MEDIATHEK

Woodcutters - The most keenly-awaited production of the 2014/2015 season, not only in Polski Theatre in Wrocław. An “artistic dinner” of old friends who once were a part of an informal bohemian group turns into a wake after the death of one of the characters. The participants are not focused on the deceased, though, they allow themselves to the “liberty” of verbalising hidden and unconscious fears, claims, injuries, and demands. The bohemia of the olden days turns rebel energy into state contracts, fat paychecks, decorations, and positions. The production is a radical journey deep into the modern world, going under the surface of social forms and cultural conventions, in search of what only starts to appear above the horizon. A production that touches on the problem of freedom, which is illusory in our life, and constraint, which is the natural condition of a human being. It also includes questions concerning artists and their role in the modern world.

// Credits //

Adaptation, set and lighting designer and directed by Krystian Lupa
Based on translation by Monika Muskała
Apocrypha and actors’ improvisations Krystian Lupa
Quotations from Jeannie Ebner’s work and Friederike Mayröcker’s work; thoughts of Joana in Sebastiansplatz Verena Lercher
Costumes Piotr Skiba
Arrangement of music Bogumił Misala
Video Karol Rakowski, Łukasz Twarkowski
Director’s assistants Oskar Sadowski, Sebastian Krysiak (State Higher School of Theatre) and Amadeusz Nosal (State Higher School of Theatre)
Improvisation on Henry Purcell’s Cold Song theme in Sebastiansplatz Mieczysław Mejza

Cast:
Thomas Bernhard / Piotr Skiba
Maja Auersberger / Halina Rasiakówna
Gerhard Auersberger / Wojciech Ziemiański
Joana Thul / Marta Zieba
National Theatre actor Jan Frycz (guest appearance, member of the National Theatre in Warsaw)
Jeannie Billroth / Ewa Skibińska
Anna Schreker / Boźena Baranowska
Albert Rehmden / Andrzej Szeremeta
Joyce / Adam Szczyszczaj
James / Michał Opaliński
John / Marcin Pempuś
Mira – General store owner - Anna Ilczuk
Cook - Krzesisława Dubielówna

Premiere October 23rd, 2014, at the Jerzy Grzegorzewski Stage

// Author //

Krystian Lupa (1943) is a world-renowned theatre director, stage designer, printmaker, writer, script writer, adapter, translator, teacher and author of musical studies for his own productions. After graduation, he associated with two theatres: Teatr im. Cypriana Kamila Norwida in Jelenia Góra, where, along with a group of young actors, he led the search for new forms of theatrical expression, and with Stary Teatr in Krakow, which became the place where Lupa worked most frequently. There Lupa tackled the topic of ethical problems and studied the spiritual situation of man at a time of great cultural change in such productions as The Dreamers by Robert Musil, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Kalkwerk by Thomas Bernhard. Kalkwerk marked the beginning of Lupa´s adventure with the work of Bernhard, which has so far given rise to ten productions throughout Europe. Following the premiere of Bernhard´s Immanuel Kant (on the programme of the Pilsen Festival in 1996) the director began his still-ongoing collaboration with Teatr Polski in Wroclaw. After the great success of the production Factory 2, based on the biography of Andy Warhol, a post-drama period began in Lupa’s work, represented by works including the diptych Persona (dedicated to Marilyn Monroe and Simone Weil) and Poczekalnia.0 (Waiting Room.0), written by the artist based on actors’ improvisations. Lupa also frequently directs outside Poland. For many representatives of the young generation of directors, Krystian Lupa is an artistic master and spiritual leader. He has won many prestigious awards in Poland and abroad, including the theatre Oscar: The European Theatre Prize, in 2009. He is currently working on a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, to premiere in November, 2016 in Polski Theatre in Wroclaw.

// Polski Theatre //

Polski Theatre in Wroclaw – This is not only the city’s oldest drama theatre but also the largest theatre in Lower Silesia and the second largest in Poland. In 2016, the theatre celebrates its 65th anniversary, spanning a period in which it has become celebrated not only in Poland but across Europe. It has hosted performances by Edmund Wierciński, Wilam Horzyca, Jakub Rotbaum, Henryk Tomaszewski, Krystyna Skuszanka, Jerzy Krasowski, Jerzy Grzegorzewski, Jerzy Jarocki, Krystian Lupa and Grzegorz Jarzyna at the highest artistic level. Since September 2006, the theatre’s general and artistic director has been Krzysztof Mieszkowski. During this period, over 50 premieres took place on the theatre’s three stages. They include such important and renowned performances as Sprawa Dantona (The Danton Case), Utwór o Matce i Ojczyźnie (A Piece on Mother and the Fatherland) by Jan Klata, Natalia Korczakowska’s Smycz (The Leash), Hamlet by Monika Pęcikiewicz and Courtney Love by Monika Strzępka.

// Press //

Every single character, skillfully rendered by one of the 13 actors in the troupe, is dignified and moving at the same time. The link to Austria has been played down, and so these lost “artists” could be any one of us.

mpf/jcc, Agence France Presse Mondiales

How to turn a thick and densely-plotted novel, primarily an interior monologue by a man watching an artistic dinner party, into material for an amazing play, pure theatre? This is the lesson taught by the Polish master, Krystian Lupa, and his actors.

Armelle Héliot, Le Figaro

Krystian Lupa reproduces the thought of this epic provocateur, appropriates it and recreates it with stunning virtuosity. A cubist-like, turning stage, a subdued atmosphere, exceptional usage of video projections. The actors thoroughly embody the characters, when they act they give the stage an unheard-of depth and intensity. We are beyond the theatre, beyond the cinema, beyond literature.

Vaucluse Matin

In Woodcutters, Lupa shows devilish introspection – the journey into the soul of all those present is a fascinating diagnosis of the “artistic profession.” It is a direct glimpse of hell, provoking and unalluring. On one hand there is so much talent, spark, clear vision and exceptionality, on the other hand navel-gazing, narcissistic intoxication in their own significance, emptiness, depression, hypocrisy, animosity towards others, inability to empathise and an overwhelming pain at their own existence, leading to suicide. Lupa has managed to create a generally-valid and highly-authentic testimony to how difficult and deforming the profession of artist is, and the pressures to which the artist is subjected in society.

Jana Machalická, Svět a divadlo

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