Song from Beyond the Dark dariusz kosin´ s k i

1 documentation: to take part in the work, The project Gospels of Childhood carried out by expeditions, workshops and consecutive Jarosław Fret together with Theatre ZAR is presentations. Otherwise we are condemned to heading towards the end. Gradually the number partial solutions, such as this attempt – highly of presentations is being limited, while the team subjective and uncertain even as to the factual is in an advanced stage of work on another material. performance and, as a matter of course, moves to I emphasize this uncertainty in order to reduce quite another adventure. Despite the long, possible expectations of the reader, as well as to five-year period of realization and presentation find and prepare for myself a comfortable in various versions, Gospels of Childhood has position from which to talk about Gospels. Thus been discussed mostly in vague reviews and the first – and crucial – action I should take, but occasional remarks. Admittedly, in this desert, am unable to, is a comprehensive description of one exception did blossom in the form of the project. This is a severe limitation, though Agnieszka Pietkiewicz’s thesis, Promieniowanie quite often unrecognized and underestimated. pamie¸ci. Ewangelie Dziecin´stwa Teatru ZAR Theatre ZAR situates itself among the ensembles [‘Radiation of Memory: Theatre ZAR’s Gospels of acting in the field whose name has been perhaps Childhood’] written at the Adam Mickiewicz most pertinently defined by Eugenio Barba: University in Poznan´. But this valuable work is theatre-culture. Its actions do not fall under the known to only a narrow circle of scholars and division of ‘artistic’, ‘preparatory’ and thus cannot be deemed to have influenced the ‘administrative’, just as its work does not divide performance’s reception to any degree. into what is connected with the performance and It may be said, therefore, that Polish theatre ‘other’. Gospels of Childhood is not just a title of criticism has overlooked Gospels and the performance, it is also the name of a whole disregarded an important phenomenon, which project, which comprises work sessions with a deserves more careful attention. It is an ambition variety of artists, workshops conducted by the of this text to fill the gap – at least partially. Alas team members for apprentices and guests, and this cannot substitute for the all the absent expeditions – including the most important: to voices; to give one of the reasons, it is written Georgia (Svaneti), Greece (Mount Athos) and Iran from just one point of view, mine, bringing along (district of the community of the Mandeans). every limitation a personal ‘history’ of Within this large perspective, a work of art – a encounters with Gospels imposes. In order to performance – does not have to be a main goal for write about the project in full, and more in line its creators. Rather, it serves as a reason for the with academic standards, one would need to go to work, as a unifying force of many different great lengths of almost day-to-day actions, essential for directing and ordering

60 Performance Research 13(2), pp.60-75 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2008 DOI: 10.1080/13528160802639318 them, but not necessarily influencing the value Gospels at all times, since it is a work that – like of the experience. Even from a guest’s an increasing number of contemporary theatre perspective, one is able to obtain an impression pieces – changes constantly, thus making it that reaching Svaneti and the encounter with the impossible for us to determine a point from tradition of funeral songs ‘zar’ was much more which to regard it as ‘ready’. Such is, of course, important an event that any acclaim or the nature of any performative action: while admiration after the performance. It is zar (and it remaining always a repetition, a re-enactment, it is not an accident that the ensemble took this as is at the same time a unique act, happening only its name) that is the most precious treasure and now, in this particular way, in these given the jewel of the whole project, not only as an circumstances, between itself and each spectator exceptionally powerful song but also as the fruit or witness. In this sense a theatre piece or a of a particular tradition and the intertwined performance does not exist – it happens. These cultural practices, and as a possible source for observations, however basic, are often forgotten further transformations and development. or blurred in everyday theatrical and critical Judging from Jarosław Fret’s speeches, given on practice. Theatres call for, and audiences accept, presenting documentation of the expeditions and the existence of a generalized theatre work that Songs from Beyondwork the Dark on the performance, one might gain an serves as a kind of a universal model for each impression that for him the personal encounter particular spectacle. However, not only does with Svanetian culture has been an invaluable Gospels not hide the differences between experience. particular versions, it even necessitates facing In contemporary performative arts we deal them and asking the fundamental question: what increasingly with a situation where a work of art, was the performance you saw like, given that you an artistic product, is one of many elements of a say you have seen it? complex process or a complex project. This, Here, it is necessary to refer to the personal naturally, has always been the case, but in the experience: I have seen Fret’s performance eight Western theatre tradition it has always been the times, of which five took place in the ‘forest site’ performance that constituted a culmination of the Grotowski Institute, in Brzezinka, some point that governed material-collecting, training, forty kilometres from Wrocław. Therefore, it is rehearsals, etc. In the case of multi-stage and my own account, which other spectators do not complex projects such as Gospels, creating such have to be familiar with at all. A good many of a hierarchy is pointless, and the performance them, after all, have only seen Gospels played as should be treated as an integral part of a a guest performance in quite different spaces; compound whole, which links artistic work with moreover, among those who have seen it in travel and anthropological and personal Wrocław, there will be many who know only the experience. Alas, apart from highlighting the fact ‘studio’ version, presented at the site of the that ‘it should’, and apart from a few simplistic Institute located in the centre of Wrocław’s Old remarks, I am unable to write much more about Town. This means that ‘my Gospels’ may greatly this phenomenon, since my contact with Gospels differ from ‘yourGospels ’, and in writing an is, in fact, the contact of a spectator. account or in interpreting, one must emphasize This first limitation does not, unfortunately, this subjectivity, rather than imply that ‘my’ mark the end of the problems. At the first public version is ‘appropriate’ and, therefore, ‘better’. presentation I saw (it took place as part of the Another aspect of the project’s variability, and celebrations of the anniversary of CTP what provides an additional source of ‘Gardzienice’, on 10 October 2002), a note ‘work complication, is related to the ensemble’s in progress’ was added to the title of the composition. The original group that started to performance. In fact it should be applied to work on the project Gospels of Childhood was

