komuna// warszawa's Grzegorz Laszuk in Future Tales (Sierakowski)
The Skinny, Scotland's major cultural magazine stated in the review of the play: "Future Tales is a rough and ready assault on both the bullshit of modern Marxism [and] a challenge to the pieties of contemporary theatre." The most important theme highlighted by komuna// warszawa is the notion that ideologies, which are not backed by a praxis give rise to theoretical hallucinations. One must not only talk about politics, one is obliged to pursue it – such is the reality of a democratic country.
komuna always thinks outside the box, it doesn’t follow the herd. (…) Jokes, mockery and low attacks (for the komuna’s performance is an anarchistic and formalist farce) are merely to prepare the audience for serious challenges.
Łukasz Drewniak, Przekroj
komuna// warszawa (www.komuna.warszawa.pl) was created in November 2009, after the dissolution of Komuna Otwock. For twenty years, komuna's predecessors tried to practice and promote anarchism, through theatre, liberating principles of social organization and action. Roman Pawłowski, a theatre critic for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper, wrote:
The performances of Komuna Otwock constitute the most politically involved manifestation of Polish theatre. Not only does the group warn people against ideologies, but also against taking no action. They teach us to act independently, subvert received wisdom and pose inconvenient questions.
Following the completion of the trilogy Why There Will Be No Revolution, the group – faced with an impossibility of meeting up to its ideological commitments – decided to end working under its previous name.
Born in 1979, Sławomir Sierakowski is a journalist, publisher, literary crititc and sociologist. He is the founder and editor in chief of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), a socially-oriented magazine. The circle of left-wing intellectuals, artists and activists which has consolidated around Sierakowski and Krytyka Polityczna has also expanded onto befriended branches in Ukraine, Germany and Russia. In October 2003, Sławomir Sierakowski initiated the writing of an Open Letter to the European Public Opinion, which was signed by 255 leading intellectuals, which called into question the federalist model of European integration. The letter was published in Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita and other European newspapers, stirring significant debate and leading to an official meeting between the Polish President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of European Affairs and a representation of European officials. Sierakowski has been frequently listed as one of the most influential Poles by major Polish press titles, including Polityka, Wprost and Newsweek Polska magazines.
He has also cooperated with the Polish theatre director Jan Klata, and recently, he worked as a script-writer and actor in the Dutch-Isreali Yael Bartana’s And Europe Will Be Stunned project. The project is a series of three films, and in 2011 it was the first work by non-Polish artist to represent Poland at the 54th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice.
15-26 Aug at 8:45 pm
Summerhall (venue 26), Main Hall / 1 Summerhall (EH9 1PL) Tickets: £10/£8
Box office: 0845 874 3001
Performed in Polish with English supertitles
Duration: 1 hour
Age restrictions: 16+