideas (Lehmann) and works (Goebbels). Grabuś criticises the lack of scholarly commentary in the anthology of Goebbels' texts, written in different forms over the period of many years. He points out the breakthrough potential of Lehmann's book – the philosopher proclaims the end of “absolute music” and predicts the birth of “relational music”, resulting from the digital revolution |