Thomas Bernhard's Extinction – Krystian Lupa | #performing arts

Considered one of the most important and powerful performances of Lupa’s career, Extinction, based on the outstanding novel by Thomas Bernhard, premiered in March 2001 at the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw. After its staging at the Odeon in Paris, Le Monde called Krystian Lupa a wizard who was hugely successful in his interpretation of this extremely difficult, non-scenic work.

Just before the premiere, the director emphasized that Extinction is his literary Tower of Babel, a novel to which he constantly returns. “I could make ten more performances based on this text, and each of them would be different. The Austrian nation has been on the wrong track: remaining silent, washing their hands, renouncing their participation in the crimes.”

Thomas Bernhard’s Extinction, a novel published in 1986, three years before the author’s death, is regarded as a kind of artistic testament and an attempt to settle Austrian (and European) accounts with the sins of Nazism. In the novel, the house in Wolfsegg, the family estate of the protagonist Franz Josef Murau (played by Piotr Skiba), to which he returns after years for the funeral of tragically deceased parents, is the symbol of the unhealed wounds of the past.

In her review for Gazeta Wyborcza, Joanna Derkaczew wrote :

Extinction is the strongest point of Krystian Lupa’s cycle of performances which refer to the dramatic human need to maintain proper existence, to be remembered, to find justification for their banal, commonplace complexes and experiences. Where does the noble sense of responsibility end and monstrous egocentrism begin? When does the prudent and modest abstention from radical judgements turn into mere cowardice? Lupa’s protagonists are often weak and comical. They live in a world of illusion and self-deception. Their constant struggle with their own mess can be either liberating or overwhelming for the audience. Extinction is a process. With no end and with no guarantee of success.

I Hate the Theatre: Lupa Revives Bernhard

The cast of the production included: Piotr Skiba (Franz Josef Murau), Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak (mother), Adam Ferency (father), Andrzej Szeremeta (Gambetti), Maja Komorowska (Maria), Jolanta Fraszyńska (Cecilia), Agnieszka Roszkowska (Amalia) Wojciech Wysocki (Johannes), Miłogost Reczek (Uncle George), Władysław Kowalski (Cardinal Spadolini), Waldemar Barwiński (Alexander), Marcin Troński (Weinflaschenstopselfabrikant), Małgorzata Niemirska (Aunt Titisee), Marta Król (cook), Sławomir Grzymkowski (gardener), Agnieszka Wosińska (cousin from Paris), Krzysztof Dracz (Distant Relative), Marcin Tyrol (waiter, Son of the General), Krzysztof Szekalski (Photographer), Jerzy Jaroszyński (General), Maciej Makowski (Son of the General), Jaga Dal (the Unknown), Paweł Adamko (Little Franz). The music was composed by Jacek Ostaszewski.

The recorded play can be seen on the ninateka.pl portal.

Sources: ninateka, Dramatyczny Theatre, GW, ed. AL, transl.GS, 15.09.2014

jadwiga jankowska-cieslak