Joanna Tokarska-Bakir: Such a Beautiful Catastrophe. Dariusz Kosiński’s book Teatra polskie. Rok katastrofy [Polish Theatres. The Year of Catastrophe]
A critical response to Dariusz Kosiński’s offering, which is modelled on the method Jon McKenzie employed to analyse the space shuttle Challenger catastrophe and sets out to define the Smolensk air crash in 2010, in which the President of Poland died, in terms of a performance. Despite devoting space to the splendidly chosen photographs, which play a key role in this publication, the author, in her thorough and systematic review of Kosiński’s book, which alludes to various performance theories, fiercely criticises what she regards as a superficial analysis not supported by any dependable source material and also the author’s conservative mode of thought and logical errors.
Zbigniew Majchrowski: Cabaret? Warszaw?
A review of the Warsaw Cabaret production at the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw (prem: 3.07.2013). The author focuses on the perverse nature of this play. Warlikowski draws attention to the complicated relationship between contemporary Warsaw and Berlin at a time when fascism was growing in strength and Post-9/11 New York. Majchrowski, with extraordinary erudition and scholarly conviction, examines element after element of an extensive mosaic of allusions to music and pop culture. Although she takes pleasure in delving into this intertextual game and really appreciates the acting, she regards the five-hour-long production’s profligate use of theatrical energy and resources as excessive and tiresome.
Grzegorz Stępniak: Queering Utopia?: Mx Justin Vivian Bond as Prophet of a Non-normative Paradise
A text devoted to queer (fe)male artist Mx Justin Vivian Bond, who became one of the characters that inspired Warsaw Cabaret. The author describes Bond's life by evoking his/her autobiography, in which the complicated identity processes arising from living “between” genders are explained. Stępniak describes Mx Bond's various fields of activity as follows: in his view, the utopia constructed by Bond, which is supposed to become a place of absolute liberation from the norms of a binary world divided into clearly defined genders, is close to Warlikowski's output at times when he is not only trying to explore the phenomenon of “the freak”, but also creating a vision of a “new, better world”.
Michał Kobiałka: Performance in Practice: Materiality of the Meeting
Michał Kobiałka analyses the impact of diverse propositions relating to the comprehension of consciousness and self-consciousness on the transformation of theatre and performance studies. His text is an attempt to explore the concept of the materiality of the meeting (which is directly derived from Walter Benjamin's investigations) and reflections on historical materialism as well as the influence of historical conditions on the human sense of perception. The author argues that works by Beckett and Kantor investigating the reflexive nature of reality can be interpreted through the prism of Benjamin and Adorno's theories. He also alludes to projects seeking out different strategies for investigating materiality, including the contemporary activities of Tehari and Raad.
Katarzyna Lemańska, Karolina Wycisk: Under Control and Out of Control
This text is an academic commentary and elaboration on an interview with Wojtej Ziemilski. Katarzyna Lemańska and Karolina Wycisk describe Ziemilski's use of Real Time Composition and “devising theatre” improvisation methods created by director and choreographer João Fiadeiro. The notion of “real time composition” involves arranging conditions to let things happen. One of the aims of the unique “work in progress” that is produced as a result is to uncover methods for both collective and individual work independent of creative practice. The authors, based on their analysis of a wide spectrum of Ziemilski's artistic practices, show how the Real Time Composition concept provides him with tools and ideas enabling him to develop his imagination and personal artistic palette.
I Don’t Create a Collection of Methods in My Life. Wojtek Ziemilski talks to Katarzyna Lemańska and Karolina Wycisk
The main topic of conversation are the work methods the director employs on different projects, the most important point of reference being the At the Stroke of Noon production staged at the Dramatyczny Theatre in Wałbrzych. Ziemilski characterises the “theatrical framework” of his projects by alluding to experiences gathered from the rehearsals for this production, during which he employed many experimental work methods with the actors on the dramatic material.
Castorf in Quotes – from A to Z
A collection of several dozen quotations pertaining to Frank Castorf dating from 1991 to 1996. Interview fragments, a theatre programme and information from his Stasi files together create a variegated portrait of the artist that is as subjective as it is fascinating. Ironic and meticulous observation of GDR realities and critiques of passivity and reactionism take centre stage. However, there is no shortage of personal reminiscences and autothematic reflection.
Thomas Irmer: Exile on Main Street
Thomas Irmer describes Frank Castorf's student years and the genesis of his artistic path, placing these within the wide political, social, intellectual context of 1970s and 80s Germany. By describing Castorf's work at provincial theatres (especially with Anklam, where Castorf was artistic director and therefore able to mould his own group and repertoire), quoting the director at length and citing the opinions of critics, Irmer shows how niche (and uncompromising) theatre grew in strength and importance, not only as an artistic phenomenon, but also – in some sense – a political phenomenon.
Anna R. Burzyńska: This World Doesn't Deserve Good Theatre
Anna R. Burzyńska, on creating a complex multicontextual portrait of the aesthetics of Frank Castorf's theatre, has taken the “bad taste” classification as a point of departure. She draws her source material and definitions from philosophical texts (by the likes of Nietzsche, Baudrillard and Adorno) as well as the oeuvre of artists associated with the theatre (including Wagner, Brecht, Kantor, Jarocki, Swinarski, Grzegorzewski and Lupa). Giving many examples from Castorf's productions and staging practices while invoking his distinctive work under the direction of Volksbühne and alluding to the well-publicised discussions on the aesthetics and role of theatre going on in Germany, she contrasts the “bad taste” classification with another related underlying principle of Castorf's productions entailing the abandonment of realism for reality.
Joanna Łada-Zielke: From Berlin to Bayreuth
The author compares two stagings of grand operas by Richard Wagner based on the Old Germanic Nibelung saga that have been directed by Frank Castorf – the Berlin production from 1995 and the latest, produced for this year's Bayreuth Festival, which marked the 200th Anniversary of the composer's birth. Łada-Zielke mainly focuses on how the different productions were received and considers what shocked (or failed to shock) German audiences and why.
Wojtek Klemm: The Assistant
Wojtek Klemm's account of the work methods employed by Frank Castorff and the theatre that he created. Drawing from his experience as assistant to the director, the author offers a very broad insight into the manner in which plays were created and characteristic elements of his work, not only with the actors or audiences, but also with the technical crew. This all makes for an extremely colourful, lively portrait of Castorf as an unusually talented director and allows us to examine the foundations from which his dramatic and, at times, authoritarian empire rose.
From Viewer to Participant. A discussion between Dorota Androsz, Anna R. Burzyńska, Ewa Guderian-Czaplińska, Marcin Kościelniak, Marek Krajewski and Piotr Kruszczyński
A recording of a panel discussion on the theatre spectator that took place at the Nowy Theatre in Poznań on 21 April 2013. The main topic of the discussion was change in the relations between spectator and theatre seen from the perspective of an actor, theatre director, critic or specialist in theatre pedagogy.
“An engaging game blending fiction against reality” – another unsuccessful self-portrait. Katarzyna Nowaczyk and Angelika Topolewska talk to Oskar Dawicki
Dawicki presents the dark side of creating the Performer film after the completion of shooting. After a long and exhausting shooting process and postproduction, the disappointed artist completely loses interest in the final shape the work assumes. He also reminiscences on the retrospective at Art Station, where there was a screening of excerpts from the film and the Artists’ Cemetery project, whose concept was drawn from the script. He emphasises that the film made any modelling of reality an impossibility, and therefore any chance of the film being creatively “pitted against” it is squandered.
