Agata Łuksza. There Will Be No Dialogue
Agata Łuksza describes the series of events that occurred after the premiere of The Curse directed by Oliver Frljić (Powszechny Theater in Warsaw, premiere: 18.02.2017). The author recaps all the sides who took part in the public debate on the play: the right-wing press, the theater community supporting the artists, and the creators of The Curse. She provides an interesting description of The Curse as a missed opportunity to open a public conversation about pedophilia among priests and the heads of the Catholic Church. Her thesis is that the diagnosis of Polish society that emerges from the stage of the Powszechny Theater in Warsaw and the debate around the play is: “There will be no dialogue in Poland.”
The Church Is in Us: Marcin Kościelniak in conversation with Joanna Wichowska
Marcin Kościelniak speaks with dramaturge Joanna Wichowska about The Curse directed by Oliver Frljić (Powszechny Theater in Warsaw, premiere: 18.02.2017). The interview centers on three main themes: the reception of the play and the controversial content it contains, the work on Stanisław Wyspiański’s drama, and the legal steps taken by the right-wing and Catholic communities against the performance. Kościelniak and Wichowska also raise the issue of whether the Catholic Church can be criticized in Poland, and in particular John Paul II, the consequences that will arise from the penalizing of the theater, and the institutional context of creating critical theater.
Inquiry: Iga Gańczarczyk, Marta Górnicka, Wiktor Rubin, Anna Smolar, Weronika Szczawińska, Katarzyna Szyngiera, Wojtek Ziemilski
The participants in this inquiry comment on Oliver Frljić’s The Curse, seeing it both as a theatrical production and a socio-political event. Most of them make reference to the performance’s critique of the Catholic Church, indicating the tension between reality and fiction in the play’s structure, analyzing the status of the actors, and investigating how Wyspiański’s text has been used. The participants also mention the play’s media reception, raising the subject of provocation, its role and the risks it brings, and discuss Frljić’s production in the context of current debates on freedom of artistic expression in Poland.
Marcin Kościelniak. Invincible: A Footnote to the History of Polish Critical Theater
Kościelniak puts Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Cleansed in the Christian/Romantic tradition of Polish theater, as a by-product of the project to create a “total act,” and then – enlisting the categories of beauty and repulsion – he juxtaposes Cleansed with works of Polish critical art and Jerzy Grotowski’s The Constant Prince with Viennese Actionism. This sets the stage for the author’s analysis of reviews of Cleansed, to verify his opinion of the critical potential of the play as one that “awoke the Polish theater, but also had a profound impact on many viewers.”
Dorota Semenowicz. Going beyond Forms: The Theater of Carmelo Bene
Dorota Semenowicz writes on the theater and films of Carmelo Bene (1937-2002). The critic analyzes his plays and their reception against a backdrop of the institutional, ideological, and aesthetic transformations in postwar Italian theater. She describes the various chapters of his work: the anarchic and rebellious theater as a space representing the beginnings of his work, the departure from theater in favor of cinema, the Shakespeare stagings, and the concert plays. The author focuses on his key concept of the “actor machine” – the body of the actor was reduced to a tool for producing sounds. She also describes his notion of phoné, which she defines as the “border between the visible and the audible.”
Carmelo Bene on the Theater
Carmelo Bene focuses on the theatrical function of the audiosphere – he analyzes the way sound is perceived (he notes that hearing is shaped in the fetal stage before sight) and indicates some of its potentials, and the tension that can be created between sound and image. He writes of the acting methods he created, declaring the monologue superior to the dialogue and outlining his philosophy of the voice. He also reflects on the place of theater in industrial society.
Gilles Deleuze. One Manifesto Less
Gilles Deleuze writes of the theater of Carmelo Bene, concentrating on the critical potential of his extraction of elements of Power from the content of plays and the forms of theater themselves – this strategy means that the essence of the performance is in constant flux. Bene’s theater is rooted in thoughts, life, and events, and thus is for the “minority” (as opposed to the “majority” theater subject to doctrine, culture, and History) – the aim ceases to be significant, what counts is forming the domain of an “environment,” a space of excess, occurring outside of historical time, at the crossroads of various times.
Roma Sendyka. The Dead Body, the Moved Body, the Acting Body
Roma Sendyka reviews Dorota Sajewska’s book Necroperformance: The Cultural Construct of the Theater of the Great War (Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute, Warsaw 2016). The reviewer that, as a cultural history book, Necroperformance contributes to discourses of the performative, anthropology, psychoanalysis, cultural criticism, and to the forensic turn in the Polish humanities. Sendyka stresses that Sajewska’s book, linked to the cultural representation of World War I, is an important tool for researching the contemporary visual field and reveals a source code of Polish culture, from a principle eclipsing the experience of the body.
