Anna Radwan-Gancarczyk (as the actress Maria Tura); photo: Ryszard Kornecki/The National Helena Modrzejewska Old Theatre
German director Milan Peschel stages the theatrical adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch's film classic "To Be or Not To Be" (1942), based on Nick Whitby's comedy about Nazi-occupied Warsaw. A story about a troupe of actors from a Warsaw theatre company who, after the outbreak of the war, join the resistance and plot the assassination of Nazi dignitaries - a study on the interaction between art and reality even in the time of crisis
In his film Lubitsch shows the Nazis in a comical manner. The outbreak of WWII interrupts the Warsaw actors rehearsal of "Hamlet". The theatre is closed down, however the actors soon return to rehearse Shakespeare's tragedy, full of parallels to the situation they are in. Turning to espionage after being shut down by the invading Nazis and they begin plots to assassinate the Nazi officials. If they succeed there will be no room for them in Warsaw. The actors are aware of these consequences.
Director Milan Peschel explains:
The most important topic of "To Be or Not to Be" is an actor and a theatre in an extreme situation, such as the war and the choices made in the face of danger. The situations and the world that we created vary from those of Lubitsch's film, although the text itself is not very different.
The creators of the staged adaptation were inspired by the problems raised by the film: ambiguity of judgments and attitudes, the perversity of history and the commercial versus high art. They seek the answer to a question: what is the influence of the theatre and art on the surrounding reality? How can art shake one's faith in a given ideology? The director emphasises that the story is about the war and Nazis, but told through a contemporary perspective.
Peschel continues:
Some things that in Germany are not as known and understood are often more obvious in Poland. That's why Polish actors react differently to certain things than German actors. For instance the sign of "Fighting Poland" is a symbol people grew up with here, therefore it doesn't need to be explained on stage, and in Germany this would be one of the elements that would need to be more clearly and carefully introduced.
The film talks about the Nazi occupation in Poland and also addresses the issue of the genocide of the Jews. Nobody officially knew about the exterminations at that time. This ignorance is brilliantly shown in a scene where an actress thinks that an appropriate outfit "for a concentration camp" is an elegant silk gown, which is met with the director's reprimand, who is after all staging a "serious and realistic drama".
Polish set designer, Magdalena Musiał, the director's wife, explains:
We consciously refrained from using Nazi symbols. We also didn't want to place the plot in the ruins of Warsaw because this play is not mainly about the war or Holocaust. The play is about a Polish theatre company that find themselves in a very unique situation. A very mobile stage design, forms elements of different spaces - hotel, office, apartment - scenery that we already had at the theatre. Those paper sceneries bear great drama, we act very realistically.
This seemingly light comedy about carefree Warsaw actors who nevertheless show an unsuspected toughness and nobility during the Nazi occupation, gives way to many layers of meaning and possibilities for interpretation.
The Berlin premiere, starring German actors, takes place on April 14, 2011 at the Maxim Gorki Theatre.
To Be or Not to Be is a coproduction of the
National Helena Modrzejewska Old Theatre in Kraków and the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. Support has been granted from the Wanderlust Fund (Fund for International Theatre Partnerships), Kulturstiftung des Bundes (The German Federal Cultural Foundation) and the Nuremberg House in Kraków.
- To Be or Not to Be by Nick Whitby; based on a film by Ernst Lubitsch; translation: Monika Muskała; screenplay: Edwin Justus Mayer and Melchior Lengyel; directed by: Milan Peschel; set design: Magdalena Musiał; composition and musical elaboration: Mieczysław Mejza; dramaturgy: Andrea Koschwitz, Szymon Wróblewski; cast: Katarzyna Krzanowska, Anna Radwan-Gancarczyk, Arkadiusz Brykalski, Juliusz Chrząstowski, Andrzej Kozak, Adam Nawojczyk, Błażej Peszek, Andrzej Rozmus, Krzysztof Zawadzki; pianist: Mieczysław Mejza; premiere: March 27, 2011.
The performance premieres in Kraków on March 27, 2011, with repeat performances: April 1, 2, 15, 16. It premieres in Berlin on April 14, 2011.
Source: press release,
www.stary-teatr.pl,
www.gorki.de