Dorota Sajewska: Performance by a Soldier of the Great War
Dotora Sajewska analyses Karol Radziszewski’s film MS101, which was made in 2012 and presents the story of the ongoing relationship during First World War Kraków between soldier-philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and poet Georg Trakl. Sajewska opines that the film is a response to the erasure of memories of the First World War in Polish contemporary art. A good example of the process of experiences of the Great War being intercepted by the mythology surrounding the Second World War is, in her view, the reception given to Tadeusz Kantor’s play Wielopole, Wielopole. In her view, the question of remembering the First World War may be crucial for understanding the issues tackled by Kantor’s theatre and is represented by the figure of a soldier whose body has performative power.
Maria Kobielska: Widening the Field of Battle
A review of a play by Paweł Demirski (text) and Monika Strzępka (direction) – The Battle of Warsaw 1920 at the Stary Theatre in Kraków (prem: 22.06.2013). The author investigates the game that its creators play with national remembrance motifs, and in particular with the rich cultural context acquired by the “Miracle on the Vistula”. Kobielska draws attention to the play’s “self-consciousness”, evident at a meta-level, not only with regard to the historical reality, but also the story of it. The cycle of military aggression presented in the play defies tradition, as it mainly relates to women. The author also praises the virtuoso acting of Krzysztof Globisz, who plays several characters at the same time.
Tadeusz Kornaś: After the Premiere
A comment on a play by Paweł Demirski (text) and Monika Strzępka (direction) – The Battle of Warsaw 1920 at the Stary Theatre in Kraków (prem. 22.06.2013). Kornaś focuses on the interpretation of Feliks Dzierżyński presented in the play, mainly based on his final monologue, which closes the production. He is highly critical of the accusations contained in this statement that are aimed at today’s society, which is supposedly losing the gains made by the political left. By evoking controversial facts from Dzierżyński’s activity, he compares him to Heinrich Himmler, in order to show how painful the historical context is within which Demirski embedded his provocative message for the present day.
Monika Kwaśniewska: Because I'm Girl Who Can Manage
A review of Wanda, based on a text by Sylwia Chutnik and Patrycja Dołowa and directed by Paweł Passini (Stary Theatre, Kraków; prem. 23.01.2013). The author describes the structure of the text and play, which, in her view, constitute a critical analysis of women’s mode of functioning both within the Polish national (and theatrical) tradition and the contemporary social reality. Kwaśniewska claims that Wanda is the most critical and radical of the June premieres at the Stary Theatre. She therefore contemplates whether its institutional marginalisation (the play is staged on the New Stage) and reception “do not in fact tell us something about Polish culture today”.
Joanna Jopek: Participations (I): Festivals or Factories? Wielkopolska: Rewolucje
A review of two premieres inaugurating the second edition of Agata Siwiak's project Wielkopolska: Revolutions: Michał Borczuch's Better Not Go There, which features children and young adults from Szamocin and the surrounding region (prem.: 03 and 04.09.2013) and Nights and Days Projectby the Wrzos vocal ensemble in Zakrzew, directed by Mikołaj Mikołajczyk (prem.: 04 and 05.09.2013). Jopek notes that the plays take different approaches to implementing the concept behind Siwiak's project, which relies on getting the most out of and transforming the potential of local communities. She explains the difference between them by classifying them in terms of what is familiar (the play in Zakrzew, which has become a local festival) and what is alien (the play in Szamocin, perceived by the locals as an “illicit event”).
Szymon Adamczak: The New Jeżycjada [Jeżyce Iliad]?
Szymon Adamczak's report from the process of creating a theatre project authored by Roman Pawłowski and Marcin Wierzchowski at Poznań's Nowy Theatre. The script for the four plays comprising the Jeżyce Story. Listen to the City! series was based on work with members of the local community, who were able to observe the creation of successive stages of the four parts (premiered between February and June 2013). The author analyses each of the plays in turn (Rebels, Tenants, Players, Women's City), with a particular focus on their theatricality, and reflects on the notion of social theatre.
