Polish Theatre Conquers Avignon!
A masterpiece, a dazzling artistic manifesto, breathtaking power of imagination from the Polish director – the French press raves of Krystian Lupa’s Woodcutters. The show opened this year’s edition of the Festival d’Avignon.
It is a great return to France for Lupa and a huge international success for the Polish Theatre in Wrocław. Its triumph is evident in the reaction of the audience at one of the most important and challenging theatre festivals in the world. Woodcutters, based on the novel by Thomas Bernhard, was seen by over 3,500 spectators and each of the five performances was interrupted by enthusiastic cheers and concluded with a long standing ovation. “The great audience cheered, stamped, and went after the performance, congratulations. I have never seen such applause in Polish theatre,” admits Ewa Skibińska in an interview with TVP Wrocław. Excellent reviews also appeared in the most important opinion-making publications.
Polish master of European theater Krystian Lupa directs thirteen extraordinary actors in an adaptation of an adaptation of a work by Thomas Bernhard. -- Le Figaro
In Avignon, the revelation of the year took place at Fabrica, a venue situated in the poor neighborhood of Monclar, where Krystian Lupa presented the first play of the festival, in the afternoon of Saturday, July 4 : Woodcutters, based Thomas Bernhard's novel. The masterpiece was hailed by the entirety of the standing audience at the end of the performance - four and a half hours, with Polish subtitles. At 72, the master of Polish theater signs a dazzling artistic manifesto. -- Fabienne Darge, Le Monde
After the premier, critics admitted that for them the Festival d’Avignon might as well stop there. Offers rained down on the Polish performance for 12 shows at the Odeon in Paris, as well as for festivals in Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. One proposal called for a month residency for the director in France and an international co-production of his next performance. Woodcutters was hailed as a phenomenon and is another argument for bringing the Wrocław theatre to the national scene. “We need support, stable funding and management,” noted the theatre’s director Krzysztof Mieszkowski.
Woodcutters was the first performance in the history of Polish theatre to open the Festival d’Avignon, which has been taking place since 1947. And this brilliant spectacle will return to Wrocław in September!
Sources: Teatr Polski we Wrocławiu, TVP Wrocław, Gazeta Wyborcza, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation, ed. AL, trans. AA 17.07.2015
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