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Buszewicz discusses his work on the text and performance of Crime, revealing the principles underlying his collaboration with Ewelina Marciniak, the stage designer, Marta Stoes, and the actors from the Polski Theatre in Bielsko-Biała. He talks about his inspiration from films, lectures, and also from the field of logic. He also devotes a lot of focus to the planned reaction between the stage and the viewer.
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In her review of the play Nancy. An Interview, directed by Claude Bardouil (Nowy Theatre in Warsaw, premiere: 20.04.2012), Agata Łuksza states that the show depicting the lives of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen is the latest example of how “pop culture, though cracked and inarticulate, gives theatre artists material and inspiration to explore the nature of modern man – a social actor – and the essence of theatre.” The director uses the image of famous punks “at work on a new form of artistic expression.” Łuksza claims, however, that this experiment seems half-cooked and leaves us with a sense of wanting more.
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Interest in the work of Christoph Schlingensief rose in Poland after a presentation in the German pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. The project was initially led by the artist himself, but after his death the concept for the pavilion changed. Wójtowicz describes Schlingensief’s suggestions, and uses them as a basis for his analysis of the final effect – the pavilion became a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Schlingensief, in which pride of place was given to an installation from the performance The Church of Fear of the Alien in Me: Fluxus Oratorium. The author is critical of this idea.
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Describing the path that led her to theatre, Aśka Grochulska mentions both her personal and artistic inspirations. Attempting to specify the characteristics of her role as a playwright, she emphasises that a playwright is an artist whose contribution to the creation of a performance complements the work of the director and gives his/her vision a new dimension. A playwright also puts him/herself in the position of the viewer, and strives to anticipate certain reactions among the audience in order to overthrow them.
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Krzysztof Garbaczewski staged Iwona, Princess of Burgundy (Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole, premiere 15.04.2012) using film projections. Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl wonders “how this medium can create a space that is no longer between an object and its dynamic reflections or deformations, but from the audience’s perspective, between looking at a motionless screen and intellectually participating in the transformation of an entire stage.” Unfortunately, the tension created by Garbaczewski between the actors’ field and its projection quickly dissolves, and the audience becomes bored television viewers.
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Departing from Net art and new-media performances, the author draws attention to art which has an effect on a physical level, drawing upon spectators’ new abilities of perception. Perception is a product of our physical functions. It is from this that sensory beauty is also derived, with its primary figure – emotional affectation. Diagnosing the affective turn in art, Jelewska demands increased interest in the affective modern history of theatre and drama, focusing on phenomena that are familiar to us nowadays and which activate and interact with our somatic interface, in the work of artists such as Romeo Castellucci, Heiner Müller, and Sarah Kane.
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The author describes the circumstances around the making and premiere of Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, and then segues into a description of the performance of the opera directed by Mariusz Treliński at the Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa (premiere: 16.03.2012). Cyz compares the Warsaw production with a staging by Jonathan Kent (English National Opera, premiere: 28.04.2012). The local production suffers in comparison, both in terms of the cohesion of the narrative and the music. Treliński makes no attempt to respond to the question that irks Wagner enthusiasts: Where does the Dutchman come from?
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Agnieszka Jakimiak is interested in three ways of getting the message across in this director’s work: repetition, transformation, and representation. She analyses Fassbinder’s work before the breakthrough (anti-theatre film productions) and afterwards – at “the moment when the camera turns towards the director’s own surroundings.” Through his films, Fassbinder questions the “safe” functioning of groups in society, language and ideology. There is nothing metaphysical or didactic in this, however: “Fassbinder had more of an affinity for diagnostics that defined a particular scheme of action, appearing in concrete socio-political circumstances.”
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The author addresses the topic of Maja Kleczewska’s harshly criticised Orestes (Narodowy Theatre and Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, premiere: 14.04.2012). He reminds us that this performance was originally meant to be a “dramatic opera,” in which Agata Zubel, composer for the performance, was meant to play a role equal to that of the director. In fact, Kleczewska dominated the show, filling it with gratuitous brutality. However, when Zubel is allowed to speak with her sophisticated compositions, it turns out that this music could have had much more to say.
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Jan Czapliński discusses a wide range of fundamental questions concerning his work as a playwright. He describes how work is divided between him and the director, as well as the importance of teamwork in theatre. Commenting on theatrical acting styles that are currently popular in Poland, he explains why he values a good story and demands professional artistry from actors. Alongside general questions, the interview also contains details of his work on shows such as Twelve Angry People and Dangerous Liaisons, as well as the nature of Czapliński’s collaboration with Radosław Rychcik.