Mateusz Chaberski: Trapped in Theatre Languages
Mateusz Chaberski takes a critical look at a play created by Michał Kmiecik (text, dramaturgy) and Marcin Liber (direction). Being Like Steve Jobs. Superstars of the Polish Transformation. A Ballad with gentle heroic overtones(prem.:21.06.2013, Stary Theatre, Kraków). This production was billed as a cool and merciless dissection of recent Polish history, yet, in the author's view, it disappoints due to its one-sidedness and predictability. The creators of this production fall victim, in Chaberski's view, to the temptation to continuously recycle the same cultural images.
Łukasz Zatorski: Children's Farm
A review of Iga Gańczarczyk's latest play Piccolo Coro dell’ Europa (Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Kraków; prem.: 19.07.2013). This production, which is acted by a children's group, is part of a larger project composed of theatre and educational workshops which teaches children the concept of tolerance and behaviours that promote equality. The main aim was to submit an image of today's world to the sensibilities of the very young. For Łukasz Zatorski, the play is an attempt to respond to the question of whether we should in fact be looking to children, the new generation, for hope that a world, mired for years in an economic and political crisis with no foreseeable constructive and viable alternative, might actually be repaired.
Piotr Dobrowolski: Made to Measure Hero
A review of Piszczyk, a play based on a text by Jan Czapliński and Piotr Rowicki and directed by Piotr Ratajczak (prem.: 25.05.2013, Polski Theatre, Poznań). Piotr Ratajczak examines the phenomenon of Polishness by evoking the ambitions, hopes and disappointments that followed in the wake of the 1990s. The stage therefore plays host to glaring images, attitudes and characters that have been typical of our country over the last quarter century, while the classic “anti-hero” Jan Piszczyk – who is modelled on a character from a 1989 film – becomes a Polish incarnation of Everyman.
Justyna Stasiowska:OPERAtion
A review of plays created within the framework of Project P at the Grand Theatre–National Opera in Warsaw (prem.: 23.05.2013). The author shows that two of the plays – Jagoda Szmytka's For Voices and Hands and Wojtek Blecharz's Transcryptum – represent a kind of “anatomy lesson” on the opera phenomenon, especially with regard to the relationship between a work's sound and production. Stasiowska opines that the artists endeavour to destroy the division between a musical work (exclusively designed for listening) and theatrical work (only for viewing). While completing an accurate description of the experiences of a spectator taking part in Project P, the author contemplates the possibility of and potential for deconstructing the operational mechanisms of opera (both in administrative-institutional and purely technical terms).
Katarzyna Waligóra: Weighed Down by Kitsch
A review of Romeo Castellucci's play Hyperion. Letters of a Terrorist (prem.: 17.03.2013, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz). The review meticulously describes the space and the stage convention that the director endeavours to destroy, so as to emphasise her own omnipotence. The issue of destruction and the new makeshift order constructed on its ruins become, in Waligórska's view, one of the key issues in this production. Yet, at the same time, the author acknowledges that Castellucci's work, despite his bold interference within the spectators' domain, is unable to avoid illogical and tiresome elements.
Anna R. Burzyńska: Don't Shoot the Pianist
A penetrating review of a Sebastian Baumgarten play presented during the May Berliner Theatertreffen festival (a Schauspielhaus Zürich production; prem.: 29.09.2012). Anna R. Burzyńska analyses his original manner of presenting Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, which is in stark contrast to all earlier interpretations. The review is not limited to describing and analysing the play – she also draws attention to the controversy accumulating around it.
Katarzyna Targońska:Rooted in Rebellion
A report from the Da!Da!Da! Contemporary Drama/Theatre/Performance/Russia in Warsaw (17.05 – 22.06.2013). The author evokes the presentation of Polish theatre in Moscow during the Golden Mask 2011 festival, focusing on the lesson Russian artists could have drawn from this exchange of experiences. She characterises the oeuvre of Konstantin Bogolomov, hailed as the Russian Warlikowski, who drew the largest share of attention from Polish critics with his adaptations of King Lear and An Ideal Husband, which were replete with allusions to the Soviet Union from a contemporary and historical perspective. Another of the most important guests was Lev Dodin, who continues to immerse himself in the conservative theatrical tradition and attempted to grapple with Life and Fate, a novel set in wartime that was banned in the USSR. It is also worth describing Alexei Krymov's Gorki-10, which presents Lenin within a popculture context.