Patrycja Cembrzyńska. A Monument to the Unknown AWOL Soldier: A Time of Memory
Patrycja Cembrzyńska begins her article with a fragment from Tadeusz Różewicz’s poem “Deserters,” which is her point of departure for examining the place of cowardly heroes in the national collective memory. The author presents a range of historical events involving the execution of deserters. Citing theories of other scholars, she encapsulates the many-year debate around placing executed soldiers among the victims of war. Cembrzyńska closes her article with a presentation of several monuments to deserters.
Małgorzata Leyko. Schlemmer: Comebacks
Małgorzata Leyko describes the contemporary reconstruction of Oskar Schlemmer’s works for stage. The critic draws an outline of Schlemmer’s work, and indicates the problems with recreating Triadic Ballet, such as the absence of a canonical version of the piece and dance/movement sequence notations. Leyko notes that, despite the various strategies for “restoring” various plays over the past few years (such as re-enactment, emulation, recreation, remix, remake, recycling), the term most often used for comeback performances in theater has, until recently, been “reconstruction.” The author explores the terminology of the word and compares it to the practical results.
Michał Kobiałka. The Valence of the Avant Garde: On Tadeusz Kantor’s Machine of Love and Death and the Dialectic of Space
The point of departure for examining The Machine of Love and Death, a cricotage by Tadeusz Kantor, is an inquiry into the legacy of the avant-garde tradition in critical and artistic practice. Michał Kobiałka states that the spatial dialectic in this cricotage, and thus the tension that disrupts stable temporality between the representation of space and space of representation, can be a tool for probing the valence of the avant garde, and is Kantor’s greatest contribution to its legacy. Kobiałka shows that in two stagings of The Death of Tintagiles by Maurice Maeterlinck (1938, 1987) Kantor filters the Symbolist drama through the tools of abstract art.
Mark Franko. Can You Live in Dance?
This text combines a record of the experiences of Mark Franko, who danced in the reconstruction of The Bauhaus Dances directed by Debry McCall and presented in New York in 1982 by Choreographic Research, and his reflections on the work of Oskar Schlemmer. The question “where does dance live?” leads to reflection on the opportunities reconstruction creates for dance forms, to examinations of the nature of the marionette in Schlemmer’s choreographies, and the relationships between the body, architecture, and the political space, and between time and space in dance. The author also writes of the experience of appearing on the Bauhaus stage in Dessau, describing the German audience’s reception of the play and his own experience of spending time in the building that was a reconstruction of Walter Gropius’ architectural design.
Katarzyna Fazan. Showing the Rhythm
Katarzyna Fazan describes the Kantor/Schlemmer exhibition at the Cricoteka Center for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor (04/10/2016 – 15/01/2017). The author begins by presenting the difficult space of the Cricoteka, then moves on to point out the skillful arrangement of the exhibits, the attempts made by the architects and curators to enliven the space of the institution. Fazan analyzes the rhythm of the exhibition and the rhythmic flow of the space in terms of Schlemmer’s work and explorations. The exhibition’s first task, however, was to demonstrate the less than obvious relationship between Tadeusz Kantor and Oskar Schlemmer, both the similarities and the differences. The author opines that “what links these artists over the generations that divide them is the desire to translate their own experiences into art, to reorganize aesthetics and restore artistic expression, drifting into regions of the abstract and the corporeal.”
Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska. THE P(a)RIS COMMUNE
Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska reviews The Paris Commune by the Polski Theater in Bydgoszcz (premiere: 14.01.2017). The author explains the ideas behind the people’s revolution in Paris in 1871. Drawing from the essay in the play’s program (mainly from Kristin Ross’ analyses), she outlines the Commune’s main postulates, then moves on to the subject and specifics of the concert play. Guderian-Czaplińska explains the actor ensemble’s collective work with Weronika Szczawińska (director), Agnieszka Jakimiak (dramaturge), Krzysztof Kaliski (music), and Daniel Malone (set design and costumes). The critic believes that the performance is a lost opprtunity to open a theatrical discussion on the ideas of the Commune.
Patryk Czaplicki, Louder Than That Trauma
Patryk Czaplicki reviews A Hymn to Love, a play by Marta Górnicka, staged at the Polski Theater in Poznań (premiere: 21.01.2017). The critic notes that the choral form of the play in the context of the theme of the Poles’ responsibility for the Holocaust is enormously effective. Górnicka also takes the Holocaust as a point of departure for addressing the upsurge in European nationalist movements and the migrant crisis. Czaplicki writes of the references to the Polish national discourse in the libretto, some of which are deeply rooted in soldiers’ songs.
