Ferdydurke, directed by:
Janusz Opryński and Witold Mazurkiewicz
Teatr Provisorium and Kompania Teatr took two performances to Kiev's Molyha Academy stage. The showings were part of DimChimer festival. "The Brothers Karamazov" place Dostoyevsky's moral dilemmas under contemporary scrutiny and "Ferdydurke" paints a bizarre universe of Gombrowicz's form
"Ferdydurke" was the first performance co-produced by Teatr Provisorium and Kompania Teatr. Roman Pawłowski hailed the play the best theatre adaptation of Gombrowicz of the last few years. Elżbieta Morawiec described it as the best performance since Grzegorzewski's "Ślub" ("The Wedding") and Jacek Zembrzuski called it the greatest event of Polish theatre since Tadeusz Kantor's "Umarła klasa" ("The Dead Class").
The performance maintains Gombrowicz's discipline of construction by transposing it onto theatrical rhythms and signs. Just as this avant-garde novel mainly speaks through its form, the performance uses this and the work of Gombrowicz to create "form". There are a couple of signs: tightness – the small bench with not enough room and the bodies' close contact, a body as subject to biological impulses, Rabelaisian behaviours and actions of a repetive style, and a theatre space narrowed down to an absurdly small scale.
In the performance a man is caught in the trap of form more literarily than in Gombrowicz's novel. At each step he falls prey to roles imposed on him. The play maintains a rhythmical construction and doesn't transmit the novel's linear narrative. It encloses the story in recurring little entities which amount to a stuffy universe. A strongly limited space, a condensation of time (the play is 1 hour and 20 minutes long), and very "corporeal" acting combine with a perfected precision of movement and rhythm. All of this builds up high emotions and holds the viewer in suspense.
"Ferdydurke" seems to discover a new, biological way of acting, which is closer to the figures from Gombrowicz's novels. The play's sure asset is comedy, the type which is cruel and wild in its character, just as Gombrowicz himself was at times cruel. The play's great success led to the production of a Televison Theatre adaptation of the show.
Mirosław Haponiuk in Gazeta Wyborcza daily, 19th of October, 1998
"Ferdydurke"
based on the novel by Witold Gombrowicz
direction: Janusz Opryński, Witold Mazurkiewicz;
set design: Jerzy Rudzki;
musical adaptation: Borys Somerschaf;
light and sound: Janusz Opryński, Jan Piotr Szamryk;
cast: Jacek Brzeziński, Witold Mazurkiewicz, Jarosław Tomica, Michał Zgiet
The performance premiered on the 15th of October, 1998
"The Brothers Karamazov"
Teatr Provisorium took up "The Brothers Karamazov", one of the best texts to have depicted the conflicts and contrasting worldviews of 19th century Russian intelligentsia. Fragments of Dostoyevsky's novel pose questions which remain valid in the contemporary discourse on human morality.
Issues which date back to the 19th century emerge as questions relevant for subsequent generations of worldwide intelligentsia. The theatre adaptation of "The Brothers Karamazov" was created with an awareness of the fact that a 21st century perspective demands the most renown metaphysical dialogues from a 130 year old text to be adapted to our contemporary reality. The world created by Dostoyevsky had to be confronted with today's harsh reality as well as contemporary theatre. The artists cooperated with professor Cezary Wodziński, a renowned specialist on Dostoyevsky's works , the author of works "Święty Idiota" ("Holy Idiot") and "Trans, Dostojewski, Rosja czyli o filozofowaniu siekierą" ("Trance, Dostoyevsky, Russia: On Philosophising with an Axe").
Watching the "Brothers", one sits on the edge of the seat for the entire three hours. There are no moments of being weary with images or fatigued with dialogue. (...) We observe the spiritual development of the play's figures as if it was the fastest action film in the world. (...) Opryński created one of those performances that disturb your sleep, because something starts to speak in your brain. A performance that you remember and attempt to analyse time and again.
Łukasz Drewniak, "Przeklęta symetria" ("Cursed Symmetry") in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily nr 117, 17th of June, 2011
"The Brothers Karamazov"
direction and text adaptation: Janusz Opryński
set design: Jerzy Rudzki, Robert Kuśmirowski
music: Marek Dyjak
visuals: Aleksander Janas
cast: Tomasz Bazan, Anastazja Bernad, Jacek Brzeziński, Romuald Krężel, Mariusz Pogonowski, Karolina Porcari, Magdalena Warzecha, Adam Woronowicz, Marek Żerański, Łukasz Lewandowski
The performance premiered on the 10th of June, 2011
Teatr Provisorium
One of the most important theatres to emerge from the legendary alternative Polish theatre scene of the 70s and 80s. Provisorium has been working continuously from 1976, and has since created some 20 performances. At present the group is led by Janusz Opryński and Jacek Brzeziński, who cooperate with various theatre circles all over Poland. The theatre has always drawn upon the most prominent pieces of world literature, basing its performances on the works of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Witold Gombrowicz, Victor Erofeyev, Robert Musil and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Together with the Kompania "Teatr" troupe, Teatr Provisorium has produced 6 performances and won numerous awards: Fringe First of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Grand Prix of the Festival of Small Theatre Forms in Croatia, group actors' prize of the "Biała Wieża" ("White Tower") Festival in Belarus, group actors' prize of the MESS Festival in Bosnia, Grand Prix of the"Tempus Art" Festival in Slovakia, Grand Prix of KONTRAPUNKT Festival in Poland, Grand Prix of Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival "Klasyka Polska" in Poland. The two theatres have been honoured for with the prize of Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage as well as the Artisitc Prize of the Mayor of Lublin.
Date: 3rd-4th of September, 2011
Venue: Kyiv-Molyha Academy, Kiev
Organised by: Teatr Provisorium
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute