Onassis
What’s On
Theater

The Trial

Krystian Lupa

Dates

Prices

7 — 15 €

Location

Onassis Stegi
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Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Wednesday - Sunday
Time
19:00
Venue
Main Stage

Information

Duration

5 hours (with 2 intermissions)

In Polish with Greek surtitles

Tickets

Onassis Stegi Friends presale: from 9 FEB 2019, 12:00
General presale: from 16 FEB 2019, 12:00

Full price: 7, 10, 12, 15 €
Reduced, Friend & Groups 5-9 people: 7, 8, 10, 12 €
Groups 10+ people: 7, 9, 11 €
Νeighbourhood residents: 7 €
People with disabilities & Unemployed: 5 € | Companions: 5, 7, 10 €

Group ticket reservations at groupsales@sgt.gr

The giant of international theater on a head-on collision with authority. Krystian Lupa revolts against the Kafkaesque reality of his homeland.

Actors are fired, directors walk out, long-awaited performances are censored, the theater is in decline. An ultra-conservative government dismisses the art director of a historic theater, replacing him with someone of their liking.

Any similarity to people and situations is intentional. Kafka’s “Trial” reflects present-day Poland to a chilling degree. A victim of the practices afflicting the historic Polski Theatre in Wroclaw, Krystian Lupa resorts to prophetic dystopia, which echoes our absurd world.

“It is me. It is us. We are arrested.” The cry of the Polish director about the instances of censorship in his country culminates in a five-hour performance cum existential experience. Black tape seals the mouths of the seventeen actors, who strike out against the violation of freedom of expression, government corruption and the annihilation of the citizen in a Kafkaesque country.

The nightmare of Josef K., who is arrested by forces of the regime, automatically becomes the nightmare of Polski Theatre, of Krystian Lupa, of Poland, of Europe.

Photo © Natalia Kabanow

A chance for directors, actors and actresses

Read more

After he was banished from Polski Theatre, Lupa managed to produce the “Trial” due to the support of European cultural establishments and foundations. The Onassis Stegi was one of the first bodies to back this initiative. The performance premiered in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Nowy Teatr in Warsaw.

The ruling Polish party “Rights and Justice” is considered ultra-conservative, as it defends nationalist and Catholic ideals.

Censorship in Polski Theatre peaked in 2016, when art director Krzysztof Mieszkowski was replaced by TV actor Cezary Morawski. These developments caused great animosity inside and outside Poland. Ten thousand people signed the petition for Morawski’s removal, including Peter Brook, Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert.

The “Trial” follows the story of Josef K., who is arrested one morning. Trapped in the impersonal system of bureaucratic insanity, he is summarily executed.

Linking the behaviour of present-day authority to Kafka’s work, Lupa observes: “The 'Trial' came as a response to the circumstances, because our reality continues to echo with the same motifs. This type of strange, grim attack on man through a court; an accusation; removing, extirpating man by means of law; as well as this extraordinary, demagogic discourse that the authorities – and others – are currently employing in the accounting done between the state and the individual – all of it is strikingly reminiscent of the Kafkian model, along with the irrationality and sense of panic, the futility of defence and the loss of one’s sense of reality that we are currently witnessing. All of these are components of Kafka; here, we see them occurring in a different constellation, as ingredients in a different cocktail, so to speak, but they remain essentially unchanged.”

credits

  • Direction, Adaptation, Scenography & Lighting Design

    Krystian Lupa

  • Translation

    Jakub Ekier

  • Costumes

    Piotr Skiba

  • Music

    Bogumił Misala

  • Video-Lighting Collaboration

    Bartosz Nalazek

  • Animations

    Kamil Polak

  • Glosses

    Krystian Lupa, Andrzej Kłak, Marta Zięba, Marcin Pempuś, Adam Szczyszczaj, Małgorzata Gorol, Radosław Stępień

  • Dramaturgy Collaboration-Directorial Assistance

    Radosław Stępień, Konrad Hetel

  • Video Assistant-Camera Operator

    Natan Berkowicz

  • Costume Assistant

    Aleksandra Harasimowicz

  • Porn Book Illustration-Portrait of The Attorney

    Andrzej Kłak

  • Titorelli’s Desolate Landscape

    Ninel Kameraz-Kos

  • Cast

    Bożena Baranowska, Maciej Charyton, Małgorzata Gorol, Anna Ilczuk, Mikołaj Jodliński, Andrzej Kłak, Dariusz Maj, Michał Opaliński, Marcin Pempuś, Halina Rasiakówna, Piotr Skiba, Ewa Skibińska, Adam Szczyszczaj, Andrzej Szeremeta, Wojciech Ziemiański, Marta Zięba, Ewelina Żak

  • Stage Manager-Camera Operator

    Łukasz Jóźków, Sylwia Merk

  • Head of Production

    Anna Czerniawska

  • Coordinator-Production Assistant

    Sylwia Merk

  • Technical Coordinator

    Bartosz Braun

  • Translated into English

    Dominika Gajewska, Artur Zapałowski

  • Subtitles

    Adrianna Książek

  • Translated into Greek

    Dimitrios Chouliarakis

  • Lighting Technician

    Karol Białek

  • Sound Technicians

    Piotr Żyła, Radosław Symon

  • Video Technician

    Andrzej Lawdański

  • Props

    Mateusz Andracki

  • Makeup & Hair

    Monika Kaleta / Joanna Tomaszycka

  • Dressers

    Iryna Kacharava, Varvara Kacharava

  • Stage Services

    Robert Tomala, Jakub Płoński

  • Chief Producer

    Nowy Teatr

  • Producers

    Studio teatrgaleria; Teatr Powszechny; TR Warszawa; Le Quai Centre Dramatique National Angers Pays de la Loire

  • Co-producers

    Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Bruxelles; Printemps des Comédiens, Montpellier; Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Paris; Festival d’Automne à Paris; La Filature, Scène nationale – Mulhouse; Théâtre du Nord, Lille; La rose des vents - Scène nationale Lille Métropole Villeneuve-d’Ascq; HELLERAU - Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden; Onassis Stegi

  • Partner

    Teatr Polski w Podziemiu

  • Co-financed by

    Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa

  • Premiere

    the 15th of November 2017, Nowy Teatr, Warsaw

Biography

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