Theatrical section
Theatre of puppets is not a mirror or an infantile introduction to the "real theatre", not a didactic method, not a pedagogical way for our beloved nor a way of imitating anything. Of course it could be any of this. We present you the spectacles which use the art of animation from classics to experiments. We would like to convince you that there are various languages of art and many creative spaces which are worth to explore. To laugh at them, to be touched by them, breathe by them and negate only if consciously.
Marek b. Chodaczyński
General Director
Marek b. Chodaczyński (1954)
Zodiacal Taurus, Director, co-founder and chairman of The Impossible Theatre Union. Father and director of International Festival of Puppet Theatres and Animated Films for Adults "Puppet is a Human too". President of the Polish Center of International Puppet Artist's Union POLUNIMA. A cultural animator. Individual prizes for direction in Poland and Czech Republic. Individual prizes and scholarship of Minister of Culture. He received medals: "Gloria Artis", "Meritorious for Polish Culture" and medal on the 50th anniversary of POLUNIMA and the distinction "The Talents of Ochota". He has directed spectacles in Poland, Belarus and Russia.
Events
"Animal farm" by George Orwell („Folwark zwierzęcy” George Orwell)
Przemek Wiśniewski's Theater of PHOTOgraphy
Description:
Direction: Przemek Wiśniewski
Adaptation and dramaturgy: Robert Konowalik
Scenography and costumes: i AI
Premiere: April 2024
Participants: Agata Drewnicz, Julia Głąb, Iga Kot, Anna Kukułowicz, Barbara Lach, Katarzyna Lewandowska, Maja Maślanka Ishida, Sylwia Nieczaj, Justyna Zar, Anna Złomańczuk, Agnieszka Zyskowska-Biskup, Damian Dec, Waldemar Major Fydrych, Andrzej Gęsiarz, Andrzej Jakubczyk, Michał Jarmoszuk, Robert Konowalik, Bart Kowalski, Andrzej Kopczyk, Marcin Król, Mirosław Łuczak, Andrzej Mikosza, Michał Sienkiewicz, Antoni Wiśniewski, Przemek Wiśniewski and Marek Żurawski.
The inspiration to portray the characters from George Orwell's "Animal Farm" was the socio-political situation in Poland and the change at the top of power. The novel itself is a critique of totalitarianism and shows how the ideals of revolution can be deformed by the desire for power and corruption. Currently, it makes us think about who we vote for in various elections and who we entrust with power.
Out of many candidates for the cast, I authoritatively selected those who uncritically subordinated themselves to me and agreed that I would use artificial intelligence to give them a hard time.
Long live the Revolution! Feel-Act! Hooray!
Przemek Wiśniewski
Theater of PHOTOgraphy was established in 2012.
Actors, roles, set design and costumes, directorial concepts, the atmosphere of the performance - all this can be found in Przemysław Wiśniewski's original project. There is only one thing missing in the performances of the Theater of PHOTOgraphy - the course of the spectacle. We will not see them on any stage - they exist only in photographs, becoming at the same time a record of the artist's creative explorations and a new vision of theater proposed by him.
Schedule
20 den
Julia Fidelus
Description:
Monodrama “20 den” by Julia Fidelus, third-year acting student of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy Branch in Białystok, was created as part of the classes “Theatr vivionea” Forms. Natalia Sakowicz was the artistic guardian of the creative process.
“When I was little and my mom was crying, I said to her, ‘Don’t cry, because I’ll cry too.’ I we cried together. When I was twenty-three years old, I said to her, “Don’t die, because i will die.” But you know, it didn't happen. When your mother dies, that's the feeling, it's as if you've had your guts ripped out - those from your chest - with your bare hands, and a little worse.” ("Motherless" by Mira Marcinov)
Who becomes a daughter when her mother dies? Who is a daughter without a mother? Can daughters into exist when there are no more mothers?
Text: Mira Marcinov
Directed, acting, set design: Julia Fidelus
Puppet making: Magdalena Dubrowska, Rose Turlinska, Karolina Baczar, Anna Chiliska
Artistic director: Natalia Sakowicz
Light directed by: Maciej Cempura
Puppet consultations: Jacek Dojlidko
Schedule
Closing ceremony of the Festival (Ogłoszenie werdyktu Jury i zakończenie Festiwalu)
Description:
Announcement of the verdict of the Jury and awarding of prizes.
Schedule
Description:
A pair of bizarre losers play out a majestically grand finale in a fantasmagoric roadmovie packed with black humour, cruelty, tenderness stretched across a mosaic of powerful poetic images.
Dedicated to all those who live their lives in spite of their own bodies and the slings and arrows of fate.
Just like in other shows of our Provoking Theater Project, we use theatrical means to address topics that we think are neglected and outside the mainstream of our daily interests, and yet exceptionally important.
Concept, Script, Music and Direction: Pavla Dombrovská, with the help from Luděk Vémola
Set, Props, Lights and Sound: Luděk Vémola, with the help from Pavla Dombrovská
Masks and Puppets: Jakub Růžička
Performed, Sung, Lit and Sound operated by: Luděk Vémola and Pavla Dombrovská
https://www.divadlolisen.cz/provokujici-divadlo-ve-visegradu
The project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to promote ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
Schedule
Description:
On the motifs of French plays, B-movies and our inner imaginations. About the secret of an idyll in the solitude of the forest. About the power to change a family curse. About the power of love. And mainly about how a pig squeals in a pre-death convulsion.
