Lothe Lachmann's "Poza" Video Theatre is the only theatre in Poland where the work of live actors is accompanied by an electronic backdrop. Here, monitor and screen projections from cameras and projectors are complemented by digital computer virtuosity. The "Poza" Video Theatre came about thanks to the collaboration of actress Jolanta Lothe and writer/director Piotr Lachmann.
Their theatrical headquarters barely seats forty-four audience members at a time, and yet, thanks to their having collected film recordings from many areas of the world (ranging from Italy, Greece, Egypt and Israel) their special screenings, within the intimate atmosphere of the stage space, brings to life a picture of other realities. Such dramatizations serve to permeate the "mirror" of far-away lands, both historical and geographic, and create a symbiosis between real on-stage actors and their electronic duplicates. Age-old theatrical tools, such as words, pictures and music have been coupled together with new technology.
German-hailing Piotr Lachmann was born in Gliwice (then Gleiwitz). He spent his youth in post-war Poland which was followed by a longer period in Germany, after which he chose to settle in Poland, permanently in the early 1980s. He had, as he now recalls, just finished his private "studies" with Jan Kott whose revolutionary and extremely well received theatrical texts he translated into German. A greater influence for Lachmann, however, was Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz a dramatist characterized by his never-ending quest in discovering new theatre and an acute sensitivity over the demise of the metaphysical. After meeting Jolanta Lothe, Lachmann began to aim for his own creative purpose, producing a new type of theatre where live acting would be enriched by an electronic set design.
From its beginnings, "Poza" Video Theatre aroused suspicion. They were suspected of implementing western theatre technology. By contrast, western audiences could not help but be surprised that something so original had emerged in Poland.
The praise we received contained a certain degree of embarrassment, admits Piotr Lachmann. We finally managed to convince audiences with our tenacity. And, after many years of rehearsal, we wanted to perform for creative audiences, because without the active and imaginative participation of audience members, streams of images pouring through the monitors can definitely start to irritate. And then came the new co-creators, the actors themselves, such as Jan Peszak and his daughter, Marie. So we stopped complaining about the criticism, because the project has stood its ground, we have audiences. We didn't complain about lack of funds or the negativity…Instead we were content ourselves with the fact that our experiment succeeded in being a test model for the symbiosis of technology with humanity.
Above all, the pair treat their play with theatrical techniques as "a game in preserving the human face", an aim they carry beyond the realms of theatre.
After the death of Helmut Kajzara we fell upon the same idea to produce a show based on his works, adds Jolanta Lothe. Carrrying out his ideas of 'meta-theatre' on large stages with many actors was no longer possible. Earlier, I was in the National Theatre under the directorship of Adam Hanuszkiewicz, but after he left, everything changed. I became a very private person. Together with Piotr, we decided to stage his ideas in a different way. Kajzara's "Star" / "Gwiazda" brought about the possibility of a performance with just a single actress. I didn't want to just do a monodrama, however. It began with the seeking out of a new creative medium. At first, it was suppose to be a Film projection.
Lachmann had a film camera. Along with Jolanta Lothe, he travelled to Venice and later to Milan, where they filmed many interesting clips. One day they went to the cinema. After the show, they returned to their car, opened the boot and saw that it was empty. Along with their camera, they lost all of their filmed material. This first failure by no means put an end to their bold plans, a new type of theatre was already growing in their heads.
In as much as Piotr Lachmann feels at home in Poland, he says, that with his German citizenship he still remains a guest here. Today he believes that their obstinate claim to an original theatre was a mistake. If he and Jolanta Lothe had simply said that it was borrowed from "there", somewhere in the West, then everything would have been much simpler. Poles have a certain predisposition for accepting things driven in from "some place else".
Their original stage formula was first recognised as such by the organisers of the Documenta Fesitval in Kassel, Germany. They have would never previously encountered the pair's technique of paralleling theatre with video. Lachmann's Polytechnic studies came in handy. Although, it was chemistry that he studied rather than electronics.
He perceived, as he believes, the human dimension of chemistry as well as its poetry. Signs, hieroglyphs and smells fascinated him. And organic chemistry depends, amongst other things, on building strange, complicated circuits; serving as a sort of model to his latter, equally mysterious electronic systems.
For a real control of digital mixing, an electronic background is not essential. But, Piotr Lachmann is nevertheless regarded as an electronic shaman. In the beginning, many doubted the possibility of bringing the artists' works to the stage. But their ideas have held firm for over ten years. Piotr Lachmann's slim frame, coupled with torchlight and the attention of his audiences are also integral elements in aiding this type of performance pageantry.
The vertical arrangement of the monitors, with their many intriguing images, brings to mind totems, which to a certain degree tend towards the sphere of the sacred. Television, as the chief media from the whole rubbish bin of modern civilization, has contributed to the fact that the artist by working with contemporary means, nevertheless discovers something new, something magical. Supposedly Adam Mickiewicz had a Lithuanian-Belarussian fascination for the rituals of our forefathers.
Piotr Lachmann does not hide the fact that when traveling (for instance to Greece) what always captivated him was not only the promise of sea and marble cliffs, but also the feeling, that the landscape had looked that way for thousands of years. He was always inspired to write narratives into these ancient landscapes, a mix of tales informed by the biological and the sensual.
For the shows he produces with Jolanta Lothe he picks places that are not only magical but also meaningful. They also find them in Poland. The southern world nevertheless has indisputable charm. They were able to film some great material in Egypt, during initial preparations for a performance of KababaKai. Living at a friend's, they noticed some camels outside their house with Bedouins swinging on their backs. In the background there were great satellite plate antennas partnered with the pyramids, dancing in the sunset from the overheated air.
Scraps of film have the power to condense and record the experiences of thousands of years and taking advantage of camera technology makes for an unbeatable atmosphere: "Poza" Video Theatre audiences should know.
October 2010
Performances of the "Poza" Lothe Lachmann Video Theatre Company, directed by Piotr Lachmann:
- Act-Tress II Helmut Kajzar, premiered: June 23, 1988;
- Alkestis' Operation Piotr Lachmann, premiered: December 12, 1991;
- KaBaKai/RE-animation Piotr Lachmann, premiered: December 18, 1993;
- Story for Hollywood Hanna Krall, premiered: November 18, 1996;
- Act-Tresses Helmut Kajzar, premiered: October 30, 1999;
- KababaKai Piotr Lachmann, premiered: February 2, 2002;
- E.T.A. Hoffmann in Płocek Ernest Teodor Amadeusz Hoffmann, premiered: March 29, 2004;
- E.T.A. Hoffmann: from Płocek to Warsaw Piotr Lachmann, The Grand Theatre, Poznań (Festival Hoffmannowski), premiered: April 7, 2005;
- Hommage à Hoffmann Piotr Lachmann, Łazienki Królewskie (The Great Hall), Warsaw, premiered: October 22, 2005;
- spiewanna@alkestis.pl by Euripides and Thornton Wilde, premiered: November 19, 2005;
- Slimy Hamlet. A rehearsal. Piotr Lachmann, premiered: September 17, 2006;
- Galapagos Islands Helmut Kajzar, premiered: February 9, 2008;
- Grinding Piotr Lachmann, premiered: June 10, 2010.
Lothe Lachmann Videoteatr "Poza"
ul. Morskie Oko 2 (Pałac Szustra)
02-511 Warszawa
Region: mazowieckie
Phone: (+48) 22 856 93 12, 22 825 32 34
WWW: videoteatrpoza.pl