Prorok Ilya performance poster
Written by Tadeusz Słobodzianek, the play is inspired by Elijah Klimovitch, an eccentric man who lived in the Polish North-Eastern region of Białostocczyzna in the 1930s, declared himself a prophet and found a crowd of devout followers
Klimovitch, who owned only one book - the Bible, and learned everything he knew about the world through word of mouth, proclaimed himself the biblical prophet Ilya. He built an Orthodox church in a settlement named Wierszalin where he founded a New Jerusalem and soon gathered a group of devout followers. After some time, Ilya announced that the end of the world was near. His faithful worshippers awaited the apocalypse, yet, as their wait seemed to be in vain, they decided they needed to help hasten the course of mankind’s history. The employed the familiar scenario of the Gospel’s crucifixion, and nailed their prophet to the cross just like Jesus. Thus, Ilya’s story becomes also the tale of a group of people who desired to change the world, and who tried to impose their dreams on reality. The playwright Słobodzianek explains
I took interest in this story because just like a crystal ball, it mirrors all of the utopias we’ve inhabited in the course of the 20th century: Christianity, communism and nationalism, the mixing together of different cultures, nations, languages and religions. It seems that we’ve entered the 21st century with this burden and nothing indicates we’ll be able to rid ourselves of it - on the contrary, it seems to become more and more overwhelming
Ilya the Prophet is a play which explores the issues of racial hatred and fanaticism, nightmares that continue to haunt us inspite of just denouncements. A blindness depicted in the play can often be observed in various religious movements which do wrong in the name of an assumed goodness.
According to the director, Ondrej Spišak
The play’s characters have a lot in common with present-day dwellers of Iran, United States and Slovakia. The phenomenon of an increasingly strong role played by populist politicians or "Jesus camps" ran by fundamentalists is in my opinion a strong sign that the collective hope for a miracle which would resolve the world’s biggest problems continues to grow. In this condition, people are easily manipulated in the name of God or a happy future. A fear of the end of the world which motivates the actions of the play’s characters is strongly present today with the economic crisis, the devastation of the natural environment, and quick changes of our lifestyle as well as an uncertain future. In Ilya the Prophet, the characters attempt to deal with fear by turning towards spirituality. It is quite possible today that in their return to spirituality people will seek a refuge from fear
Jerzy Pilch states
The image of worshippers accrued about their prophet, awaiting the miracles he performs and expecting the world to end next Tuesday is an eternally relevant image of humanity which has its various versions in all historic eras and across the entire world.
The works by Tadesz Słobodzianek are among the most original in contemporary Polish dramaturgy. He based his play on the information published by Włodzimierz Pawluczuk in Wierszalin. Reportaż o końcu świata / Wieszalin. A Reportage on the End of the World. Pawluczuk, a sociolgist and researcher on religion depicted the phenomenon of Ilya the prophet in his 1974 study. The book told the story of a group of people who broke off from the Greek Orthodox church and attempted to build their own grand capital of the world in a small God-forsaken village in Wierszalin.
Słobodzianek was strongly inspired by the collection of testimonies included in Pawluczuk’s work and he wrote the play Ilya the Prophet / Prorok Ilja and Tsar Nikolai / Car Mikołaj based upon this work. The heroes of his plays are distrubed by the incoming news and innovations which continually reach their ears and hinder the pursuit of life in accordance with a divine order, which the old world constituted for them. News of various inventions which facilitate and fasten life, always making it more comfortable, disturb these people who have known no other life than that of toil, and found the meaning of their fate in hard work for generations. In the unenlightened minds of these people an idea is triggered, in which the world is to be once again redeemed. Nearly 80 years ago, the followers of Ilya in fact decided to created a new "Holy Family" and "apostles". There were a few "Holy Maries", and they all took part in the conception of a new Redemptor, which was not at all immaculate. The prophet himself also took part in the conception and none of the participants perceived their act as blasphemous - at least so it is stated in the testimonies gathered by Pawluczuk. These less than moral undertakings still breathe an air of authenticity. Słobadzianek’s play has us witness the entry of a higher, mystical order into the mundane world.
While Pawluczuk’s book speaks about the need for transcendence, Słobodzianek’s play is more of a warning against submitting to a psychotic world of group manipulation - be it a religious or political one.
Ilya the Prophet
written by Tadeusz Słobodzianek.
directed by Ondrej Spišak
Stage design: František Liptak.
Costumes: Jan Kozikowski.
Assistant director: Anna Turowiec.
Vocal coaching: Tetiana Sopiłka
Stage manager: Mateusz Karoń
Cast: Andrzej Seweryn, Izabela Dąbrowska, Agata Wątróbska, Paweł Domagała, Łukasz Lewandowski, Magdalena Smalara, Marcin Szatbiński, Maciej Wyczański, Michał Czernecki, Sławomir Zapała, Robert T. Majewski, Paula Kinaszewska, Stanisław Jaskułka, Tadeusz Chudecki.
The performance premieres at Teatr na Woli on the 31st of March, 2012, at 7 pm, with repeat showings on the 1st and 3rd of April, 2012.
Teatr Na Woli
Executive and Creative director: Tadeusz Słobodzianek
ul. Kasprzaka 22
01-211 Warsaw
Ph. 22 632 00 05 to 08
e-mail: sekretariat@teatrnawoli.pl
www.teatrnawoli.pl
Source: www.labodram.pl, culture.pl