"Ragazzo dell'Europa" dir. René Pollesch, photo courtesy of organisers
The experimental performance "Ragazzo dell'Europa" by renowned German director and playwright René Pollesch returns to the stage at TR Warszawa this month
The performance, which premiered at TR Warsaw in May 2007, is based on René Pollesch's texts "Cappuccetto Rosso" and "Pablo in the Plus". The show is a co-production of the TR Warszawa and Goethe-Institut Warschau, with the support of the Polish-German Collaboration Foundation.
Pollesch depicts sociopolitical and economical mechanisms which determine the life of modern day man in the consumerist society of today. He does not stage the classics, seeing them as not current and distant from the real world here-and-now.
His texts are created during rehearsals and are frequently inspired by sociological literature (for example the works of Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault or Giorgio Agamben), popular films, performances and even advertising slogans. He rarely publishes his works, treating them like a theatre score coming alive in contact with the actors.
The director explains that he is particularly focused on the role of the actor in the rehearsal process. "I do not train the actor to deliver the text. I want to know if he is able to do something with it, if he's interested in the things he's talking about."
Pollesch began his collaboration with TR Warsaw after the 2006 presentation of his performance "Hallo Hotel", which presented an intriguing context of his anti-naturalistic acting method with the particulars of the Polish mentality.
René Pollesch was born in 1962 in Germany. One of the best and most talented representatives of post-dramatic theatre, he's known for having created an original theatrical language of his own. He is not interested in the traditional way of making theatre where the actors create the characters taking into consideration their psychological motives. His performances are an uncompromising political statement. He studied at the Institute of Applied Theatrology of the Giessen University where, among others, he was taught by Andrzej Wirth and Hans - Thies Lehmann. He participated in the stage projects of Heiner Müller and George Tabori. He was a scholarship-holder at the Royal Court Theatre in London and participated in seminars conducted by Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill. He also worked as a dramatist at the Luzerner Theater and Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Six years ago he became the creative director of the Prater stage of the Volksbühne in Berlin. The shows he staged there, especially The Prater Trilogy brought him recognition. In 2002 he received the prestigious disctinction of Theater Heute monthly.
"Ragazzo dell'Europa". Direction: René Pollesch, set design and light: Bert Neumann, costumes: Nina von Mechow, light consultation: Jacqueline Sobiszewski, cameraman: Adrian Hutyriak, dramatist: Szymon Wróblewski. Cast:Aleksandra Konieczna, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Piotr Głowacki, Tomasz Tyndyk.
TR Warsaw
ul. Marszałkowska 8
00-590 Warsaw
ph. 022 480 80 00
www.trwarszawa.pl
Source: www.trwarszawa.pl, www.culture.pl