61 composed almost entirely of different people Kamila Klamut. All of these constants will serve ´n i i k s s o K from today’s ensemble. Changes – indeed as landmarks on my way through the labyrinth substantial – occurred not only in the ‘choir’ but called Gospels of Childhood. also among the protagonists. Among them, the most important is the change in the character of 2 the man dressed in white garment (associated Since ‘my’ Gospels is a Brzezinka performance, here with Lazarus), which took place in 2005. In we need to begin with the journey and this basic the role formerly played by Dominik Kos´cielniak fact: that in the case of watching the spectacle in – somewhat angelic, boy-like, slender and fair – Brzezinka, instead of going to a theatre located there appeared the stronger, more mature and most often in the city, the audience has to decide resolute, dark-haired and even a little to leave the town for more than three hours. It is, Mephistophelean Przemysław Błaszczak. The admittedly, organized and does not require any substitution seems particularly significant in special logistical planning (as does, for instance, respect of the monologue from The Brothers a trip to Gardzienice village), but nevertheless Karamazov, delivered by ‘Lazarus’ at the the event’s character changes radically. beginning of the performance: while Kos´cielniak After an hour’s drive, the coach calls into an was associated with Alosza, Błaszczak, in turn, exit off a forest road where a few people carrying appears more like Ivan. flame torches are already waiting. The leader When, to this maze of changes and differences, (usually Magda Ma˛dra) informs the audience: we add modifications in the composition and ‘We are in Brzezinka – the place where Jerzy different ways of performing successive scenes, Grotowski conducted his paratheatrical research we receive a multifaceted, dynamic flow, which – in the ’70s.’ The information is important. For all contrary to the practice of the majority of theatre of those who are familiar with the tradition of groups – presents itself as such, and even has no Grotowski, Brzezinka is like a legend, and desire to be stopped. Thus, any interpretation, as Gospels does not move away from it. The very well as any description will, patently and choice of the place, as well as emphasizing its explicitly, form a writer’s creation, his own past, implies treating the work that used to be version, added to all others, a new element of the conducted here as a tradition and as a partner in constellation. the dialogue between generations. It is a very This does not mean, however, that Gospels is important aspect, which needs to be highlighted devoid of any consistent values that would before we start; often, after the performance, an provide a core for the variables to circle around. opinion is expressed that Gospels is imitative, These constants are primarily the songs from because it uses the achievements of Grotowski Svaneti, the liturgical Orthodox hymns (such as and even quotes directly from his theatre work. Kyrie Eleison from the Sioni Church in Tbilisi) This criticism is based on a misunderstanding and the intertwined presence of the Choir that resulting from automatically falling into serves as a kind of support for the whole. To some schemes of thinking marked out by critical extent the chronological composition of the clichés. There are, indeed, strong links with the performance’s dramaturgy is also constant, as artistic achievements of the Laboratory Theatre’s well as the arrangement and shape of particular creator. However, they are evoked in the scenes, which shall be described later. Some of performance clearly as part of a tradition that the artists have not changed either: the leader of needs a creative, artistic response in the name of the Choir and director, Jarosław Fret, and the those for whom Grotowski as a theatre artist is a actresses performing the role of Mary/Martha – legend but is not part of their own experience. In Ditte Berkeley (the only one who utters her lines some way, Gospels may also be read as an in English thorough the performance) and expression of a naïve, perhaps, but strong,

62 Songs from Beyond the Dark

• Ditte Berkeley in Ewangelie dzieci´nstwa. Photo by Tom Dombrowski childlike faith in the possibility of creating a being late for something. As seen in Brzezinka, theatre in which few still believe but for which this scene conveys the essence of the complicated many yearn: a theatre opening a perspective of situation that the generation after Grotowski verticality and transcendence. Gospels (referring faces; not being ‘the sons’ or the direct in the very title to the Laboratory Theatre inheritors, devoid of the possibility of basing performance that provided a departure point for work on their own direct experience, they search Apocalypsis cum Figuris) provides a basis for a within this tradition to find their own source. multi-layered dialogue with tradition, a dialogue Naturally, the initial lateness refers as well to somewhat concealed yet distinctive. other types of legacy, including the religious. This begins during the first seconds of the This scene finds its sources in an almost performance. When, after a few moments’s anecdotal event, which took place during one of waiting, the audience enters into a spacious the expeditions. In a church in Odessa the room situated in the centre of the ground floor of company chanced upon the very end of a the old farm house, they hear a song that is ceremony and was only able to see its remains ending. The Choir disperses; its members begin and hear its echoes. This epilogue of sorts is at to put out the candles and tidy the interior after the same time a prologue that provides a something that has just been performed. An meaningful frame for the whole performance. extraordinary beginning indeed – to come in, sit Everything that happens later in the course of down to watch, only to realize it is over. Of course the performance occurs as if after, or instead. nobody expects to have come to Brzezinka in ‘Those who came too late’ strive to reach the vain, but still, when the actors scrape wax off the experience to which they do not have access, yet table, hang white sheets out, blow out the rest of of which they do have intimations, at all times the candles and leave, one has a strong feeling of struggling with despair.

