„Heksy” at the 31st Festival
It is only getting us out of our comfort zone and depriving us of our security that may lead to the crossing of position in which we feel safe. You have to learn how to use a new language, at the beginning it is always a foreign language (yet Marcel Duchamp’s „Fountain” was not always a tame museum facility). Agnieszka Szpila in „Heksy” expresses anger directed at those who claim their right to the monopoly on truth. „Heksy” arouses controversy, opposition and shock – if it were not for this, it would not have any reason to exist because both the book and the spectacle are not nice and lukewarm but full of fire. We have just seen the festival presentation of „Heksy” directed by Monika Pęcikiewicz. Thank you for another night which provokes discussion and does not leave us neutral.
The spectacle had found its place in the Festival programme before it premiered in Polski Theatre in Podziemie in Wrocław more than two weeks ago (on 21 March). „Heksy” is a linguistic and perceptual experiment, a rerouting our thinking to a new lane; a manifesto using an unknown form; a scream of anger and protest against previous, one-sided men’s way of telling the world; breaking with old, protruding narratives and announcing the onset of something new, creeping, non-hierarchic and socially tangled…
These are the problems which were talked about during the after-spectacle meeting moderated by Jacek Cieślak and Jacek Wakar. Agnieszka Szpila told about her book and the work on the play. She emphasized it was important for her to create a new, alternative language which could tell the world in a new way – hence joining poetry with vulgarity, mixing of orders. She noticed that at the same time the form and narrative of „Heksy” , in retrospect, seem even for her to be like UFO – a story and narrative from a distant reality (as French readers of her book call it).
Monika Pęcikiewicz said that in her opinion artistic theatre, a searching theatre, should not tell a fictional story nor satisfy the viewers and meet expectations. Such theatre is not perceived in „like” and „dislike” categories. „Heksy” is to ask questions, provoke, inspire, stimulate thinking, fire.
„Heksy” is to resonate – in a different way in each of us.
Polski Theatre in Podziemie in Wrocław
Agnieszka Szpila
„Heksy”
Dramaturgy and adaptation (with the use of fragments of improvisation of Agnieszka Szpila and Anna Kłos): Agnieszka Szpila
Directed by Monika Pęcikiewicz
Stage design and costumes: Grzegorz Więckowski, Karolina Benoit
Visualizations, art directing: Sebastian Pańczyk
Music: Stefan Węgłowski
Stage movement: Bartłomiej Gąsior
Choreography: Aleksandra Grącka-Baczyńska
Light directing: Wojciech Puś
3D visualizations: Bartłomiej Szlachcic
Photos: Kuba Czapczyński
Visualization production: Anna Pietkun
Project curator: Piotr Rudzki
Cast: Anna Ilczuk, Justyna Janowska, Andrzej Kłak, Anastazja Kowalska, Michał Mrozek, Piotr Nerlewski, Michał Opaliński, Janka Woźnicka, Katarzyna Wuczko
Photos: Maciej Zakrzewski