Tomasz Kowalski: Perceiving Sickness and Opening the Basement
A review of the you are not indifferent to me project at the Zamek Cultural Centre in Poznań. Kowalski describes the plays presented as part of the festival, which oscillate between social engagement and indifference. Melancholy and Demonstrations, directed by Lola Arias, presents the strong bond between the artist and her mentally ill mother. Marcus Öhrn's Conte d’Amour is evidently inspired by the story of Josef Fritzl, which the director also used in the later We Love Africa and Africa Loves Us. The figure of a father capable of loving to the point of extreme cruelty serves as a warning for the spectator against the unconscious reserves of insanity lying dormant in every human being.
Katarzyna Lemańska:Oh Man, the Latest Festival
A report from the Malta Festival in Poznań (24-29.06.2013). Lemańska closely examines the subject proposed by Romeo Castellucci, curator of this year's festival – the coexistence of man and machine. She describes this director's play, The Four Seasons Restaurant, attaching special importance both to elements of the theatricalised ritual and to his effective use of stage machinery for the presentation of Empedocles' cosmogony. The author reviews two Needcompany productions: Mush-room, which overwhelms spectators with excessive use of special effects that leave little space for interpretation and Marketplace 76 – an exaggerated portrait of a small town community, which gradually unleashes its worst attributes after experiencing a trauma.
Julia Hoczyk: Playing with Visibility
A report from the Malta Festival in Poznań (24-29.06.2013). The author describes the dance performances presented during the festival, giving special prominence to the solo appearance by Japanese artist Mikiko Kawamura. Hoczyk views this performance as a manifesto for a generation condemned to continually combine a wealth of cultural models. She also describes
the “Point of No Return” Exercise for Choreography of Attention created by Dalija Aćin Thelander and Siniš Ilić – a performance based on the reading of an illustrated book containing a dystopian fairy tale about the victory of nature over culture – and An Kaler's On Orientations from the Untimely Encounters series: a duet for two bodies that redefines classifications of distance and proximity.
Tadeusz Kornaś: A Path
A review of an anthology of Jerzy Grotowski's writing – Collected Texts (Warszawa 2012). The author is very appreciative that Jerzy Grotowski's texts have been published with hardly any commentaries. The lack of editorial interference and possibility of becoming intimately acquainted with the director’s statements in their “pure” form revitalises this legendary artist's image. Kornaś investigates the evolution of the author's thought, development of his artistic consciousness and his life philosophy, which was based on religious elements and concepts from different corners of the world.
Tadeusz Nyczek: How Theatre Did Battle with the People's Republic of Poland/PRL (and Vice Versa)
A review of Maria Napiontkowa's book The Theatre of Polish October (Warszawa 2012). Nyczek briefly recounts the situation facing theatre during the PRL, mercilessly condemning the absurd and idiotic laws, and regulations making it impossible for theatre venues to function, which are cited by Napiontkowa in her book. At the same time, she praises the impressive work that Napiontkowa undertook whilst analysing a huge amount of (mainly party) documents dating from 1954 to 1957. This research enables her to fully acquaint the reader with a period when Leninist ideals were arduously implemented on theatre stages and by decision makers.
Piotr Kubic: The Noise in Us. Arriving at the Truth
A text responding to Michał Zadara's article All Those Machines. A Short Text on Noise (in Didaskalia 2013 no. 114). The sound engineer at the Bagatela Theatre in Kraków comments from the perspective of a person co-creating a play's “dark side”, reminiscing on the mechanism for creating illusion in the theatre. |