63 Just before the initial sequence ends, the walks with a clear limp). In order not to establish ´n i i k s s o K ‘technical’ actions, which involve ordinary fixed evangelic identities here, I shall refer to the cleaning of the space, take on a shape through former as ‘The Bright’, the latter as ‘The Dark’. which an icon seems to filter. A tall, slender girl The third woman (Aleksandra Kotecka) also folds a tablecloth covering the table. For a wears a simple, dark-blue dress. She is a strong moment, she holds it in her extended arms, like a girl who stresses her distinctiveness from the dead body or its shroud. A man lights the scene very beginning. Her relation to the other with a candle. After a second, with a blow, he also characters is never made clear. She acts in puts out this source of light. between the events and the people – therefore, It grows dark and silent, and remains thus for the name she had in the previous versions of the a moment, which seems long – as moments of character list appears to be the most accurate, silence in theatre do. At last, the first words ‘The Third One’. sound, the first notes of a song reverberate The opening, oneiric sequences seem to be not through the space, and the first light appears. personal memories so much as common ones. Standing in it, a Man (Błaszczak) speaks an One of the very first is a scene depicting an abridged and musically rearranged monologue of agony, resembling a pieta: a young man dies in Ivan Karamazov from Dostoyevsky’s novel, which convulsion on a woman’s lap. Then, there appears is a rebellious act of rejecting eternal glory, in a sequence of images, evoking childhood respect of the intractability of human suffering. memory. They are accompanied by the Choir’s The words, uttered calmly at the beginning, song Romelni Kerubimtasa (‘Thou, who lookest become more and more enraged, culminating in a like a cherubin’), which is like a river current that powerful point at the end, which sounds like an carries them and – every now and then – for a accusation: ‘I want to be here when everyone moment brings them to the surface. Dynamically suddenly discovers why it has all been the way it ‘edited’ images are embedded in a soft, almost has. I want to see it for myself, and if by that time contemplative song, which makes the audience I am already dead, then let me be raised up feel distanced from those images, as we always again.’ are whenever we speak about our memories, even With these words the lights go out, but after a the most dramatic – being separated from them moment’s darkness, they flash once again. by time and our own knowledge of how it all Subsequent sequences are constructed from ended. The song comes to an end, and the current short scenes that seem as if they are unfixed of memories stops. In the reigning silence, the pictures called from the darkness by the light sisters, now as if frozen and desolate, try to warm and the song. The protagonists of these pictures each other. Eventually, they open the door to the are three women. Two of them, dressed in simple large fireplace in the centre of the wall opposite red dresses, appear in the list of characters as the audience, letting in the warm light of the Mary/Martha. The first, a slender fair-haired girl flames. The silence is broken by the sound of (Berkeley) will gradually come to resemble the tubular bells, joined after a moment by the gospel Martha, taking on her alleged energy and Choir’s intonation of Psalm 103: Praise the Lord, firmness. Her straight, sometimes even tense O my soul … body creates an impression of something hard As the psalm sounds, in the centre of the space and expressively definite. The other character there appear sequences of women in labour. In (Klamut) seems to have a limited power over the first one, The Bright is giving birth, herself. She is uncertain on the one hand, yet on supported by The Dark, who holds her and cools the other rebellious. Her body fails her; one her head. After a while, The Bright springs up to might even deem her sometimes as a little join the Choir, as if cutting through the soft song handicapped (in the initial scene of cleaning she with a high-pitched voice; her intervention gives

64 the song a new dynamic. The cohesive sharp tone given by The Bright changes into thanksgiving harmony is suddenly pierced by a words, which constitute a modified and scream from quite another space – the scream of musically-arranged quotation from the First a woman giving birth in pain. In the next Epistle to the Corinthians (15: 38–42). As a moment her scream changes into words that are response, a monologue begins, uttered by The a fusion of the evangelic teachings of Jesus with Man, who begins with the yell, ‘The Door! The one of the best-known verses from the gnostic Door!’, which evolves into something that Gospel of Thomas, ‘Blessed be the womb that has resembles a sermon on resurrection. He delivers not conceived, and the breast that has not given it in candlelight, which sculpts his half-naked milk.’ body, making him resemble the prophet from the Having uttered these words, The Bright painting by Caravaggio. He speaks quickly, and hastens back to the ‘stage’, to hold up and the meaning reaches the audience’s ears only support The Dark, who has taken over the role of with difficulty. What remains is an impression of the giving birth. However, after a moment The the racing thoughts of a person struggling to Dark is left alone. The Bright walks back to the grasp an incomprehensible truth. Choir to repeat the words, this time pronouncing This prophecy or sermon is accompanied by Songs from Beyondthem the Dark more powerfully and full of determination. three songs: first, a calm Svan version of the The Choir stirs; The Bright’s intervention has Trisagion hymn Cmidao ghmerto, then a more disrupted the thanksgiving harmony. The psalm dynamic Kyrie Eleison from Mount Athos and suspends at the vowel ‘a’, now prolonged, and finally, accompanying the last words of the joined by the voices – higher than all the others – sermon, a Georgian song about Christ’s of The Bright and The Third One. The sound Resurrection. Both the very selection of the grows increasingly louder until, reaching a songs as well as their ‘editing’ enhance the climax, it changes into the word anthropos – sermon’s power and provide it with meanings ‘human’. At this moment The Dark’s labour is deriving from the liturgy (Trisagion, in Orthodox over. From the sound and the flesh, a word is churches, is sung before the reading of the born, and The Man is the one to preach it. Gospel), as well as from the prayer and from Half-naked, and filled with some extraordinary Christ’s Rising. However, these three contexts do lightness, he delivers another famous logion not occur as fixed or stable but rather function as from the Gospel of Thomas: ‘Blessed is the one additional motives to the central theme, carried who stays at the beginning: that one will know out by the speaker. the end and will not taste death.’ He pronounces As The Man delivers his lesson, The Bright these words without exaggerated solemnity but repeatedly tries to separate from the Choir and more like a platitude, and even surprisingly he walk to him but is held back by The Dark. The speaks them with a laugh – somewhat last sentence of the sermon, ‘It is necessary to Mephistophelean and filled with mockery. This rise in this flesh, since everything exists in it’, is laugh soon changes into a commanding yell, ‘the shouted three times, and the repetitions are Door!’ The subsequent commands are broken by entwined with the hymn on the Resurrection of his laughter and knocking on the table, which Christ, which then evolves into the Svan song gradually increases in loudness, becoming a Dzgiragi. It has an extraordinary structure based musical, rhythmical element. It is accompanied on an abbreviated verse that sounds like the by a high-pitched sound of tubular bells, and shallow, panting breath of a dying person. The after a while the Georgian Amin sounds. Once Choir moves close to The Man, lighting their again the loudness of the song increases, as if in candles from his, and take him in. On ‘the stage’, order to drown out the sound of knocking. Once holding each other, remain The Bright and The again, another new voice pierces the song; the Dark. Embracing tightly, they speak the dialogue

