From a Polish forest village to the blinding lights of London, A Time to Reap considers one woman’s story against the mountain landscape of an evolving nation, and takes up one of Poland’s hottest political topics: abortion and the Catholic Church
Wakulik attended the Royal Court Theatre’s 2011 International Residency for Emerging Playwrights. She came to London to work on her play, A Time To Reap (Zażynki, in Polish), in that July and was invited back in March 2012 to develop the play with director Caroline Steinbeis. The performace premieres on the 22nd of February, with a repeat perfomance the next evening.
The cast features Max Bennett (Piotr), Sinéad Matthews (Marysia) and Owen Teale (Jan). It is the second Polish play to be staged at the Royal Court Theatre stage, following Janusz Głowacki’s 1981 play, Cinders. The English translation of Wakulik’s play is due to be released by the Nick Hern publishing company.
In a talk with Sarah Hemming for the Financial Times, the playwright revealed her reasons for taking up such a politically charged, senstitive issue. Wakulik says she was prompted in part by 1930 text from Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, entitled "Women’s Hell" (Piekło Kobiet). It is a collection of articles describing the impact on women of living in a society in which abortion was illegal. What struck her, the playwright states, was that she found almost nothing had changed in contemporary Poland. Wakulik also mentions in a video interview that she was inspired by a workshop conducted by playwright Tadeusz Słobodzianek at the Teatr na Woli in Warsaw, under the theme Dialogues with the Church.
Her piece unfolds within a love triangle, a father and son and a young woman, Marysia. Jan, a gynaecologist in Poland, performs clandestine illegal abortions. His son Piotr has moved to London. Each of them is affected by Jan’s work; each is changed by events in the play. Jan represents the historical voice, Marysia the traditional one and Piotr embodies the contemporary young Pole. Anna Wakulik states that she wanted to tackle the issue in the most individual approach, looking both at painful inner conflicts and at cultural and religious conditioning. In her talk with the Financial Times' Hemming, Wakulik explained:
It would be the worst thing to write a ‘pro-abortion play’ for me. I hope I showed three different points of view, properly. And the reference point for the characters is always religion – even for Jan, the father, who has distanced himself from religion, and for Piotr, who has lost contact with Poland. (…) What’s also very important is the cult of Maria, which goes even deeper in Poland than I show in the play. It’s connected with the role of the mother in Polish culture. The play is set on Assumption Day, August 15, which started as a pagan celebration at the beginning of harvest. Over the years the Catholic church has turned it into a Catholic celebration, so it’s become a cult of the Virgin Mary. But underneath it are very different traditions.
The head of the Royal Court’s international department, Elyse Dodgson, believes that to some extent, Wakulik’s text is a "state-of-the-nation play":
The play is about much more than the church and abortion. It’s a very honest portrait of a young woman growing up in that society. It’s such a tender piece. And it fits in with the many plays we’ve done about the post-Soviet era. Many traditions and values have been wiped away and people’s lives have been so affected. Along with A Time to Reap we’re doing readings that have come out of our recent work in Ukraine and Georgia.
Anna Wakulik (born 1988) is a graduate of the Drama School of the Teatr na Woli in Warsaw. Wakulik is also a student of the Institute of Polish Cultural Studies at Warsaw University. She was a participant of the International Residency programme of the Royal Court Theatre in 2011; in 2012 she took part in the Forum of Young European Playwrights in Wiesbaden, Germany. Wakulik is a laureate of the 2012 Metaphors of Reality Journalists’ Prize for the play A Time to Reap, and the 2011 ASSITEJ Young Playwrights Award. Wakulik currently works as a literary manager for the Ludwik Solski Theatre in Tarnow, where she is writing a new play entitled Heroes. She was a semi-finalist and finalist of the Gdynia Drama Award, and her play Krzywy Domek was one of five shortlisted plays and was presented in a public reading during the Festival of Contemporary Polish Drama R@PORT in Gdynia in November 2010. Elzbieta H. at National Wybrzeze Theatre in Gdansk.
The translator Catherine Grosvenor’s performed plays include One Day All This Will Come To Nothing (Traverse), Cherry Blossom (Traverse/Polski Teatr Bydgoszcz, 2008) and Gabriel (Oran Mor 2009). She also wrote the Scottish adaptations of Continuous Growth, which won a Fringe First at the 2012 Fringe, and The Overcoat.
International associate Caroline Steinbeis directs A Time to Reap. Her other directing credits include Earthquakes in London (UK Tour for Headlong Theatre), Fatherland (Gate Theatre), Charged/Re-Charged (Soho Theatre), Mad Forest at BAC, Mile End (UK Tour), Photo Story (BAC). Her opera work includes: Cosi Fan Tutte (Sadler’s Wells, Bridgewater Hall, Ascoli Festival). She is founder of Strike Ensemble.
The Royal Court Theatre is Britain’s leading national company dedicated to new work by innovative writers from the UK and around the world. A Time to Reap is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project, run by the Royal Court Theatre, which has been described by the New York Times as ‘the most important theatre in Europe’.
A Time to Reap
Writtten by Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Carolina Steinbeis
Assistant Director, Matt Steinberg
Design by Max Jones
Lighting by Anna Watson
Music composed by Tom Mills
Sound designed by Alexander Caplen
Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London,
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Editor: SRS
Source: Financial Times, www.royalcourttheatre.com, teatr-polski.pl, Polish Institute in London