Ten people imprisoned in the space find themselves besieged and withough any means to escape. As in a nightmare, the changing time and space casts them in the reality of Warsaw in August 1944, and then back in a contemporary world. They exist in this double reality, playing the role of young combatants of the Uprising, and then switching back to their contemporary identities.
These young people are deprived of any historic awareness, and when they are bombarded with imagery and stories of the Warsaw Uprising, they have to attempt to confront the situations they are suddenly thrown into. They are faced with barricades, canals, hunger, marriage, bomb raids, death, and eye-to-eye encounters with the enemy. History becomes an act of violence for these people, as they are forced to speak either for or against the Uprising. And just like the actors, the spectator cannot remain indifferent to what goes on on the stage.
The co-author of the script, playwright Dorota Sobstel explains
We want to show these young, beautiful and enthusiastic people who love life in scenes that are extreme both in their drama and their choreography. Their struggle and toil on the stage is meant to reflect the struggle and sacrifice of those who took part in the Uprising.
The director of the capital’s Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, Jan Ołdakowski comments:
The young actors and the young director of this piece want to depict the Warsaw Uprising in a contemporary way. They want to pose the question whether a Warsaw hipster would be capable of fighting in the Uprising. It’s not about encouraging people to die in the streets of Warsaw, but about making this hipster senstivie and tunes into the possibility of evil taking place, an evil that needs a voice of his protest against it.
The piece is directed by Radosław Rychcik, an arist known to base his theatre work on extreme emotions, putting both the actors’ and spectators’ limits to the test. Rychcik states:
Working on Powstanie is an absolutely exceptional experience. Thanks to the coproduction of the theatre and the museum, we are able to perform in a very interesting space and at a very special time. The fact the play premieres on the 1st of August, on the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, is inspirational and marks a commitment. Warsaw is still a huge cemetery, a city of ghosts, which burn and don’t let themselves be forgotten. A mere presence on the stage on the 1st of August is significant. The spectator will witness the events of those historic days told by our own selves.
The Powstanie performance is more than a one-time production to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Following its showings at the Museum on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of August, 2012, it will be on the programme of Warsaw’s Dramatyczny Theatre from the 1st of September.
Powstanie
written by: Radosław Rychcik, Dorota Sobstel
directed by: Radosław Rychcik.
Stage design and costumes: Anna Maria Karczmarska
dramaturgy: Dorota Sobstel
choreography: Izabela Chlewińska
music: The Natural Born Chillers
cast: Klara Bielawka, Dobromir Dymecki, Anna Gorajska, Adam Graczyk, Natalia Kalita, Anna Kłos-Kleszczewska, Tomasz Nosiński, Michał Podsiadło, Jaśmina Polak, Marcin Tyrol
Editor: SRS
Source: press release, www.rp.pl