Time & Date
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
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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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