The premiere showing of UFO. Kontakt is scheduled to take place on the 25th of October at Teatr Studio in Warsaw. The director Ivan Vyrypaev takes not care whether the stories of these encounters are true or whether they are fantasies.
For me, what is important is the meaning that these incidents took on for these people, and how their stories unfolded afterwards. The people are most significant. They talk about how their life has changed, but also about their relationship with death, love, their faith in God, their own spiritual way and their gratitude. They talk about the idea of safety and tranquility. We began our rehearsals with yoga exercises and these three months with the students of the Kraków Theatre Academy are actually more important to me than the theatrical final effect. We decided to give these people a chance to be heard. We will tell their stories to the audience and thus we will provide the audience with the precious information that our heros received from the outer space.
Standing against the backdrop of amateur video footage of some flying objects, one of the actresses begins her story with the following words:
I am giving my voice over to the 25 year old Jennifer Davies from New York, who works in a music store. In this space ship what happened was that I was surrounded by tall and skinny humanoids. One of them stretched out his arm with a flashlight over my container and pointed a special device at me, which started to speak to me in English. And this device said: “We come from a God knows how far and we have come here to fix the brains of your civilisation. And you, Jennifer, are gonna help us with this, you have been chosen for this distinct and darn important mission. A great story, isn’t it? Just fantastic..
One of the actors of the play, Michał Wanio reveals in a talk with culture.pl:
I want the audience to believe than something happened in the lives of my heroes. This contact with extra-terrestials had a huge influence on them, and became a point of reference for them. And we can sense this energy on the stage. When I first saw the monologue of my hero, a 35 year old software programmist from Russia, I had a sense that in a way, this is something that touches all of us. We watched video recordings of talks with these people and we tried to feel the same way as they did.
The director Vyrypaev adds "It’s not really a performance, it is an encounter with the spectator".
In an interview in 2006 Vyrypaev explained that despite all the postmodernist tendencies and trends, we are still battling with the dilemma produced by the Renaissance: namely, the conflict "between the hero and something that is destined to stay incomprehensible, be it nature or God. […] This conflict did not go away. The time we live in today tries to level man down but he is fully aware of this; hence his desire to challenge this world" (Vyrypaev in interview with Potapov).
Ivan Vyrypaev is a playwright, actor, director. He is a winner of the most prestigious theatre awards and the prize of the Presidential Council "For the Contribution to Russian Literature". Born on 3 August 1974. Graduated from Irkutsk Theatre School (1995). Writer of film scripts: Another District, Bunker, Antonina Looks Back, Bucharest 68, Bimmer 2 (co-author). He is the author of plays: July, Genesis No. 2, Oxygen, Valentine's Day, The City, where I am, Dreams. Ivan Vyrypaev's plays have been staged at many theatres worldwide, and he frequently directs in Poland.
The performance Ufo.kontakt is to begin a long-term creative acquaintance of the Russian director with the Warsaw stage. On the 1st of February, Vyrypaev is scheduled to show his new production, Ożenek at the Teatr Studio.
The premiere showings of the play takes place on the 25th of October at Mała Scena (Small Stage) of Teatr Studio. The performance also travels to Kraków on the 6th of November.
Ufo.kontakt
Written and directed by:
Ivan Vyrypaev
Translation by:
Agnieszka Lubomira Piotrowska
Set design and costumes:
Marta Zając
Music:
Ygor Przebindowski
Director’s assistants:
Olga Omeljaniec
Mikita Valadzko
Yoga:
Piotr Künstler
Projections:
Franek Przybylski
Stage manager:
Maria Lejman-Kasz
Cast:
Łukasz Kabus, Maria Kania,Wiktoria Kulaszewska, Jasmine Polak, Julia Sobiesiak, Adrian Wajda, Radosław Walenda, Mchał Wanio, Jakub Wróblewski and Mikołaj Dróżdż
Duration:100 mins
Editor: SRS
Source: press release, Teatr Studio,