Joanna Wichowska (1969-2022)

Joanna Wichowska od 2002 roku była naszą współpracowniczką, autorką, przede wszystkim – przyjaciółką. Współtworzyła wiele ważnych spektakli, o których pisaliśmy na naszych łamach. Zawdzięczamy jej wiedzę o najciekawszych zjawiskach współczesnego teatru bałkańskiego i ukraińskiego, którego była znawczynią i popularyzatorką. Dziękujemy jej za wszystko. Poniżej zamieszczamy teksty Joanny opublikowane w „Didaskaliach”

Praskie Sci-Fi (Praga’s Sci-Fi)

Not so long ago in a galaxy not so far, far away… On the planet of markets, shrines, metro, stadiums and theatre… It is a time of change. A time of chaos. A time of courageous visions laced with powerless questions. Regeneration proceeds, the facades of the old town houses begin to look fresh, and Mr Jozek is moving out. Before Praga transports itself into the future – before the Great Reanimation/Reactivation/Revision/Retouch takes place – there is still time to ask about the costs necessary for us to bear in the name of a “better tomorrow”. Presence is unsure. Past is discredited. The future is a source of fear, anything can happen. Meanwhile today one of the Praga’s newsagent is already saying: “Praga is one huge science-fiction”. Who needs a home in a place like Praga? Full of doubts, searching for an answer to a question: what to do? (and shall we do it at all?) The artists of Theatre Powszechny contemplate Praga’s destiny. The possible scenarios for revitalisation and their own participation in gentrification. This performance is based on conversations with Praga’s residents and actors of Theatre Powszechny; involving elements of science-fiction and wishful thinking. Yeah, sure. It’s best to build a Museum-Crematorium and a Theatre- Aquarium. And let the hipsters cycle around the theatre with flowerpots. Aliens from the left bank are organising dissent. They give paintbrushes to children and anvils to craftsmen. How noble. "Praskie Sci-Fi" (Praga’s Sci-Fi) was created as a part of Miasto Szczesliwe Festival at Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw, Poland. It premiered on the 10th of July 2016 and since then it has been in the repertoire of Teatr Powszechny

The church is in us

Marcin Kościelniak speaks with dramaturge Joanna Wichowska about The Curse directed by Oliver Frljić (Powszechny Theater in Warsaw, premiere: 18.02.2017). The interview centers on three main themes: the reception of the play and the controversial content it contains, the work on Stanisław Wyspiański’s drama, and the legal steps taken by the right-wing and Catholic communities against the performance. Kościelniak and Wichowska also raise the issue of whether the Catholic Church can be criticized in Poland, and in particular John Paul II, the consequences that will arise from the penalizing of the theater, and the institutional context of creating critical theater

My Granddad was digging, My Dad was digging and I will not

“It’s important to expose not only the social-political mechanisms, but also the theatrical ones. Especially in the theatre when the past and memory are expressed though fiction, which always wants to be seen as reality. Can the stage – a space of fictional characters, events and illusions, which we want to believe in – become the place where we can explore the mechanisms of memory and our complicated relationship with the past?” What’s the connection between the individual and collective memory? Can collective memory suppress an individual one? Who tells us what to remember and what to forget? What makes history? Within the context of theatre and its fictional nature 5 actors from different regions of the Ukraine and Poland explore their personal and shared pasts and memories through their individual experiences and histories of their countries. This performance is a result of the project “Maps of fear/Maps of identity” which involved Polish theatre practitioners, theoreticians and nearly 40 artists from different regions of Ukraine (Zaporizhia, Lviv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Odesa). The project was implemented by Stowarzyszenie Praktyków Kultury (The Culture Practitioners Association/ Warsaw) together with Ukrainian organizations from Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Kherson. Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Supported by the East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP). "My Granddad was digging, My Dad was digging and I will not" premiered on the 24th of September 2016 during the GogolFEST in Kiev, Ukraine. Ukrainian tour included performances in Lviv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odessa