65 ´n i i k s s o K

• Ewangelie dzieci´nstwa, Przemysław Błaszczak. Photo by Tom Dombrowski between Mary and ‘her double’, equated with comes from the film made for French television death – taken from the gnostic Gospel of Mary by Jean-Marie Drot, although it is more widely Magdalene. For a moment, they form a unity, and known from Janusz Domagalik’s 1980 film in their union they are illuminated by something documentary Pełen gus´larstwa obrze¸d that seizes and embraces them, by something to s´wie¸tokradzki [‘Full of Sorcery Sacrilegious which they both belong and which both serve Rite’]. It is, therefore, the only sequence related to when they are separated – in different, though Gospels – and the performance which later mutually complementary ways. emerged from it, Apocalypsis cum Figuris – that Through the silence that falls after both the can possibly be known to the generation which dialogue and the song ends, there reverberates ‘came too late’. It is noteworthy that in this the sound of a small bell, which resembles the moment, and in the following reprise of this one that can be heard before the Elevation during sequence, the Marys from Gospels of Childhood a Catholic Mass. The Bright unbuttons The will never reach the Sepulchre and lift the Dark’s dress, thus beginning a sequence of shrouds left inside, as occured in the filmed preparing to leave. The sisters take their dresses rehearsal and (in a slightly changed form) in off, wash their feet in a bowl of water, and put Apocalypsis. After a long while of preparation, their dresses back on; they also cover their heads the two sisters stand next to each other, ready to with black scarves. The Bright acts in a quick go. They start walking, but soon The Dark runs and determined manner, whereas The Dark is back to collect the flask she has forgotten. One drowsy and somewhat absent. clumsy movement and the oil flask falls to the This whole sequence, diverging from other ground and smashes. The Dark, somewhat parts of the performance in both dynamics and piqued at this, exclaims, ‘I’m not going!’ aesthetics, is a quotation – and one that is used At these words, the Choir walks to the door. very consciously. It is a re-staging of probably the A Polish dawn song is sung – a little noisily, to a only ever recorded rehearsal of the Laboratory coarse accompaniment of a trumpet and an Theatre’s Gospels. This particular sequence accordion. The Choir stops by the open door,

66 through which the forest, enveloped in the anger and pride, she speaks a monologue which, night’s darkness, can be seen. Meanwhile, The in a way, reveals her true identity as the powerful, Bright stands by the other door, gazing at the eternal female force. The last words (‘I am the one centre of the space, where The Dark nestles in the you have been looking for’) are shouted out twice. arms of The Man, whose white shirt is now The song then breaks off, to be substituted by the roughly unbuttoned. sound of the accordion, and subsequently, by an This whole scene is pervaded by the almost lyrical song of the Choir and the high, atmosphere of Polish folk piety, which blends prominent voice of The Bright, growing ever together the high with the low, the solemn with louder. The Man drags The Third One to the the crude. As Fret mentioned, it is connected with centre and sets her into a spinning movement, his personal memories from folk weddings, whose rhythm is governed by the sound of the which usually ended with the band and the stones falling on the wooden floor of the stage. drunken wedding guests walking out of the Each thump is a blow landing on The Dark, who house to sing the dawn song. However, here, this stands against the wall. Her body is stoned with band, into which the Choir has transformed, the sound, wounded with it, until it is dead. The resembles an amateur parish orchestra, which Dark, while remaining Mary the sister of Martha, Songs from Beyondoften the Dark accompanies the traditional Resurrection and Mary Magdalene, becomes also the harlot – processions on the Easter Sunday. In a sense, this stoned to death, because no Innocent stood by dawn song talks about waking up from a dream, her. which is a shadow of death. It is, therefore, not As The Dark falls under the blows, The Third accidental that in the performance it breaks off One falls down as well, and her body is covered on the verse, ‘We still wake up …’. with a shroud. After a moment’s silence, The This ending is closely related to the action Bright quickly closes the iron door of the taking place on the stage. The initially gentle fireplace and opens the door in the wall to the caresses and hugs of The Dark and The Man grow audience’s right. Rays of candlelight burst evermore violent. The Man’s mounting through, as well as the thumping of a hammer, aggression leads him to attempt a rape. She tries like the sound of a nail being driven into a coffin to break free; he is stronger, however, and finally or a cross, the sound of death. As if in response to tears off her dress. She falls to the floor. At this it, the Leader of the Choir starts a song from the moment the song breaks off, and the members of Catholic funeral liturgy, a prayer that is sung at the Choir turn back to look. The Bright runs to the cemetery moments before lowering the coffin her sister and tries to help her up. She lifts her on to the tomb. The solo intonation, set against the her back, but The Dark falls down inertly like a indifferent background, is immensely powerful, sack. After another attempt, The Bright throws as it refers to the most traumatic personal accusations at her sister, which are a slightly experience. The clash of the solemn prayer with changed version of the complaint in the Gospel the technical, professionally cold service is like Martha (Luke 10: 40), ‘You don’t care about putting a finger back into the wound we have anything, you have left me here to serve on my long thought to be healed. own.’ Being unable to lift her sister, she seats her When the song ceases and the doors close, The by the wall. The Choir, playing at a quick tempo a Bright lights a candle and puts it next to the fragment of the dawn song, moves a step towards place where her sister lies. Meanwhile, The Third the centre of the space. The door is closed. After a One stands up, walks to the table and – with one short while the song Szen giga lobt begins – a slow movement – throws all the objects lying on it Georgian call for the prayer. to the floor. The Bright pours water into a bowl The Dark stands up and, leaning against the and washes her hands. After a while, The Dark wall, faces the Choir. With a voice filled with rises, walks to her, and washes her face, hands