Stanisław Godlewski. Nightmares of Participation and Nightmares of Passivity
Stanisław Godlewski reviews Come Together by Wojtek Ziemilski at the Studio Teatrgaleria (premiere: 24 II 2017). Calling attention to Ziemilski’s essay in the play’s program, the author analyzes Come Together in terms of the community, participation, and interaction. Godlewski considers the role of the viewer in Ziemilski’s project, as well as the traditional constructon of the performance, which, though not interactive, prompts reflections on the status of the viewer in the theater.
Zuzanna Berendt, Liberations: Of Whom? From What?
Zuzanna Berendt reviews two productions of Stanisław Wyspiański’s Liberation, directed by Radosław Rychcik (Juliusz Słowacki Theater in Krakow, premiere: 11.02.2017) and Krzysztof Garbaczewski (Studio Theater in Warsaw, premiere: 12.03.2017). The critic notes that the directors of both plays, which differ in terms of aesthetics, textual adaptation and staging concepts, make no effort to bring the content of the drama up to date. Berendt chiefly focuses on comparing the role of Konrad in either production, and reflects on the resonance of new readings of Liberation as a drama that deals wth the Polish Romantic tradition.
Justyna Wota. Keeping My Word
Justyna Wota describes the Wyspiański Liberates project (Słowacki Theater in Krakow, premiere: 12.11.2016), whose creators (including Alicja Patanowska, Bartosz Szydłowski, Jakub Roszkowski, Remigiusz Brzyk, Małgorzata Warsicka, and Paweł Świątek) transform various parts of the theater to create installations inspired by Wyspiański’s Liberation, broaching the subject of the function of art and declaring the necessity of nurturing its independence. The author perceives one of the first projects by the new theater directors in terms of manifesto and promises.
Katarzyna Niedurny. If Stalin Is Like the People, Should the People Be Like Stalin?
Katarzyna Niedurny writes on the youth theater production of Monument(Wrocław Puppet Theater, premiere: 30.10.2016) by Elżbieta Chowaniec and Jiří Havelka, based on Mariusz Szczygieł’s Proof of Love reportage. The play, which tells the story of the creation and destruction of Prague’s Stalin monument, gives viewers insight into Czechoslovakia’s postwar vicissitudes. Niedurny admires the play for how it describes the past through bittersweet and absurdist events.
Natalia Brajner. A Sentimental Journey through a Mute Island
Natalia Brajner reviews the play Whale: The Globe (Łaźnia Nowa Theater in Krakow, International Divine Comedy Theater Festival in Krakow, Stary Theater in Lublin, premiere: 19.12.2016) based on a text by Mateusz Pakuła, directed by Eva Rysova. Two Greenpeace workers’ efforts to save a beached whale prompts reflections on acting, illness, and aphasia, which has touched an actor in Whale…: Krzysztof Globisz. These subjects are cleverly transposed onto the situation of the actresses accompanying him, Marta Ledwoń and Zuzanna Skolias – Globisz’s former students – and the viewers who the artists claim are subjected to therapy during the performance. The critic is most interested in the strategy of blurring the boundary between fiction and reality, the actors’ roles and their private lives.
The Birth of Words: Marta Ledwoń and Zuzanna Skolias in conversation with Monika Kwaśniewska
Marta Ledwoń and Zuzanna Skolias, the actresses appearing with Krzysztof Globisz in Whale: The Globe (Łaźnia Nowa Theater in Krakow, International Divine Comedy Theater Festival in Krakow, Stary Theater in Lublin, premiere: 19.12.2016), speak of the process of the play’s creation. They address the private dimension of the script, which, joining aphasia with motherhood, is to some degree based on their conversations with Mateusz Pakuła. They also describe their work with Globisz and the changes that occurred in their relationship to their former professor, both on stage and in private.
Katarzyna Lemańska. In Search of a New Form
This article by Katarzyna Lemańska covers the Drama Festival organized as part of the ZONES OF CONTACT festival (Wrocław Współczesny Theater, 1-6.12.2016). The festival featured an overview of the most interesting stage adaptations of new Polish dramas from the past two seasons. Lemańska devotes a great deal of her article to the Romanian production of Everything’s All Right between Us, based on the play by Dorota Masłowska, directed by Radu Afrim (National Theater in Bucharest, premiere: 27.09.2015) and the performative reading of Weronika Murek’s Piece of Meat directed by Agata Dudę-Gracz, featuring actors from the Helena Modrzejewska Theater in Legnica.
Monika Wąsik. A Theater of Its Time
Monika Wąsik presents this year’s edition of the Szwalnia.DOK Festival (Łódź, 5.11–11.12.2016). The author describes several of the plays performed during the festival, explaining the nature and specifics of the project, which, she believes, cannot be strictly categorized. She points out that Szwalnia.DOK is meant to be a platform for presenting documentary theater in its broadest definition. She also notes that the actions performed during the festival bring about micro-communities, united through experiencing and feeling someone’s fate. The Szwalnia.DOK festival calls this “missionary theater,” which is focused on specific work with a given viewer.
