H of D
Open-air Theatre Project based on "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
"H of D" analyses the contemporary social mechanisms and focuses on the dangers they evoke. It uses the metaphor of Conrad`s "heart of darkness".
The performance shows the birth of new "apartheid" which divides people into the rich and fed and the poor and hungry. In this world the social configuration changes and the class gap widens.
This polarization causes that the norms regulating the social relations dissolve. In such world man finds himself beyond the safety border - in the space where he can only rely on his desperation, instinct and luck. It results in searching for gods and authorities, whose care gives the illusory guarantee to survive. The sterile world of the fed becomes more and more void and deprived of metaphysics. The misterious world of the "savages" grows and spreads. The "heart of darkness" is the place where these two worlds penetrate each other.
created in collaboration with Polish Cultural Institute in London and
Royal National Theatre. Premiered in London, July 2007
MACBETH
Who is That Bloodied Man?
(an outdoor performance, commissioned by : Cork European Cultural Capital 2005 and premiered in Cork, 20-25 of May)
It is based on William Shakespeare's "Macbeth". It tells of human fate determined by destiny and inner necessity. It shows the world during the horror of war, the world of nightmares, the world in blood, where it is legal to betray, to intrigue, to kill. It reminds you of the tragic consequence, that crime once committed will be continued, and man's death is not man's end - he comes back as fear, remorse and obsession. The performance portrays the world of chaos, where the order of nature is replaced by the logic of death. It takes place on the borderline of reality and nightmare, where earthly characters coexist with witches and ghosts. The inspiration to this performance is the attempt to see Shakespeare's drama as a crime myth. Particularly, nowadays when human life is of less and less value, and crime is becoming the ordinary act, rarely accompanied by indecision and doubts. The performance makes spectacular use of moving set, motorbikes, stilts and fire.
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Carmen Funebre
"Carmen Funebre" the company's second open-air production was created in 1994. The inspiration for this play was the war in Bosnia, and other ethnic conflicts, as well as world-wide outbreaks of nationalism and intolerance. In preparation for "Carmen Funebre", members of the theatre company met refugees from the former Yugoslavia, who bore witness to their fate. The refugees accounts of lost relatives and homes gave inspiration to the actors as they worked on various scenes and built metaphors which described universal themes of the condition of displaced people. In the production of "Carmen Funebre" Teatr Biuro Podrozy uses means which can attract the attention of the experienced spectactor as well as the accidental passer-by. Stilts, fire, searchlights, spectacular sets, and chilling music threaten the audience while evoking both fear and compassion. Although there are few words in the performance, the images are clear and powerful.
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Pigs
Down on the farm all is not what it seems. This simple tale of little piglets groomed by their elders to be obedient citizens immediately strikes a political chord with obvious Orwellian overtones of cynical authoritarianism as the pigs are raised to worship man, the great creator of their happy if confined universe. Their carefree existence comes to an abrupt end when they discover that they are being prepared for slaughter by their corrupted elders. In an often humorous but grotesque cartoon style, Teatr Biuro Podrozy's giant stilt walkers tower over the small and vulnerable in this tragi-comic tale of rebels with a noble cause whose dreams of freedom are inevitably crushed.
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Manuscript by Alfonso van Worden
An outdoor performance inspired by the novel manuscript found in sarragossa.
The performance revolves around the story of the main character, who is a captain in the wallons guard, portrayed through the magic of the tarot, an old card game. The story takes place in spain during the 18 century.
The hero, alfonso van worden, sets out on a long journey to madrid, which turns into a magical adventure of traps, ordeals and encounters with princesses and hanged men; earthly and unearthly creatures. It is finally a journey which leads him to unravel the mystery of life and fate.
A r c h i v e s
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Moonsailors
It is 1899. The end of the 19 century. Faith in science and technological development reaches it's zenith. Its embodiment is to be the immemorial dream of mankind: journey to the Moon. A missile with the three astronauts on board is fired from a huge cannon, the dismal roar of which will sound on the fields of Verdun 17 years later.
There is the Moon and the Earth - two worlds so far away from each other. One is new and challenging, the other is old but dear.
Yet, the Earth is not so idyllic as it was when the astronauts first left it. From the Moon their perspective of what is happening there is clearer. Encounters with double-gangers and inevitable death is the punishment that the astronauts must suffer, because they dared to see the future of their planet.
The performance recounts the triumph of technology and science which turns into the triumph of power. It is about man in fear of himself and of the world, that stood wide-open thanks to science.
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Millennium Mysteries
This is the open-air production created in the result of the collaboration between Teatr Biuro Podróży and The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. The performance tells about life and death of Jesus Christ. It is composed of two parts. The first one is made in the historical costumes and setting. It presents the story of birth of Christ. The second part tells about crucifixion and it is created as the flash-back and the trial of Christ. The costumes and setting are modern. In the performance the traditional form of the mystries is combined with the contemporary theatre forms. It was presented seventeen times in the Coventry Cathedral ruin.
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Drink Vinegar Gentelman
The performance resulted from the fascination of the literary work by Russian poet Daniil Kharms (1905 1942). Daniil Kharms was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Russian literate avant-garde before II World War. Kharms was both the author of poems for children and a disloyal poet, imprisoned and starved to death in a prison hospital during the Leningrad Blockade for merely his sense of humour and jokes.
The performance ˜ Drink Vinegar Gentlemen˜ is the story about a man trying to find a suitable pose for himself where reality is mixed with the fantasy and the imaginings of the human condition exploited via absurd. These various sketches are swarmed with strange and colourful characters implicated in absurd, for example; a joiner who is attacked by falling bricks, Kalugin who's deemed as worthless and 'incapable of doing anything', a woman who needs a husband, not a rich one, but a talent, Meyerhold. This is a panopticum of non-conformists and opportunists, thinkers and simpletons, ladies and louts. Filled with comedy gags, ideas from cartoons and illustrated with live music or the equivalent of onomatopoeia this performance moves us to think about our laughter and sense of existence
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Not of Us
The indoor production in which the theatre company, using the form of a medival mystery play have created a parable which concerns religious dogma and intolerance. It tells about the spiritual crisis. It is a morality play for the end of the 20th Century in which the absence of God is increasingly apparent and yet paradoxically these who declare their faith in God lack it the most. It is not the spoken word that bears the meaning in the performance but the images and action. The music by Haendel and Bach is played live on the organ.
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Giordano
This play drew from the tragic story of the life and death of Giordano Bruno, a famous Italian philosopher and astronomer, burned at the stake by the Inquisition for heresy in the fifteenth century. This spectacle took the form of a contemporary miracle play portraying the last hour of Giordano's life. The public trial and the execution of Giordano is a spectacular show in which the audience is caught up in the action as witnesses. In the performance the authentic record of the trial and fragments of Bruno's work were used. After the tragic death of the leading actor, Andrzej Rzepecki, in 1994 the Teatr Biuro Podrozy no longer performs this play.