„Arena” – the 72nd spectacle in The Reading theatre for the blind and partially sighted persons project

On Wednesday, 31st May, 2023, we presented „Arena” in the The Reading theatre for the blind and partially sighted persons project. The 72nd spectacle of the project was directed on a voluntary basis by Ewa Pilawska.     

Thank you for being with us! Our special thanks go to all those viewers who came to Łódź from distant places to attend our spectacle. 

„Arena” („Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls”) by a Canadian playwright Dave Deveau tells a story of a girl who discovers her identity. A family visit to a circus where she watches a woman with a beard makes the girl find the nerve and tell her parents that she feels a boy. She asks them to start calling her Fin and not Fiona.

What are the consequences of this situation to her family ties and relations with her peers? What is the parents’ reaction? How do other people reacts to a person who just wants to be herself/himself  and to live in harmony with yourself? 

Dave Deveau’s play asks fundamental queations about man’s freedom and our readiness to accept heterogeneity. Where does our need to stigmatize people come from? Why do we call people who are different from us „misfits” or „others”? Why do we treat freedom and the right to individuality in a selective way?        

 

Dave Deveau
„Arena” („Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls”)
Translated by Elżbieta Woźniak
Directed (on a voluntary basis) by Ewa Pilawska
Stage design: Wojciech Stefaniak
Choreography: Jarosław Staniek
Video: Mateusz Kokot
Cast: Paulina Nadel, Sebastian Jasnoch, Michał Lacheta

With a special participation of Aleksandra Bogulewska

Fragment of „La Strada” by Nono Rota was used during the spectacle.