Mephisto

“I never really cared about politics so why would I be interested in it now? To me, theatre is the only form of freedom. I am an actor: I go to the theatre, I play a role, I go home. That’s all” – says Hendrik Höfgen, the protagonist in Klaus Mann’s book 'Mephisto' after finding out that Hitler has risen to power. The story about a chameleon-like actor who smoothly forms alliances with any authorities is becoming disturbingly relevant to our times. The 1981 movie by István Szabó was interpreted as a commentary on the regimes of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe. The 'Mephisto' premiere, which took place in the Powszechny Theatre in 1983, arose from societies memories of martial law and the attitudes of artists towards the government at the time of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). In 2017, 'Mephisto' was performed in a theatre in which the nationalists hurl their flares, a theatre stigmatised from the rostrums of Parliament; a theatre whose entrance was protected by the police to maintain security. 'Mephisto' was produced by Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw and it continues as part of its repetory programme

DEVILS (Diably)

"Women are a mistake of nature... with their excess of moisture and bodily heat that indicates physical and mental deficiency... they are a kind of invalid, misbegotten and failed man... The full realisation of human kind is man”. These words by St Thomas Acquinas could be used as a motto of crusade launched over two millennia by the Catholic Church against women. Agnieszka Błońska and Joanna Wichowska seek out the sources, symptoms and consequences of this continuing offensive, particularly intensified in rent years in Poland. The story of possessed and exorcised nuns serves as a pretext for research into the long history of colonization of female body, sexual repression, stigmatization of difference and imposition of rigid gender roles. In this investigation a woman becomes a representative of all those, who are left behind a superior norm of human kind, which is man – a heterosexual father, thinker, warrior, priest, god; she is an agent of all “misfits” – those expelled from the privileged majority. In this performance the Church Fathers, Mothers Joans and devils living in their bodies and minds will speak. But most importantly, contemporary women and men who willingly or not take part in a supposedly defensive cultural war fought all over Europe and Poland; a war declared by the Church and politicians. The alleged aggressor in here is “gender ideology”, also called “genedrism”. The alleged victim – religious people, defended by far-sighted “shepherds”. The battleground – a family, femininity and masculinity, treated by bishops as given by God and similarly as body (is that so?) non discussable and unchangeable. Which role in this battle is assigned to each and all of us? Which role are we accept, consciously or not? To what extend are we upholding patriarchy ourselves? And finally, does particular female perspective have to indicate exclusion from common “human” experience? The performance is inspired by motifs from Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s story „Mother Joan of the Angels”. It was made for the 4th Art and Community Festival Happy City and premiered on the 7th of December in Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw, Poland. The research involved Dr. Anna Szwed from Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Dr. Agnieszka Koscianska from Warsaw University and Marta Abramowicz, writer

Orlando. Biografie (in translation: Orlando. Biographies)

Different though the sexes are, they intermix. In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above. Virginia Woolf Despite all that, in 2022 politicians are still trying to forcefully remove the people who don’t confirm to the norms: five months before the invasion on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said that being transgender is “almost a crime against humanity”, in Hungary there is a ban for “homosexual propaganda”, in Poland there are “LGBT free zones”. Can similar attempts succeed? The show that uses the novel Orlando (1928) and a movie based on it (1992) as its base is trying to face the embarrassment, reluctance, and hatred towards being different. In a journey through centuries, lives, and experiences of cisgender, trans-, and non-binary artists invited to join the project, we ask: is being different really as rare as we think it is? And maybe each of us is different in their own way? Isn’t every transformation and transition we go through in life being different? Do you really know who you are? Are binary divisions the answer to today’s threats? And maybe in this difference there is a promise of fun, revolution, and… a new, better order and world? One of the performers, Filipka Rutkowska, reflecting on the work wrote: Orlando is a love of change. Orlando is a value worth taking care of. ‘It’ is Orlando. Orlando is taking on different genders while still being the same person. Orlando is experiencing the mystery of transition – and treating this transition as a source of knowledge. Orlando is thinking about the birth of a new mind by using old thoughts and then reminiscing about the thoughts that are already gone. Orlando is the acceptance of losing a part of yourself and the readiness to get a new one. Orlando is the curiosity of the world. Orlando is a simultaneous loneliness among people and finding understanding amongst them. Orlando is entering a new state of focus, without knowing the laws that rule this state. Orlando is going to the other side of your own reflection. What stays the same in a person after transitioning? Text: Filipka Rutkowsk