Macbeth practicing Aikido
The Song of the Goat Theatre, established in 1996 by Grzegorz Bral and Anna Zubrzycki, gained popularity in Great Britain after the successful Chronicle: A Lamentation, a play inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was 2004. Earlier, the group had travelled to the border of Greece and Albania to examine a very particular type of music – old funerary songs. Because the story of Gilgamesh is merely the impetus for a moving reflection on dying. As the group says, the song – poignant, purifying, and the body – with its energy, expression, honesty and presence, is more important. Critics wrote that even after a few minutes, the Chronicles… ceases to be a common play. Today, it’s a legend of world alternative theatre, with a long list of Polish and foreign awards, including recognition from the Guardian newspaper and the three most important awards of the Endinburgh Festival Fringe.
The international status of the band was confirmed a few years later with their loud premiere of a musical Macbeth. “Powerful magic. The effect, like Chronicles, hypnotising”, the critics enthused. Because Shakespeare, at first collided with polyphonic choir from Irkutsk, then with ancient songs from Corsica, had to carry away the audience. In an interview for e-teatr, Grzegorz Bral explained:
I decided to do Macbeth in an original version, because Shakespeare has this astonishing power of onomatopoeia, where words and thoughts are shortened and economic, but at the same time they give away the sound of emotions. We use a Japanese arm drag, in the play we use an aikido sword. Actually it’s a poem about a sword.
After its presentation at the Scottish Fringe, Giles Broadbent wrote on the pages of The Wharf:
Bewitching theatre. A fascinating interpretation of Macbeth (…) This is a genuinely new way to revel in the lyricism of Shakespeare, bypassing the textual intricacies and opting to distil the essence of magic and tragedy into a more visceral brew. (…) The enchantment lasts. Truly fey and hypnotic experience. (…) This fragmentary, scattered, often difficult to understand interpretation is, perversely, an ideal starting point for people unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s dramas. The beautifully presented text doesn’t require much attention. Instead, the viewer may loosen control of his own mind and instinctively dive into the rhythm of the play. Maybe we can experience what the great bard felt at the very source, when a shameless and sparking inspiration grew inside of him. The result is the most twisting and misty experience.
Songs of Lear like Munch’s Scream
The Poles caused another fuss in Edinburgh in 2013 during a grand presentation of Polish culture in Great Britain, organised and supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. First of all, a Polish play, 2008: Macbeth directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, opened the Edinburgh International Festival for the first time in the festival’s history, and two days later 11 thousand viewers from all over the world saw the play thanks to a broadcast organised by The Guardian. And then – the hearts of the audience were stolen by the intimate Songs of Lear.
"If this review was a song, it would be a hallelujah of gratitude", wrote Mary Brennan of The Herald right after the premiere of the magnificent Songs of Lear in the Edinburgh Summerhall. It was the middle of summer when the world’s most demanding theatrical audience awarded the band with a standing ovation at each of the play’s 13 stagings. Shakespeare’s magic worked and the press wrote about “one of the most touching theatrical works in years”, “human emotion overflows”, “yell of the lament caused tug at the heartstrings” and how Grzegorz Bral and his team reinstated Europe’s ability to lament. “Songs of Lear seems to have already passed into legend even though it's only a work in progress”, The Guardian summarised.
The audience’s compliments and fascination with the “tragic theatre of the most powerful kind” has launched an avalanche of awards. This is certainly one of the biggest successes of Polish theatre on foreign stages.