Fasada 1/2 promotional photo courtesy of Teatr Nowy
Performances of Fasada 1/2 and the Caution Hot! series bring on new perspectives on Polish-German relations through theatre and movement
In 2011 the Kraków-based Teatr Nowy theatre hosted the Artists in Transition workshop project for young European directors. Fasada 1/2 was written by Mirjam Schmuck and Fabiana Lettow (Kainkollectiv) from Germany based on their experiences in Kraków, soaking in the local culture and observing Polish society.
"Even though we read books and we knew the history, we didn't actually know that much about Kraków and Warsaw, the real research began after we arrived here. And we decided to make that an advantage", said Mirjam Schmuck in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The result is a play about the first generation in Poland to grow up in a post-communist environment. Three young Polish actors Weronika Wronka, Zbyszek Styrczula and Łukasz Stawarczyk bring the story to life, exploring their city's past and present.
The play premiered on the 4th of May 2012 at the Forum Freies theatre in Dusseldorf as part of Teatr Nowy's German tour and ongoing workshop series with local theatres in the North Rhine-Westphalia, which is also part of the extended Klopsztanga cultural exchange project. Made possible by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Nowy Teatr's Artists in Transition: NRW series puts on Fasada 1/2 back in Dusseldorf on the 18th of May, in Mulheim on the 19th and Dortmund on the 3rd of June. The series also presents Piotr Sieklucki's production of Lubiewo, based on the book by Michał Witkowski and Bogdan Hussakowski's Philosophy in the Boudoir. Teatr Nowy is hosting workshops in cooperation with the Ringlokschuppen Mulheim and produce a new German-Polish coproduction. Mulheim also hosts playwright and director Maria Spiss, who is currently there for an artistic residency.
Between the 11th-13th of May 7, 2012 the Cultural Forum at the Old Post Office in Neuss hosts Vorsicht Heiss! / Caution Hot! a festival that brings together Polish and German theatre tradition, coordinated by BBB Johannes Deimling. BBB Johannes Deimling (born 1969 in Germany) is an action and performance artists who works internationally, with a special focus on Polish performance art after 1996. He has produced a number of productions in Poland and has put together this three-day festival to highlight contemporary Polish performance in the German context. Deimling emphasises the lengthy history of Germany and Poland, with all its peaks and falls and pushes the two nations to share their stories, even if they don't fully mesh, in order to attempt to create a whole. He finds that art is the bridge between politics and society and takes the "hot iron" of history, memory and knowledge to the stage in "performance art that brings to life and physical experiences translated through artistic means, what is not to pack too much into words, no matter what language". The festival brings together artists from both nations, using abstract and poetic movements to evoke these diverse perspectives. The festival was made possible by the support of the Polish Institute in Dusseldorf.
See more on Klopsztanga 2012 on Culture.pl and the official Klopsztanga website
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: klopsztanga.de