7th International Theatre Festival 5—13.12.2014 www.divinecomedy.pl serve as guides through the stage world, accompanied by ama- a real dark horse. In a play made in collaboration with Capella teurs with autism. But they aren’t being exposed to the curious Cracoviensis, the director asks questions about the meaning and gaze of “normal” people; instead the director works with them as limits of originality, one of our modern cultural obsessions. The if they were just regular actors. The structure of Paradiso is based structure of the piece is defined by a popular form of karaoke. on repetition, and at times resembles the stream of consciousness Tomaszewski gives a voice to a variety of freaks and losers, here of a Proust novel. Borczuch attempts to re-create the experience represented by members of a choir who have been dreaming their whole lives about singing a solo part. of autism, but his play is more than a mere theatrical simulation. In The Chorus of Orphans, created at the KTO The- Another experiment is offered by Monika Strzępka and Paweł De- atre, Jerzy Zoń uses yet another strategy. This wordless, hypnotic mirski in their theatrical series The Curse: Episodes from play originates from different cultural influences, inspired by such the Hopeless Times, which is presented during the festival varied material as the Book of Exodus, traditional Bolivian song in its entirety. The artists struggle here with the most effective te- and the Third Symphony by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. levision medium of the last decade and adapt some of its narrative The selection of Competition plays concludes with Meta- and plot tools to the theatre stage. They arrange a threatening and morphoses, directed by Małgorzata Zwolińska and Adolf dangerous situation and make all the politicians die while society Weltschek. The play references the best traditions in art, theatre drowns in chaos. The Competition also showcases the latest play and dance. The fusion of a variety of expressive tools — costumes, from Krystian Lupa, based on a text by Thomas Bernhard, Wo- set design, multimedia projections, dance, music and lights — creates an original stage world that leaves plenty of interpretative odcutters Holzfällen. With a clear-sighted approach freedom for the audience. The performance is full of cultural as- and a tendency to make accurate cultural diagnoses, Lupa obse- sociations and certain elements of the narrative refer to the myth rves a group of people once brought together by ideas, passions of Orpheus and Eurydice. The play is partly inspired by the Polish and desires who are now strangers to one another. theatre of form and the works of artists such as Tadeusz Kantor, Lupa’s play becomes a symbolic bridge between the theatre The plays to be shown at this year’s Divine Comedy Festival were announced on October 28th. Józef Szajna and Leszek Mądzik. of radical experiment and risk and theatre that is deeply rooted This year’s line-up introduces a brand new section titled Starting now it’s possible to book tickets; the festival runs from December 5th to the 13th. The in storytelling and based on psychological believability, using WHEN THEY COME BURN THE HOME DOWN, THE ONE THAT event is organized by the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre and the Krakow Festival Office. numerous strategies to engage the audience into the world of YOU LIVE IN, part of a festival cycle called PURGATORIO. A frag- ment of Władysław Broniewki’s poem, which today comes across 2 theatre fiction. This group of plays includes Agnieszka Glińska’s 3 A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians. almost like a platitude or an empty cliché, is an open invitation to Glińska follows the text closely and explores not only its comical reflect on contemporary threats and social fears. But more than external threats, we want to draw attention to our private phobias and tragic dimensions, but also its intelligently conveyed critique and obsessions. Maybe an external danger is just a projection of a IVINE COMEDY is a prestigious theatre festival that pre- that provides a platform for new talent to emerge. Our interna- of the capitalist system. A coherent story and classically construct- fear that’s deeply rooted within us? This cycle presents three pre- sents Polish theatre and its current trends, both formal tional guests always leave Krakow fascinated and amazed by this ed psychology of the characters are the main assets of Małgorzata miers co-produced by the Divine Comedy Festival: Rats, direct- D and narrative, to the international Jury, curators and the panorama of theatre of risks and freedom, dreams, ambitions and Bogajewska’s Dad. The performance, based on Artur Pałyga’s ed by Maja Kleczewska (Zygmunt Hübner Powszechny Theatre, press. This year, alongside strong, auteur experiments, we showca- courage and I hope that this year’s program will once again seduce play, presents an original take on a subject that still seems to be Divine Comedy Festival), Balladin, directed by Radek Rych- se more conventional plays, in order to reflect an on-going debate both the Jury and our audience” — says Bartosz Szydłowski. a kind of cultural taboo in Poland, namely fatherhood. Grzegorz cik (Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre, Divine Comedy Festival) and Request Concert about the shape of Polish theatre. This year, The Competition plays are centered around two se- Jarzyna deals in with aging and the passing of time in his play The , directed by Yana Ross, starring Danuta Stenka (Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, TR Warsaw, Divine Comedy Festi- “This year’s program is a signal of compromise between these emingly contradictory tendencies. On the one hand we have the Second Woman, based on John Cassavetes’s Opening val) as well as a Bagatela Theatre premiere:Mephisto , directed two, often contradictory theatre aesthetics. We want to initiate a theatre of radical experiment, on the other, well-made narrative Night. The director skillfully uses the meta-theatrical potential of the script and boldly fights the cultural stereotypes that make by Michał Kotański special meeting, create a platform for the exchange of ideas and theatre. PURGATORIO us all run blindly after youth. Presenting the fear of exclusion re- presents five plays that attempt to build a di- experiences that could never happen anywhere else. More than a As such, the Competition includes Radek Rychcik’s The alogue with the audience using a variety of approaches: Hard sulting from aging, Jarzyna examines the kind of gender-specific battlefield, we want to create a space for a theatre alliance, a con- Forefather’s Eve, which against theatre traditions is set in Gat, Dead World, directed by Eva Rysova, produced by the scious and respectful confrontation”, states Bartosz Szydłowski, the context of American pop culture and brings new meanings ramifications that, despite apparent social and cultural progress Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce; You’ve Clearly Never the main programmer and Artistic Director of the festival, in his to the surface, mainly about racial and class inequalities. Another and women’s emancipation, are still alive. Paweł Passini’s The Been a 13-year-old Girl, dir. By Iga Gańczarczyk (Łaźnia preview. play made within the trend of radical experimentation is Krzysztof Hideout/Kryjówka also confronts the themes of memory, Nowa Theatre); Człapówki-Zakopane, dir. by Andrzej The most exciting part of the festival is its Main Competition, Garbaczewski’s Kronos, which redefines the fundamental the- the passing of time and forgiveness. The director tells a story based Dziuk, produced by the Stanisław I. Witkiewcz Theatre in Za- INFERNO, which presents thirteen different plays from the last atre contract. The director struggles here with an anti-theatrical on recollections by his aunt, Apolonia Starzec, and touches upon kopane, and the directorial debut by Jacek Poniedziałek — The Glass Menagerie season. The winners are chosen by the international Jury and the text, where not a lot happens. The original piece becomes an excu- the trauma of Holocaust. Walking the thin line between realism , produced by the Jan Kochanowski The- atre in Opole. The Festival also offers numerous accompanying main prize of 50,000 Polish zlotys, sponsored by the President of se to reveal the mechanisms of memory production, in both its di- and surrealism, Katarzyna Dworak and Paweł Wolak’s Droga mensions — individual and cultural. Jolanta Janiczak and Wiktor śliska od traw… focuses on the nature of evil. This dark and events: meetings with the artists, discussion panels and the cycle the City of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski, will go to the theatre that DANTESQUE SCENES IN THE KITCHEN — a unique opportu- Rubin remain skeptical towards theatre traditions and romantic emotionally dense play is at times cut through with coarse humor. produced the winning play. Individual awards for the artists are nity to talk to distinguished Polish theatre artists while cooking funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Mał- visions: their play Towianskiites: Kings of Clouds is Black humor, balanced with a dramatic ending, defines the structure of Yakish and Poupche, directed by Piotr Szc- and preparing meals. gorzata Omilanowska. an attempt to de-mystify national images of Polishness that have Like last year, the PARADISO section of the festival is a plat- been haunting us since the Romantic era. Michał Borczuch’s Pa- zerski. Szczerski doesn’t limit his piece to exploiting the comedy This year’s Competition showcases plays produced by theatres embedded in the structure of the text by the Israeli playwright, but form reserved for young talents. This part of the festival showcases radiso presents a slightly different face of a theatre experiment. from Warsaw, Lublin, Wrocław, Legnica, Kielce and Krakow. makes a sudden left turn and confronts the fictional lives of his three plays produced at the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in “INFERNO is undoubtedly the most important part of the The director creates an intense play that destabilizes the act of characters with the hyper-real trauma of the Holocaust.