In the young director’s newest production, at the Stary Teatr in Kraków, Polish historical rulers are cast in a provocative combat for history and memory. Poczet Królów Polskich is the first production under Jan Klata’s artistic directorship of the legendary theatre
Krzyszof Garbaczewski takes up heroes and antiheroes of Polish history - Władysław Jagiełło, Zygmunt III Waza and Hans Frank - in what will surely prove a controversial production about eight centuries of monarchy in Poland. According to Garbaczewski, the expected emotional turmoil is the price one has to pay for risky time travel. The note published on the Stary Teatr website explains:
Polish rulers set up traps in the jungle of history. At each and every turn we risk falling into the ambush of meaning and symbols, the pitfalls of intrigue, treason and counterplot and into the barbaric hands of narration and interpretation. It is easy to get lost in the gloomy woods of history. Even if we enter on horseback, with an owl of wisdom on our shoulder, a gun in our hands, a map, a navigating device, clothed in a cloak and protected by a shield, we can fall prey to the poisonous arrow at the first crossing we encounter. But in order to find oneself on the field of history’s bloody battle for memory, identity and awareness, one first has to roam around and get lost a little.
In a talk with Jacek Cieślak for the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, Garbaczewski revealed:
We are interrogating the way in which we can have something to do with history. We are not after a scandal in exhuming our kings. But it is true that the process of exhumation can be painful. Our past can also be terrifying. I myself am often surprised with what Poland is, or with the city of Kraków. What is veiled in us and in our history. […] History is like the fragment of a skull discovered on an old battlefield, through which we attempt to read the turn of events and the protagonists' characters. We need to recognise a human being, when only scraps and pieces of the human remain. The point of departure for this piece was the series of royal portraits painted by Jan Matejko.
The script of Poczet Królów Polskich is co-authored by Marcin Cecko, who is a regular collaborator of Garbaczewski, and Agnieszka Jakimiak, Sigismund Mrex and Szczepan Orłowski. It is based on historical sources, such as the 12th-century chronicle of Gallus Anonymus and the history of Wawel’s royal crypts. The premiere of the performance is accompanied by a series of theatre workshops and improvisation sessions under the title Wokół Króli (About the Kings).
Following the premiere on the 23rd of March 2013, stagings are scheduled for the 26th, 27th and 28th of March at the Helena Modrzejewski Teatr Stary in Kraków.
Poczet Królów Polskich
credits
written by: Agnieszka Jakimiak, Marcin Cecko, Sigismund Mrex, Szczepan Orłowski
direction and stage design by: Krzysztof Garbaczewski
stage design, light direction and video: Robert Mleczko
costumes: Svenja Gasseni
music: Anna Zaradny
historic consultation: Rafał Szmytka
director's assistants: Radosław Mirski / Bartosz Żurowski
stage design assistant: Małgorzata Jochan
Cast:
Anna Jagiellonka - Anna Radwan-Gancarczyk
Hans Frank - Krzysztof Zarzecki
Henryk Walezy - Adam Nawojczyk
Jadwiga Andegaweńska - Małgorzata Zawadzka
Jan I Olbracht - Błażej Peszek
Kazimierz I Odnowiciel - Małgorzata Gałkowska
Maria Brigitte Frank / Maryja Królowa Polski - Marta Ojrzyńska
Stanisław August Poniatowski - Bogdan Słomiński
SUPERPIAST - Krzysztof Zawadzki
Władysław II Jagiełło - Roman Gancarczyk
Władysław III Warneńczyk - Wiktor Loga-Skarczewski
Zygmunt I Stary - Zygmunt Józefczak
Zygmunt II August - Ewa Kolasińska
Zygmunt III Waza - Szymon Czacki
Anna Legierska, source: Stary Teatr, Rzeczpospolita, Radio Kraków
Translated with edits by Paulina Schlosser, 19.03.2013
Thumbnail credits: production artwork courtesty of Stary Teatr