Photo: Jakub Wittchen
Science fiction took the stage in Paris at the L'Autre Rive Gauche project through I, CULTURE week
Teatr Biuro Podróży (Travel BureauTheatre) continued its worldwide tour with a performance in Paris. The Quai Francois Mauriac in front of the Piscine Josephine Baker hosted performances of their latest production - "Planet Lem". Performances took place in partnership with Batofar club and were part of the L'Autre Rive Gauche project and I, CULTURE week, organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
"Planet Lem" employs a spectacular mobile set design and multimedia projections and is inspired by figures from the collected works of Polish Science fiction writer, Stanisław Lem.
Teatr Biuro Podróży is a Poznań-based theatre group founded in 1988 by Paweł Szkotak. The theatre's productions have been presented in 46 countries (including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Palestine, Singapore, Taiwan, USA, and most European countries).It has produced thirteen performances including eight outdoor performances and won awards such as the Director Award at the Fadjr Festival in Tehran (for "Macbeth") as well as the Fringe First, Critics’ Award, the Hamada Award in Edinburgh and the Grand Prix at the Athens Theatre Festival for "Carmen Funebre".Their shows have been lauded as "unforgettable", "powerful" and '"highly recommended".
The theatre, which organises many educational opportunities for young people, aims to reach out to audiences who do not normally have access to artistic events (hence their use of outdoor venues). They also organise the annual Maski festival in Poznań, which was established in 1997 and showcases "engaged theatre" from both Poland and abroad.
The group's former performances include "H of D", which focused on class divisions, "Macbeth", which takes place in a nightmarish world populated by ghosts and witches in a production that utilises moving set, motorbikes, stilts and fire, "Pigs", which tells the tragi-comic tale of pigs brought up to love man, who then betrays them and "Carmen Funebre", the inspiration for which was the war in Bosnia, other global conflicts, and deep-rooted national intolerance. In preparation for "Carmen Funebre", members of the theatre company met refugees from former Yugoslavia. The refugees’ accounts of lost homes and relatives gave inspiration to the actors as they worked on various scenes and built metaphors which described universal themes of the condition of displaced people. The troupe is engaged in ongoing project, supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, entitled: "Theatre Without Boundaries" which aims to stage performances in places of heightened social or political tension, such as the West Bank or Chernobyl.
Co-produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Teatr Biuro Podróży's showings take place in Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Moscow, Kiev, and Beijing
"Planet Lem" in Paris video:
Date: 9th, 10th & 11th of July, 2011
Venue: Quai Francois Mauriac
Organised by: Teatr Biuro Podróży, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
For more information on Teatr Biuro Podróży, see: Teatr Biuro Podróży
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Planet Lem is a Flagship Project of the Polish Presidency Cultural Programme. For more information, see: Planet Lem
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute