A scene from the TR Warszawa production of Nosferatu, photo: Stefan Okołowicz
Following stagings at Theatre de l’Odeon in Paris and the Barbican in London - and with plans to take the production to New York City this year - Grzegorz Jarzyna’s latest production travels for its Australian premiere at the Adelaide Festival
As with the lead character's calling - his purpose - the Nosferatu of acclaimed director Grzegorz Jarzyna forces us to confront our deepest anxieties, visiting us only because we have called upon him; thirsting for our souls as we thirst for them to be taken. In Jarzyna's take on the horrific figure, the director creates a theatrical exploration of humanity's fascination with fear and the yearning for transcending material, social and symbolical limits, taboos, and even the body itself. With the classic psychological and metaphysical thriller, Jarzyna conveys the way individual fears and obsessions intertwine with society, in a picturesque and "hypnotic" production.
While the vampire motif had been present in folk literature long before the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, it was this very novel that has become an everlasting source of inspiration to creators of all arts. One of the most significant works it inspired was F.W. Murnau's Expressionist film masterpiece Nosferatu. A Symphony of Horror from 1922, which in turn, impressed Werner Herzog so much that in 1979 he created his own version of the vampire myth entitled Nosferatu the Vampyre.
A refined visionary, Grzegorz Jarzyna presents a spectacular multimedia production featuring the German actor Wolfgang Michael, with whom he had collaborated at Vienna's Burgtheater on the The Lion in the Winter. The actor had read the famed book by Stoker at the age of fourteen and has been fascinated with the subject since, studying it thoroughly. He recognises common ground between the worlds of vampires and humans. Michael remarks:
The problems they have are not very different from ours. We're lost in the universe just as they are, we don't know where we came from and where we are heading; we're always searching for some kind of sense to it all, for God or the absolute.
Jarzyna’s production of Nosferatu premiered at the National Theatre in Warsaw in November 2011 to favourable reviews.
Paweł Soszyński had written that the piece is in fact far from the gloomy castles of Stoker’s novel, and "much closer to the stained glass windows of Marcel Proust’s prose". In the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, critic Jacek Cieślak called Jarzyna's staging a "hypnotic film" in which the audience experience "every bit of silence flowing through the consciousness" through the music, imagery, colours and rustle of the heroine Lucy's dress, her nudity and her sensuality. Cieślak described the play a surreal circus of sorts, in which the vampire hypnotises Lucy and takes her to a place beyond earth. Łukasz Drewniak, a journalist of Przekrój magazine said that "Jarzyna sees Nosferatu both through the eyes of Visconti and Jarman", and French Telerama’s critic Fabienne Pascaud claimed that the staging is evocative of paintings by Edward Hopper.
The highly esthetic staging of Nosferatu is performed four times at the Adelaide Festival, with the Australian premiere on the 14th of March exclusive to the festival. The showings take place at the Dunstan Playhouse - Adelaide Festival Centre at 8 pm, with the Sunday showing starting at 5 pm.
Nosferatu is thus far well received by the Adelaide audience. In a review for arts Hub, theatre critic Glen Christie presented the show with 4 out of 5 stars. She stated that the characters of Nosferatu are not the prudish Victorians of Stoker’s era and underscored that already the opening moments of the play make it clear that these are a collection of self-centred and self-absorbed individuals. Christie went on to comment that the play is a perfect platform for commentary on 21st Century vampirism in societal norms, employing both classic and modern themes to draw its parallels:
This, ultimately, is Jarzyna’s point. We no longer fear the vampire because we live in a society filled with them. There are no longer limits or boundaries; everyone is out for their 15-minutes of fame, financial reward and recognition, preferably without too much effort. So, rather than hunting and destroying the evil, it commits a form of social suicide; there is no longer any sustenance to be gained.
Nosferatu credits
Written and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna
Music: John Zorn
Cast: Jan Englert, Krzysztof Franieczek, Jan Frycz, Marcin Hycnar, Sandra Korzeniak, Lech Łotocki, Wolfgang Michael, Katarzyna Warnke and Adam Woronowicz . TR Warszawa and Teatr Narodowy production commissioned by the Adelaide Festival, National Audiovisual Institute, Barbican London, Dublin Theatre Festival and TR Warszawa Foundation. Strategic partner: Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
For information on bookings, see: www.adelaidefestival.com.au
Since its launch in 1960, the Adelaide Festival has created a strong tradition of innovation and inspirational performances, drawing on selections of diverse art forms from across Australia and around the world. Over the years tens of thousands of artists have presented their work at the Adelaide Festival, which has hosted many extraordinary and exclusive moments. The festival hosted Peter Brook’s legendary production of The Mahabharata, which was performed during the course of an entire night in an Adelaide stone quarry for the 1988 Festival and set the benchmark for outdoor epic productions.
Paulina Schlosser, source: press release, Adelaide Festival, TR Warszawa, au.artshub.com