„Fredro. The Jubilee Year” at the 30th Festival

Master Presentations of „Fredro. The Jubilee Year”  have just finished the jubilee 30th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant. First spectacle, produced by Narodowy (National) Theatre in Warsaw and directed by Jan Englert, was presented on our Small Stage on Thursday. Below you can see our photorelation from the night of 18 April, 2024.    

- „Fredro. The Jubilee Year” is an important multilevel spectacle. It is worth recalling Aleksander Fredro, a playwright with tragic experiences coming from the war who became the father of Polish comedy though the critics hammered him at the beginning. The spectacle is an important link of the actors’ generation relay of Polish theatre – it shows remarkable acting together with its ethos and at the same time it recalls outstanding creators of past generations – Ewa Pilawska, artistic director of the festival, says.           

The spectacle not only recalls selected plays by Fredro but it also presents the playwright as seen by other playwrights, writers and critics (among others Juliusz Słowacki, Maria Dąbrowska and Seweryn Goszczyński). This is a multidimensional portrait which presents the creator’s long path; on the one hand he was much acclaimed, on the other – he was being destroyed and misunderstood and had to wait for a long time to be appreciated. At present he is considered the father of Polish comedy but in his times he triggered extreme emotions and was a highly controversial person. Fredro has been famous because for his plays, but he remains practically unknown as a prose-writer, aphorist, a poet. During the meeting after the spectacle Jan Englert, the performance’s co-author and director said that thanks to it and to its selection of plays it refers to, it is possible to get to know Fredro much better than ever before.                

„Fredro. The Jubilee Year” is also a story about evanescence of theatre and its outstanding creators. The video projections used during the spectacle recall the most outstanding Polish actors and actresses in their Fredro roles; the projections tell about the power of theatre and at the same time about its emphemerality. The spectacle’s energy is born here and now. – Theatre spectacle as well as we, the actors who play in it, die together with it when the show ends. And then we reborn when we again meet with the audience at the following performance – director Jan Englert said during the meeting.       

The spectacle is performed by a multigeneration team of Narodowy (National) Theatre – it is a symbol of bulding up bonds and not of making divisions. During the meeting after the spectacle the Narodowy Theatre actors – Anna Seniuk, Ewa Wiśniewska, Wiesław Cichy, Dominika Kluźniak, Justyna Kowalska and Grzegorz Małecki – told about their theatrical experiencens with the Aleksander Fredro’s texts.

Thank you for your participation in the final night of this year’s Festival!       

 

Narodowy (National) Theatre in Warsaw
„Fredro. The Jubilee Year” – Master Presentation
Script: Jan Englert, Tomasz Kubikowski, Wojciech Majcherek
Director: Jan Englert
Stage design: Martyna Kander
Lightning design: Dariusz Pawelec
Montage of video projection: Milenia Fiedler
Sound producers: Marek Szymański, Hubert Majewski, Mariusz Maszewski
Light producers: Zbigniew Szulim, Bartłomiej Kaczalski, Krzysztof Łukasz Stefan
Video producers: Mariusz Chałubek, Paweł Woźniak
Stage manager: Katarzyna Kłosowska-Kobiałka
Cast: Marek Barbasiewicz, Ewa Bukała, Wiesław Cichy, Jan Englert, Dominika Kluźniak, Justyna Kowalska, Waldemar Kownacki, Grzegorz Kwiecień, Grzegorz Małecki, Kacper Matula, Paweł Paprocki, Hubert Paszkiewicz, Anna Seniuk, Ewa Wiśniewska

 

Zdjęcia: Patrycja Piwowarska