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Marta Michalak interviews another dance artist for Didaskalia, in what is truly a portrait of an artist. Kaya Kołodziejczyk speaks of her education in ballet school, and then at Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S., and work in the Rosas ensemble (also led by De Keersmaeker). Speaking of her work for re//mix in komuna//warszawa devoted to the artist, Kołodziejczyk characterises the style of dance taught by De Keersmaeker. Then she speaks of her teacher’s work, and the projects she is currently doing – primarily in the U/LOI collective.
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The author of this review enters into a debate with Radosław Rychcik, the creator of Twelve Angry People (Nowy Theatre in Poznań, premiere 2.03.2012). In Kowalski’s opinion, the director’s deconstruction of Reginald Rose’s text was not radical enough, and the strategies that he used were inadequate. In this review, there are many more complaints about the performance. The author is very critical of the show: “The reasons which led Rychcik to choose this text are vague. The intended message eludes us somewhere along the way, vanishes like magic gold dust.”
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A review of the play Jerker or the Helping Hand by Robert Chesley, directed by Glenn Kessler (Space 916, West Hollywood in Los Angeles, premiere: 4.11.2011). Stępniak describes the plot and outlines the history and significance of “one of the most famous gay plays,” written in 1986. This historio-cultural context is important for this twenty-fifth anniversary presentation of Jerker by Glenn Kessler, and is the reason for the drama seeming outdated.
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The author examines how viewers’ perception is controlled in the work of Árpád Schilling. His early theatrical experiments aimed at revitalising traditional theatre, but did not go beyond its confines. Presently, however, Schilling has become a severe critic of classical forms. He set a goal of breaking the viewer out of perceptual habits, became more involved in researching theatre’s influence over society, and, above all, began to seek new spectators beyond the institution of theatre.
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The author describes the characteristics of Italian drama and dialectical theatre, which are opposed to models of identity promoted by the government and media. According to Bal, theatre draws attention to the distinctive features, cultural characteristics and nationalism of local communities, which she joins Stuart Hall in calling a Diaspora. Using the work of Emma Dante as an example, she discusses examples of “questioning identity as a cultural ballast which is shutting Italy up within a Diaspora.” Bal explains that it is directors, above all, who see the need to “begin a serious public debate to discuss the challenges and opportunities created by modern society in the age of cultural globalisation.”
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Focusing on the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre and the Young Writers Festival, the author analyses modern English theatre from a social perspective. Lachman discusses in detail the dramas presented during the festival and the repertoire of both London stages. He emphasises that all of the texts and performances are a reflection of the “social and intellectual structure” of the country. In his opinion, English dramaturgy directly confronts reality, and theatres actively take the floor in social debate. English theatre is comparable to a melting pot, in which the opinions of older and younger artists clash.
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Piotr Kosiewski talks with Wojciech Krukowski, the creator of the Academy of Movement. He discusses the beginnings of the movement and describes his activities during Communist times, when many artists were strongly rooted in a socio-political context. The Academy of Movement went beyond the limits of theatre, and sought new means of connecting with the audience. The artists overturned obvious assumptions about what belongs in public space. One could say that today’s flash mob is, in a way, a continuation of the Academy’s activities.
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Natalia Jakubowa talks with Árpád Schilling about Hungarian theatre, in which the theatres with “solid foundations” still function within a very limited field, even though they receive state support, while models of alternative theatre are becoming exhausted. The artist would like unification in the field of theatre, which is why he attempts to find a “third road” between alternative theatre – regarded as unprofessional – and subsidised institutional theatre, which is not artistically independent.
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The author analyses Barbara Wysocka’s play Medeamaterial (Wielki Theatre – Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, premiere: 28.04.2012), based on a libretto by Pascal Dusapin with text by Heiner Müller. Łucyk points out that Wysocka’s play presents us with a contemporary Medea who serves as a metaphor for mankind after a catastrophe. A key idea behind this unique psychodrama is a fragmentary subjectivity, around which the director builds deep significance.
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All of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films are about love with no a happy end. Love is hell, since all inter-human relations are based on the mechanics of violence, much like the oppressive effects of authority. Herbut analyses Fassbinder’s last films, because, in her opinion, they “bring us the closest to the essence of his work” – the obsessive circling around the causes of love’s oppression, the relationship between the executioner and the victim, and themes of toxic loneliness. Although Fassbinder’s films are autobiographical, it is difficult to distinguish the director’s experiences from the products of his imagination. The most personal production is Querelle, which, according to Herbut, “can be seen as a biographical study.”
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