Agnieszka Kallaus. The Underground: Grotowski’s Response
Agnieszka Kallaus writes of the performance The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky (Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, premiere: 25.08.2016). The author believes that in Richards’ performance Dostoevsky’s work (particularly fragments of The Brothers Karamazov) become a space of dialogue between the director and Grotowski’s thought. Richards faces off with his guru, gaining independence and signaling the start of a new, egalitarian phase of his work, which more resembles theater than ritual. Kallaus stresses Richards’ special status on the stage, she lists and analyzes the literary texts that are the basis for the script, and analyzes the performance in terms of Jung’s philosophy.
Tomasz Fryzeł. Lear Is Dying
Tomasz Fryzeł writes of the opera Lear byAribert Reimann, directed by Calixto Bieito (Opéra National de Paris, premiere: 23.05.2016). The author outlines the genesis of the 1970s work by the German composer and presents the structure of the libretto and its ties to Shakespeare’s drama. Fryzeł notes that the main theme of Bieito’s staging is the weakness and death of the body. The director highlights the physicality of Bo Skovhus, the singer performing the title role – his Lear is a middle-aged man whose athletic body is fruitlessly waging a desperate fight against its own physiology, family violence, and the forces of nature.
Marcin Bogucki. Goplana, or: The Conservative Turn at the Wielki Theater
Marcin Bogucki writes of the opera Goplana directed by Janusz Wiśniewski (Wielki Theater – National Opera in Warsaw, premiere: 21.10.2016). Bogucki takes a critical stance on Goplana, pointing out its dramaturgical shortcomings, the incompatible characterizations, the grotesque directorial style of Janusz Wiśniewski for Władysław Żeleński’s opera, and the work’s low musical quality. He sees the production as a symptom of the National Opera’s return to artistic conservatism.
Thomas Irmer. The End of the World at an Out-of-Service Bus Stop
Thomas Irmer outlines the specifics and the plot of the latest epic drama by Peter Handke, Die Unschuldigen, ich und die Unbekannte am Rand der Landstrasse. Ein Schauspiel in vier Jahreszeiten (Innocent, Myself and a Stranger at the Edge of an Outlying Road: A Play for the Four Seasons), to juxtapose the author’s intention with the world premiere of the play, directed by Claus Peymann (Berliner Ensemble in Berlin and Burgtheater in Vienna, premiere: 27.02.2016). The critic suggests that, despite the lucid construction, for many reasons the drama is a major challenge for the theater. He proves that many of Peymann’s tactics work against the staging.
Anna R. Burzyńska. Theater as a (No) Escape Room
Writing on the most recent edition of the International Sirenos Theater Festival in Vilnius (29.09 – 14.10.2016), the author focuses on three stagings: Code Name: Hamlet based on William Shakespeare, directed by Olga Lapina (State Russian Dramatic Theater in Vilnius), ?gle, The Snake Queen based on Elfriede Jelinek’s The Supplicants, directed by Oskaras Koršunovas (OKT/ Vilnius Municipal Theater), and Meile, Don’t Stop, directed byKarolina Jurkštait? and J?rat? Januškieviči?t? (Trup? 459 in Klaip?da). Burzyńska stresses the appearance of a new wave of directors in the Lithuanian theater, born at the cusp of the 1980s/90s, and considers the political reasons for the turn toward participative and immersive forms.
Katarzyna Tórz. Homeless Planets
Katarzyna Tórz outlines the details of this year’s edition of the Utopian Realities Festival, 100 Years of Now with Alexandra Kollontai, organized by Hebbel am Ufer on the hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution at Berlin’s Martin Gropius Bau. In this context, she analyzes the play Minor Planets by Vlatki Horvat, which, in her opinion, “says a great deal about the nature of a revolution, paradoxically, in spite of making no direct reference to HAU’s anniversary theme.” She describes the performers’ approach to the props, the viewers, and to themselves. She puts forward the thesis that the director is interested in “what might be transformed, becoming different from what it seems, what forces the subject to reconfigure himself with regard to others.”
Joanna Walaszek. Inspiring Traces
Joanna Walaszek writes about the book The Wooster Group Work Book by Andrew Quick, published by the Ha!art Corporation as part of their Theater Line. Walaszek outlines the reception of The Wooster Group’s work in Poland. She describes Andrew Quick’s method, which, mainly based on the archive, builds a narrative around the group’s selected plays without putting its work in a theoretical framework. She calls attention to the book’s interview technique, and is particularly impressed by Quick’s essay “Work Book,” which deals with the group’s work under Elizabeth LeCompte. Walaszek also notes the insufficient translations of Quick available in Polish. |