The open-air performance - edition II
prepared by the co-operative of the Kana Theatre and the Stettiners Theater
“The Circle of Spectres” is a result of artistic co-operation of the Kana Theatre and other Szczecin-based artists (actors of “The Stettiners Theater”, musicians, composers, painters) with the Centre of Theatrical Searching Schloss Broellin, the co-producer of the performance. The performance, each time built in relation with particular space and modified in accordance with its demands, may be treated as an individual record of common memory. It is based on motives and characters taken from older Kana’s performances, as well as legendary tales about the Broellin Castle. It uses archetypes and elements of ancient pagan and occult rituals, consciously mixing theatrical styles and literary traditions. Rooted deeply in both Slavic and Germanic culture, it balances between these two worlds. However the performance is picturesque, vivid and attractive for the audience, it is not limited to the series of ‘effects’. Through laughter, fear, darkness and poetry it invites a spectator to take a trip into one’s own depths and to encounter one’s own demons.
The performance leads the audience through the images of the memory – following stages of a magic journey, taken by the spectators together with the spectres which came from somewhere-behind-the-horizon. It is a wandering through forgotten pieces of lost time. Coming from the shadow, a huge crypt-platform breaks through an enormous paper screen and flows into the space between the gathered people. The ritual of calling the Old Spirits begins – an old song is for them like the song of the Sirens for the Ulyssess’s sailors. It attracts them from darkness, for this unique moment giving them a new life, which is in fact only a great illusion. We can see the characters taken from various dreams and memories: a Castaway sailing in an old bucket, a woman in a lace dress riding a white bicycle, a skinny guy fighting with a Shadow which wants to consume him, a girl with an umbrella walking the balance-board right into the dark swamp, a Gardener watering some rubber gloves sprouting from the ground, and finally two murky “twins” from Tadeusz Kantor performances, living their secret, independent life under the deck of the ship. All they go to celebrate the Sabbath, perform a mad, carnival dance in masks and disappear...
The performance is built with vivid imagination, there are many surprising and picturesque effects using all elements: fire, water, wind and earth, expressive group scenes, colours, music, and lights. However it is quite different from a typical open air productions because of its precise and multi-level construction and spatial composition. It makes the audience being in the centre of events that surround the spectators and take place everywhere around them. It is not predictable where the next Spectre is going to appear from and where it is going to take us. We are all the elements of someone else’s dream and we take together this strange trip on the deck of the Ship of Fools. The world built by means of theatrical elements is both fearful and attractive, often grotesque, funny, mixing styles, and at the same time full of incredible, magnetic poetry. And this is probably the most important value of the performance: its ability to touch a mystery...”
director: Zygmunt Duczyński & Janusz Turkowski
music: Zbigniew Szmatłoch
masks: Andrzej Wojtowicz
running structure / platform: Adam Garnek
light: Detlef Tabert
production: Teatr Kana
presentation: Schloss Broellin
premiere: 2003
cast: Bibianna Chimiak, Marta Giers, Dorota Obalek, Tomasz Grygier, Radosław Jagucki, Paweł Joachimak, Hubert Leńczyk, Dariusz Mikuła, Waldemak Nicek, Dobiesław Nowicki, Damian Smoliński
The open-air performance - edition II
prepared by the co-operative of the Kana Theatre and the Stettiners Theater
“The Circle of Spectres” is a result of artistic co-operation of the Kana Theatre and other Szczecin-based artists (actors of “The Stettiners Theater”, musicians, composers, painters) with the Centre of Theatrical Searching Schloss Broellin, the co-producer of the performance. The performance, each time built in relation with particular space and modified in accordance with its demands, may be treated as an individual record of common memory. It is based on motives and characters taken from older Kana’s performances, as well as legendary tales about the Broellin Castle. It uses archetypes and elements of ancient pagan and occult rituals, consciously mixing theatrical styles and literary traditions. Rooted deeply in both Slavic and Germanic culture, it balances between these two worlds. However the performance is picturesque, vivid and attractive for the audience, it is not limited to the series of ‘effects’. Through laughter, fear, darkness and poetry it invites a spectator to take a trip into one’s own depths and to encounter one’s own demons.
The performance leads the audience through the images of the memory – following stages of a magic journey, taken by the spectators together with the spectres which came from somewhere-behind-the-horizon. It is a wandering through forgotten pieces of lost time. Coming from the shadow, a huge crypt-platform breaks through an enormous paper screen and flows into the space between the gathered people. The ritual of calling the Old Spirits begins – an old song is for them like the song of the Sirens for the Ulyssess’s sailors. It attracts them from darkness, for this unique moment giving them a new life, which is in fact only a great illusion. We can see the characters taken from various dreams and memories: a Castaway sailing in an old bucket, a woman in a lace dress riding a white bicycle, a skinny guy fighting with a Shadow which wants to consume him, a girl with an umbrella walking the balance-board right into the dark swamp, a Gardener watering some rubber gloves sprouting from the ground, and finally two murky “twins” from Tadeusz Kantor performances, living their secret, independent life under the deck of the ship. All they go to celebrate the Sabbath, perform a mad, carnival dance in masks and disappear...
The performance is built with vivid imagination, there are many surprising and picturesque effects using all elements: fire, water, wind and earth, expressive group scenes, colours, music, and lights. However it is quite different from a typical open air productions because of its precise and multi-level construction and spatial composition. It makes the audience being in the centre of events that surround the spectators and take place everywhere around them. It is not predictable where the next Spectre is going to appear from and where it is going to take us. We are all the elements of someone else’s dream and we take together this strange trip on the deck of the Ship of Fools. The world built by means of theatrical elements is both fearful and attractive, often grotesque, funny, mixing styles, and at the same time full of incredible, magnetic poetry. And this is probably the most important value of the performance: its ability to touch a mystery...”
director: Zygmunt Duczyński & Janusz Turkowski
music: Zbigniew Szmatłoch
masks: Andrzej Wojtowicz
running structure / platform: Adam Garnek
light: Detlef Tabert
production: Teatr Kana
presentation: Schloss Broellin
premiere: 2003
cast: Bibianna Chimiak, Marta Giers, Dorota Obalek, Tomasz Grygier, Radosław Jagucki, Paweł Joachimak, Hubert Leńczyk, Dariusz Mikuła, Waldemak Nicek, Dobiesław Nowicki, Damian Smoliński