The script of Gallery of Polish Kings was co-authored by Marcin Cecko. It is based on historical sources, such as the 12th–century chronicles of Gallus Anonymus and the history of Wawel’s royal crypts. The starting point of the story of the Polish monarchs is the German occupation. The Wawel Castle became the residence of Hans Frank – the Governor-General of the German-occupied Polish territories. Frank considered himself the last ruler of Poland, and his wife Maria Brigitte Frank considered herself the queen. These facts had a strong affect on us, explained Cecko.
We wondered whether Frank, in some mystical way, could have tried to call in all the rulers in order to prove his royal lineage. Such is the initial situation on which the performance is based.
Apart from Justyna Wasilewska in the role of Mieszko I, the cast includes Blażej Peszek, Anna Radwan-Gancarczyk and Zygmunt Józefczak.
Stone Skies Instead of Stars
Kamienne niebo zamiast gwiazd / Stone Skies Instead of Stars is a contemporary theatre project which confronts the event-pertinent issue of apast historic event with a radical stage experiment. Garbaczewski and Cecko draw on the Kamienne niebo (Stone Sky) novel by Jerzy Krzysztoń, which tells the story of the Uprising from the perspective of hiding civilians, imprisoned in cellars and basements throughout the fighting. The young artists take on this theme in order to construct a world in which isolation, a sense of enclosure, and desperate attempts at survival become a universal metaphor which still functions today.
Rather than transporting the audience into a reconstructed historic reality, Garbaczewski and Cecko chose to follow traces of "postmemory". The concept was first used by author Marienne Hirsch in the early 1990s, when she wrote an article on Art Spiegelman’s iconic comic book Maus about the experience of the Holocaust.
Garbaczewski detonated a bomb – commented Witold Mrozek in Gazeta Wyborcza. – This performance is not designed to teach about the history and the Uprising. It is about us, not about them. It examines the reasons why half of today's Polish students believe that the Uprising ended in victory.
Garbaczewski versus Gombrowicz and Proust
In 2013, Garbaczewski staged the long-awaited literary premiere of Kronos at Polski Theatre in Wrocław. It is an intimate diary by Witold Gombrowicz, publicized as the literary event of the decade. "It is a difficult text for theatre. We did not re-write it as dialogue. It contains cracks which we filled up with our own biographies", explained the director. "Gombrowicz raises questions about being honest with oneself. Staging Kronos at the theatre is like posting someone’s profile on Twitter or Facebook. As a result, it enhances questions regarding the structure of our biography, about the importance of intimacy and honesty with oneself." Once again, Garbaczewski invited Alexandra Wasilkowska to collaborate on the stage design. The music was composed by Julia Marcell. Aneta Kyzioł commented in Polityka:
Actors recount, read or dictate their own intimate diaries. Adam Szczyszczaj is brilliant in the role of the alter-ego of the spectator of this boring, partially-screened, on-fire curtain, and partially played without the mediation of the camera, drama and protests against what he sees:" What the f…is this?! I will not sign up for this and be forced to explain myself to people!" He would like to participate in real art, real theatre. But today, Gombrowicz's dramas can not expect even a small percentage of the interest which his intimate journal enjoyed.
Garbaczewski’s three-piece, interdisciplinary project PROUST- PAMUK- MEMORY, created in collaboration with Turkish choreographer and director Emre Koyuncuoglu, premiered at the Festival Theatre in Istanbul on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the establishment of Polish-Turkish diplomatic relations. The theatrical part of the project, inspired by Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence, was performed before the Turkish public in June 2013. The event was supported by Culture.pl. The Turkish director revealed that this was a very personal performance:
I juxtaposed my memories, my memory of Istanbul, its flavours, with the way of thinking of the Polish actors. In their hands, these memories became exhibits.
In 2014 roku at the Schauspiel in Stuttgart, Garbaczewski directed Albert Camus' Caligula. Later on he directed Sławomir Wojciechowski's Victory Over Sun and Marcin Stańczyk's Solarize at the Gand Theatre – The National Opera. Cecko wrote the libretto. The opera was created as a part of Project 'P' aimed to produce operas made by young, talented composers.
In 2015 a renowned duo Garbaczewski/Cecko created two successful experiments – they staged Shakespeare's dramas: The Tempest at the Polish Theatre in Wrocław and Hamlet at the Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Kraków.
Witold Mrozek wrote about Hamlet:
None of Polish directors has such an impressive visual imagination as Garbaczewski and Hamlet with stage design by Aleksandra Wasilkowska is yet another proof. (…) Garbaczewski's play in Marcin Cecko's adaptation splits Hamlet like a prism. Cecko replaces a pompous 'to be or not to be' with an open 'to be, or not: maybe'. That is why the subsequent scenes create several variants of the idea for Hamlet, separate thick worlds, rather neighbouring than resulting in one another.
HAMLET TRAILER from Spectribe on Vimeo.
In 2016 Garbaczewski made his debut on a prestigious stage in Berlin at the Volksbühne Theatre with his Locus Solus. The play was written by Marcin Cecko and based on Raymond Roussel's novel from 1914.
Welcome to Locus Solus, a park as strange and curious as its numerous attractions. Its owner, the scientist and inventor Doctor Martial Canterel, will receive visitors to exhibit his radical experiments and inventions. Should anyone in Europe have forgotten a phase at some stage of their life, Martial Cantarel is able to track down that moment and control it. (…) At Cantarel’s command they rise to reproduce key moments in their lives. Locus Solus is a place where the world has become utterly transparent, where the past and the future reveal all their secrets. (Volksbühne's materials)
In june 2016 Garbaczewski directed Robert Robur based on an unfinished novel by Mirosław Nahacz Robert Robur's Incredible Adventures, published two years after the author's death. Garbaczewski transfers dystopian reality, created by the writer to the world of media and virtual reality.