67 and shoulders. The Third One covers a part of the Lord with ointment’, she says, transforming in a ´n i i k s s o K table with a clean tablecloth. The sisters prepare, way Martha and Mary into two Marys, one of once again, to go. The Dark puts on the dress The whom is Mary Magdalene, the harlot. After this, Man tore off; The Bright, acting briskly and The Bright intercepts the reading once again and decidedly as ever, helps her. The Third One puts continues until the sorrowful Martha’s bread on the white tablecloth and pours wine into statement, ‘Lord, if thou hadst been here, my a glass. All three put on their black headscarves. brother would not have died.’ At this moment a They are ready. significant divergence from the Gospel account But the expected supper does not take place. occurs. The words that should follow, an The Third One tears the loaf in two and puts the expression of Martha’s confidence in Jesus’ halves back on the table, then spills the wine on power, are not uttered, and the summoning of her it. The Bright runs to the table in anxiety, but The sister only enables Mary to shout her grudge out Third One stops her and lays her head on the as well. Thus, she repeats ever louder, ‘If thou table by force, in a puddle of wine. The Choir, hadst been here.’ The words evolve into a standing now almost in the centre of the stage, lamentation, and from it, into an gives a single, wordless tone that lasts for a long incomprehensible plaintive wail that is bound time and underscores The Bright’s words – taken with the song, creating a great polyphonic from Simone Weil. This famous fragment, used expression of resentment. It builds to reach a also in Apocalypsis cum Figuris, focuses on a very high chord and then breaks off. teacher who did not teach anything to the one Silence and darkness fall. And through this who awaited him, and who had come to her by darkness, zar – a Svan funeral song – mistake. However, its ending differs here from reverberates. As Jarosław Fret says, it is a song the original version. As The Bright reaches the like a column of spirits, like a stairway the soul words, ‘Sometimes I cannot refrain from ascends. In the performance it sounds like a recalling to myself, with fear and guilt, fragments response to the lamentation Kyrie; the two songs of what he had told me’, she is disturbed by The appear in this moment like two persons made of Dark, who says, ‘Don’t touch me. He said, don’t flesh. They are neither signs nor symbols. What touch me’. This intervention (the only time is crucial is their tangible presence, beyond the anything is uttered by The Dark in English) reach of words, beyond images, beyond obviously refers to the evangelical ‘Noli me meanings. For zar, together with the tangere’ (John 20: 17), thus confirming the accompanying female lamentations and cries, equation of Mary, the sister of Martha, with Mary are heard in the Gospels in complete darkness. Magdalene. There is no image here to be seen – we are The Choir’s song evolves into Kyrie Eleison surrounded by the song, which is an absolute from the Sioni church, which is one of the two fact, which we are to live here and now. Zar, in my musical pillars of the performance. The three deepest and repeatedly confirmed experience, is women sit at the table, on which the torn bread an act of encountering death and overcoming it lies. The Bright takes The Bible from The Dark’s within the song, which, ultimately, not only fills hands, opens it, and with a breaking voice reads the darkness but also illuminates it, although the in English the fragment of the ‘Gospel of St John’ vision is obscured. about the illness and death of Lazarus. When she While zar evolves, in the darkness, a clatter reaches the words ‘Mary and her sister Martha’, and the sound of a spade digging repeatedly in The Dark interrupts, shouting ‘Mary!’, ‘Martha!’ the ground can be heard. In the end, a low tone of The Bright insists, but The Dark does not give up: a tubular bell sounds. The Leader of the Choir ‘Mary!’, she shouts again and takes over the intones the initial verses of Megistis Pascha – a reading in Polish: ‘It was Mary who anointed the paschal song from Mount Athos. From the Choir,

68 and still in total darkness, The Man’s voice also lends itself to writing. The problem arose emerges, speaking the initial part of the gnostic when theatres started to appear that did not base Hymn of the Pearl. This time, he speaks calmly, their work on script and the stress was shifted as if revealing a truth that constitutes the very from permanent and timeless (a record) to core of his knowledge. But he speaks only about specific and contemporary (a performance). the quest, about the letter his parents gave him Artists began to seek new dramatic means, in order to remind him of his mission. There are instead of using a text to be pronounced, they no words that speak about the fall and the return intended to create a kind of environment of – there is only the imperative to strive. experience built not of signs but of those means Slowly, the light is brought back. The Choir that impact on the extra-intellectual, sensory leads an Easter liturgy of Resurrection, which is organs of perception. The most important of accompanied by the sounds of tubular bells. The those means is music – traditionally contrasted Bright and The Dark lower steel cart-wheels from with the word as one that permits a direct below the ceiling and, one after another, light perception of the inexpressible. thin Orthodox candles. The sound and the light A detailed elaboration of the differences announce: Christos anesti (Christ is Risen). This between a theatre that is born from the word and Songs from Beyondis the certifiedDark by the images: an excavated tomb and the theatre ‘from the spirit of music’ needs to be shrouds lain on the floor by the women. In the put off for another occasion. I mention it here, finale, the sound mounts once again until it from necessity cursorily and superficially, reaches a climax; the last sound is a single chime because ZAR is a theatre ‘from the spirit of of the biggest bell. Before it dies away, all the music’, being one of the most prominent actors leave. Left alone in the illuminated and ensembles in Poland that develop in their own suddenly quiet space, is the audience; usually way the idea of the theatre of musicality, which staying long in the silence, sometimes somewhat finds its source in the experiences of anxious for a continuation of some kind, very ‘Gardzienice’. Gospels of Childhood is a work in rarely breaking impatiently into conventional which the music, or more generally the sound clapping, but against convention, nobody comes and its dramaturgy, plays a crucial role. It is back to thank the audience for it and bow. composed on music principles and could certainly be analysed with the use of music 3 terminology. On completing this unavoidably linear report, I Still, this does not mean that it is an am overwhelmed by a feeling of having exclusively musical opus. In addition to the oversimplified the experience ofGospels of songs, there are also words and actions referring Childhood. What does vindicate me to some to the Gospel scenes – therefore carrying a lot of extent, however, is that this loss was inevitable, cultural symbolism – as well as sequences because of the differences between the multi- functioning as personal metaphors, which are channelled and multi-directional, spatial, ambiguous, triggering equally personal sensuous and spiritual experience and the verbal associations. Yet all of them are intertwined in a and intellectual task, which writing about any composition that works more like a musical piece performance has to be. It is precisely this than a literary one, for it produces a specific difference of dimensions that creates a overall reaction, which lies very far from fundamental problem. In writing about a ‘comprehending’ and, thus, is extremely difficult traditional dramatic theatre, a writer may count to verbalize. This difficulty is also connected with on an important support, namely, the linearity the discontinuity that characterizes this work that results from theatre’s strong connections and provides its uniqueness. Variability of with literature. A theatre that respects writing, rhythms, sudden shifts from calm and soft

69 scenes to dynamic ones, lengthy spaces granted also time- and sound-specific. Referring to it with ´n i i k s s o K for silence and darkness, a relatively extensive the word ‘performance’ is only partly justified, geography of acting areas, a variety and for Gospels is more a sound-spatial environment, variability of means of expression – all of this in which the events that take place are creates an impression of dispersal and complemented by the spectator’s experience. discontinuity, which fades only towards the end This complementary addition is, in a way, the of the performance, together with the appearance mystery’s polar opposite of discontinuity and of the sequence of scenes that refers to the most fragmentariness. The inexpressible silence, renowned motif, derived from the canonical which is the project’s core, correlates with the Gospels. silence scattered on the peripheries. Between This discontinuity was intentional, as the them, the effect of the sounds, bodies and words creators gave the performance the subtitle is located, which, therefore, cannot be anything ‘Fragments on Intimations of Immortality from other than fragmentary, incomplete and Recollections of Early Childhood’. While being a discontinuous. paraphrase of the title of the ode by William To respond to the character of the piece as Wordsworth, the subtitle refers also to a famous described, and intending also – at least partially Polish example, Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ – to delimit the advantage of linearity, I would Eve, whose title was originally intended to be like to lend voice to the experience itself, in all its Fragments from the Poem Forefathers’ Eve. extensiveness, and to recall, to evoke my This subtitle of Gospels of Childhood must be experience of Gospels as a certain remembered read as a suggestion for the audience not to whole. What dominates is the music – above all, search for ways to integrate or unify but rather to zar and the final Orthodox Greek hymns. That be open to encountering ‘fragments’ and they ‘dominate’ means here simply that when I ‘intimations’. Both of these terms allude to a think of Fret’s performance, the first thing to surface absence of what is most important. I appear is the darkness and zar reverberating referred to the fragmentary nature of Forefathers’ through it, and then the light of the paschal Eve purposefully, because this masterpiece is hymn and the lit candles swinging on the metal probably the greatest example in Polish wheels. That they ‘dominate’ means also that for literature of an open and unfinished opus, which me Gospels, like the ethno-oratories of at the same time is a challenge and an indication ‘Gardzienice’, is primarily an experience of of a powerful yet undisclosed force, of a core that musicality – an experience available more to a exists, even though it seems to be empty – in listener than to a spectator. other words, of a mystery. As Krzysztof If I were to synthesize the effect this Rutkowski used to say, one cannot speak the performance produces, the action it performed mystery out; one can only aspire to corner it. This within my own experience, I would use the aspiration – of not expressing directly – cannot expression ‘looming out’. I see Gospels as a have the structure of a linear and complete bright seed, looming out from tangled, hazy and dissertation, for as such, it could only succeed in unclear fragments. Their dramaturgy is not a talking the mystery away. It has to be dramaturgy of journeying to reach something discontinuous, fragmentary, based on but one of looming out, lightening, uncovering, intimations. It aims not at signifying and and – eventually – being born. From the scattered communicating but at building a space for initial scenes, from the variety of their themes, a possible experience, creating opportunities, main line gradually appears, which is detectable leading to ambiguities. in the darkness, and in the light of the Such is the nature of the Theatre ZAR concluding scenes. This line leads to the core of performance, which is not only site-specific, but the spectacle, namely, to the death and

70 Songs from Beyond the Dark

• Ewangelie dzieci´nstwa, Przemysław Błaszczak and Kamila Klamut. Photo by Tom Dombrowski

71 resurrection of Lazarus, which is the situation I the unity of identity. Conversely, in the ´n i i k s s o K shall remember most distinctly. Gospels for me is performance of Fret – who refers creatively also an endeavour to cross the borderline of death, to in this respect to the achievements of Grotowski open the door that slams shut after those who and Staniewski – the identity, the body and the pass away. Maybe this is the reason why, out of voice of a performer are not equated with the many details I am able to recall, the one that is identity, the body and the voice of the character, engraved in my memory particularly firmly is the which he or she allows to emerge. The audience cry, ‘The Door!’, woven surprisingly into the logia spontaneously seeks in the performance of the Gospel of Thomas – the cry that does not homogenous characters ‘implanted’ in the bodies seem to belong to any character’s line and at the of the actors, while, in my opinion, it would be far same time sounds like a battle cry. more appropriate to focus on each of the I also remember images, of course, and I was performing persons and observe their journey able to describe some of them. However, from the through various situations, actions and relations iconography of Gospels, what lodged itself most with one another. strongly in my memory is not so much any Besides being more appropriate, it would also concrete image but the very repetitive situation: be easier, because if one searches for ‘characters’, faces and bodies looming up from candlelight in Gospels lays false trails. To show this strategy, let the darkness, with the dynamic structure of us first look at the most active participants of the light-shade oppositions that is present as well in events, to whom I have earlier referred as The the paintings by de la Tour and Caravaggio. This Bright and The Dark. It is worth remembering is connected in an astonishingly obvious manner here that they, as the only ‘characters’ in the with what I have said above about the performance, have kept the name that was dramaturgy of Gospels, namely, with the originally proposed by the creators. Their performance’s basic figure of looming out. character is, therefore, still named Mary/Martha, The song and this looming out. The song that and written in this way. That the character’s occurs in the darkness and in the light, and this name is recorded in this way, coupled with that passes between the two, surfacing for a duality presented by the performers, creates an moment like a dolphin’s head. expectation that the identity of the character will be fluid but also points to its dual unity. However, 4 during the performance we often encounter From among a wide range of different subjects scenes that suggest that The Bright is Martha, raised by Gospels, I would like to point to the whereas The Dark, Mary. Sequences in which issues related to the dramaturgy of the they seem to change their roles do appear, performance and, consequently, to the naturally; however, these occur rarely and by no dramaturgy of the experience of encountering it. means do they belong to the main course of I believe that this dramaturgy may be analysed actions. Most of the time, the two persons act by referring to the characters involved, together – and are perceived – as Mary and Martha, even with the actions they perform and the ‘model’ evoking directly the roles of the sisters of structure that lies at their base. Lazarus in the final scene. At the same time, The very type of existence of the dramatis however, to see them as representing these personæ in Gospels is a peculiar one; it is specific characters throughout the whole contrary to the expectations of an audience performance would oversimplify, if not distort, raised on traditional dramatic theatre, the sense of their stage presence, since what is by accustomed to the uniformity and consequences far more important than the obvious differences of characters and believing in the axiom that the between them, is what they have in common. The unity of the person with a body is tantamount to key scene here is, of course, the ‘dialogue’ from

72 The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. In the The Bright’s actions – the initial ‘Pieta’ with the performance’s synopsis it is called Hesychia, tablecloth/shroud, or the fact that it is she who is which on the one hand may refer to the ascetic later to ‘teach’ of, among other things, the and meditative practice of the Christian Immaculate Conception. It is also worth Anchorites; on the other hand, however, it is the remembering here that in the Christian tradition name of the Greek goddess of quiet and stillness, both Marys function as oppositions that the daughter of Dice. The unity that the two gradually – and owing to the repentance of Mary women characters achieve in this scene Magdalene – approach one another, eventually comprises both of these aspects: their attaining unity in their love for Jesus. communion is like a spiritual elation, like This does not mean, of course, that The Bright attaining mystical knowledge; but at the same ‘plays’ Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The point is time it appears as an embodiment of the goddess that in the case of these characters, there is no – of a unity built from two. Adopting the permanent ‘entering into roles’. Neither The traditional Christian interpretation of Mary/ Bright nor The Dark loses her identity, described Martha as a representation of two paths leading probably most accurately by Richard Schechner’s to God – of action and of contemplation – we will formula ‘not-not-me’. They are not actresses Songs from Beyondsee the Dark that their coalescence in the act (and the acting in their own name, but neither do they figure) of Hesychia will become an image of become any of the evoked characters. Through a Completeness, arising from having rejected crack in identities, which traditional theatre neither possibility. Rejecting neither possibility struggles to avoid, these characters emerge into also means resigning from choosing, as opposed the space, in which they can exist simultaneously to actively choosing. Here lies the great difficulty in various aspects and dimensions, and point to of attaining fulfillment, which appears only the indissoluble unity they form. Perhaps the momentarily in the performance. modus operandi of this process is most visible in The duality and opposition of The Bright and the scene of reading the Gospel. Doubtlessly, the The Dark have yet quite another aspect, which women who read are not the ones they read also refers to evangelical examples. It is beyond about, but at the same time – and this doubt that by her actions The Dark gradually simultaneity needs to be emphasized – they are. comes close to those traditional interpretations Their lamentation is the lament of Mary and that equate Mary of Bethany with Mary Martha at the grave of Lazarus and – Magdalene. This process is clearly in evidence simultaneously – the lament of Mary and Mary and made manifest through many signs. Magdalene over the dying Jesus (‘if thou hadst However, a question arises here, whether – in been here’ sounds like Jesus’ own cry at that later respect of such an evaluation of The Dark – we event, ‘My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’), as are able to track a similar change in the Bright; well as the lamentation of all mourners whether – to express this more precisely – in view reverberating through the centuries. It is being of the transition of The Dark towards Mary sung from the crack between the characters. Magdalene, some other pattern emerges Quite similar in nature are the two remaining connected with The Bright. I believe that the characters I have singled out, who share the gradual emergence of Mary Magdalene out of feature of losing their proper names in the course Mary of Bethany helps us discern that in Martha of the performance. Thus the female character another Mary is present, namely, the mother of that appears in the performance beside The Jesus. This process is of course not in the least as Bright and The Dark used to bear the name The spectacular as The Dark’s transition, yet placing Third One, which I have taken the liberty of the two characters within such a perspective retaining. The Third One serves as a counterpoint allows us to understand better some aspects of to Mary/Martha. Even when she takes part in

73 their actions, she is perceived as different. During although functionally they do concur in each ´n i i k s s o K many stage actions she alone situates herself at individual situation. Perhaps The Man, therefore, the opposite pole to the sisters, opposing, but at is not an axis but rather a beam of various voices the same time, complementing them. Moreover, that speak depending on a given situation, although all three move dynamically between something more of the trickster nature of The different roles and registers, The Third One has Third One; perhaps ‘The Fourth One’? much greater latitude, functioning like a trickster That is a tempting speculation, yet it does not who can easily change shape and identity, yet who accord with the character’s function in the realm often also thwarts and counteracts the actions of of the performance. The Man, after all, occupies a The Bright and The Dark that aim at attaining very important place, to which the roles taken on something clear and permanent. The Third One, by the other characters allude through their juxtaposed with The Two, is a mysterious element, words and actions. It is the place of Jesus, a shadow and a distortion of their unity, although occupied by somebody who does not something driven out, yet essential. Her silent assume the role of the Absent, yet whose presence presence (silent in the sense that she does not emphasizes the Absence still more strongly. The utter a single word) introduces a peculiar Man, even when acting as a prophet, is a person dynamic to the relations between characters, who does not act instead of, but rather during distorting the rising connection and equilibrium Jesus’ non-presence. His four actions correspond between The Bright and The Dark and at the same with the four models of reaction to the Absence: time in a sense opening the way for another rebellion, theological speculation, cruelty and person – The Man. striving. Among them, the least Christ-like is the I regard The Man as an axis, around which the action related to the stoning, where The Man other characters’ actions happen. Moreover, he brings death into the situation into which Jesus functions as a figure that, in a sense, induces brought rescue. For this is probably the ultimate these actions. Adopting the original name of this sense of the presence of The Man in the place character and assuming that The Man is Lazarus, where Christ should be – crucial for this presence it seems beyond doubt that the actions of Mary/ is the resurrection, or, more specifically, its lack. Martha should be concentrated around him, The Man is Lazarus in the sense that he dies and while the central events – the death, the funeral cannot rise from the dead; therefore, unlike and the complaint directed at the Absent – refer Christ, he cannot survive death. He may rebel to him. Yet such clear-cut assigning of the against it, or try to rationalize it, or bring it or character is in direct opposition to the words strive to accept it – but he cannot overcome it. His uttered by The Man – in relation not only to their presence is at the same time the absence of God, meaning but also to their nature and place in the and the journey he is on appears as a kind of dramaturgy of the performance. The first recapitulation of human choices. The Man is monologue is, after all, a fierce accusation of God therefore an Everyman located in the place of and a rejection of his order. The second Jesus, yet, unable to overcome death, he is unable monologue, the ‘sermon on resurrection’, is in to replace him. turn a speech of a teacher and a prophet. And the Such a reading of these four characters alludes third and final monologue has an air of to what I regard as the fundamental theme of revelation and, also, of some resignation. In Gospels, which is – as it has to be – resurrection. addition, between those monologues delivered by Everything that has been said here so far may The Man, his various actions take place, suggest that it is a performance about an including the rape of The Dark and his impossible resurrection, about a lost battle with participation in stoning her to death. All these death; that it is a lamentation over the actions and speeches seem inconsistent, irreclaimable ‘intimations from recollections of

74 early childhood’. But this is not true. Although Host but by the sound and the light. The journey Gospels is filled with cries of despair, its finale is that the people who perform in Gospels set out comprised of resurrection, which at the same on and take throughout the performance ends on time forms an act of revealing the presence of the threshold of darkness, on the threshold of the Jesus as the one who is not subject to death. For it visible. Beyond, there is only the song – zar. If it is not true that Christ the Saviour is absent in alone is able to transcend the border between life Gospels – he is present at all times in what and death and to remain in the space occupied by determines and imbues all of the elements of the death, then it is beyond any doubt that the performance, namely, the music. Resurrecting, to whose (un)presence all the I remind once again: in the performance of elements of the performance allude, is present Theatre ZAR, the music, the song and the sound only in the song. It should not be surprising do not constitute an illustration, or even an therefore that, in the synopsis of the equivalent means of expression. It is these performance, the sequence of zar is entitled elements that govern the whole opus and are Lamentation of Jesus. In this context, it seems (literally) the dominant voice. They also delineate entirely logical that the scene of the Resurrection a dramaturgical model that is superordinate to is accomplished entirely by the song, this time Songs from Beyondthe the Dark characters’ actions, which I regard as a directly alluding to the liturgy. One can of course liturgical model. To avoid possible see this sequence as a staging of Resurrection, misunderstanding, I want to emphasize that I am but one cannot hear this scene as such. The not suggesting that in particular moments of the image here emerges directly from the sound, and performance the Choir sings hymns and among the performers the characters that have epiphonema that could suggest a reading that earlier been singled out no longer exist. Candles certain sequences are counterparts to elements are lit by ‘three Marys’, but also by a girl from the of either the Catholic Mass or the Divine Liturgy. Choir. The performers, immersed in the song, Such an operation would be unoriginal, even come back to the position of operators who carry banal. In fact, there is only one moment in the out the actions that emerge from the song and performance in which one could try to make an complement it. The song announces: ‘Christ is assumption that the song builds an analogy Risen’, and this message is confirmed by the between the performance and the liturgy. This light, which is raised to a high level to illuminate moment is Trisagion, which, during the Divine the darkness. The ultimate sense of this figure, Liturgy, is sung before the reading from the which I have always intuitively considered as Gospel, and which is heard in the performance essential for Gospels, is therefore that from the before and during the ‘sermon’ of The Man, darkness the light and the song emerge as signs preceding the scene of Hesychia. Another of the presence of the Resurrected. example, also sonic, though not a song, is the What is very important is the fact that these sound produced by a little bell, which can be actions do not have the character of a ritual and heard before the scene of the preparation to go. do not belong to any rite. Moreover, they do not In order to comprehend the superordinate even require faith. They are provided for a direct dramaturgy of the sound in Gospels, one would experience which, together with the preceding need not to watch it but rather listen to it, journey through the darkness, forms a sensuous treating it as an opus constructed entirely from analogy with a liturgy construed in a direct way sounds. It would turn out, then, that deprived of that leads, through symbols completed by faith, direct analogies with the liturgy, Gospels is, and to the recognition of the Presence. likewise the Mass, an action that leads to a central experience, in which the revelation of the Translated by Tomasz Wierzbowski and Andrei constant Presence is symbolized here not by the Biziorek

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