Starring:
Lukáš Bouzek
Radek Beran
Dora Bouzkova
Schedule
Exhibition of sculptures inspired by parables, written by prof. L. Kołakowski, according to the Old Testament (Wystawa rzeźb inspirowanych przypowieściami, pióra prof. L. Kołakowskiego, wg Starego Testamentu)
Description:
The presented sculptures come from the performances of the Impossible Theatre Union:
inspired by the book "The Heavenly Key or Uplifting Stories from Sacred History collected for instruction and warning" by prof. Leszek Kołakowski.
The exhibition includes sculptures by, among others: Alicja Białecka-Ruczko, Grzegorz Durlik (designed by Alicja Chodyniecka-Kuberska), Wiesław Janasz, Aleksander Kuberski, Marek Kowalski, Jacek Műldner-Nieckowski, Marcin Rząsa, Dorota and Lech Żurkowscy.
Staging: Marek b. Chodaczyński
Direction: Marek b. Chodaczyński, Maciej Dużyński
Music: Marek Żurawski
Schedule
Judas (Judasz)
Walny-Teatr
Description:
The Passion According to Judas is an intimate performance dedicated to the difficult and complex relationship between Judas and Jesus. Judas here is an actor, Jesus is a life-size wooden moving figure. The story told from Judas' point of view takes on a different light when it is read by Mary Magdalene, a key person in understanding the tragedy of the main character. The fate of Judas, it seems, is the fate of many who listen to his story, whose personal history - like Judas' - testifies to an almost organic misunderstanding of the mission and person of the Rabbi of Nazareth.
Script and staging: Adam Walny
Acting: Adam Walny, Elzbieta Nagel
Music: Witold Walny
Moving figure: Marek Kowalski
Direction of light and movement of the spinner: Mariusz Cholajda
Schedule
Description:
Elliot's imagination was so wonderful that it became the means of coping with his hostile reality. With it hewas able to cross oceans, fly, stop time and even evade fear. He grew and his imagination even more. Swallowed by the luminous world that had been created, he did not see that behind him, long shadows were projected, beings that had accompanied him for too long.
Original idea: Julieta Gascón and José Puchades
Direction: Julieta Gascón and José Puchades
Puppeteer: Agnés Salas, Julieta Gascón, Amok Cor, Elena Lalucat and Kiko Lopez
Wood carving: Valentina Raposo
Costume design: Claudia Fascio
Lights: Ganesha Gil
Stage design: Laura Closca
Proofreading/language advice: Dora Cantero
Music: Jorge Da Rocha
Schedule
Description:
The main inspiration for the creation of the show was the album released in 1984 by the excellent photographer, resident of Suprasl Viktor Volkov entitled: "Volkov".
The photos and lyrics included in the album inspired theatre makers to bring it to the stage. During the show, images, words and music penetrate at an unhurried pace.
With their help we talk, among other things, about human fate, which is unknown; about friendship, which reaches beyond the grave; about where sadness in the world came from.
The play “Mateczynik” is a continuation of the artistic search of the Theatre carried out in the play “Song of the River”(2020), where for the first time we enriched the spectrum of shadow and light theatre techniques with animation and processing of finished photographic photographs.
Written, directed, performed by: Krzysztof Zemlo
Set design: Ewa Zemlo
Music by Ania Beard
Animation: Agnieszka Waszczeniuk
Schedule
Robot
The Impossible Theatre Union and David Zuazola
Description:
In the future, robots coexisted with human beings.
The world moved on and the robots did their job helping people, until they began to think for themselves.
The government was not happy with this, and ordered to lock up and destroy all the robots on the planet.
And so the robots were almost extinct. Almost.
One day, Clara, a girl in a wheelchair, goes a long way from her home and arrives at a concentration camp.
There she meets a robot, probably the last robot on planet Earth.
This is how they start a deep friendship based on silence and understaning.
But something terrible happened and they were separated.
70 years later the robot awakens and begins the search for Clara, in a world that has changed, and where intolerance of difference reigns.
Original idea: David Zuazola
Direction: Marek b. Chodaczyński
Music: Marek Żurawski
Adaptation: Marek b. Chodaczyński, David Zuazola
Puppet design: David Zuazola
Schedule
Description:
"Son"
- was based on the story "Changed Son" by Miroslaw Miniszewski. Both the story and the form of the show are strongly rooted in the Polish folk tradition. It might seem that the art simply tells a myth, rewritten in modern folk language, about the exchange of children for loins, varieties or goddesses. In reality, however, it touches on the still current theme of exclusion, social alienation, misunderstanding and difficult family relationships.
Directed by: Karol Smaczny, Mateusz Smaczny, Marcin Tomkiel
Performers: Karol Smaczny, Mateusz Smaczny, Marcin Tomkiel
Live music by: Michał Górczyński
Based on the story of Miroslaw Miniszewski “The Altered Son”
Editing by: Malika Tomkiel
Schedule
Description:
Stara Planina or Balkan Mountain is still an undiscovered paradise, full of magical places of special significance: crystal clear water, extraordinary rocks shaped by water that flows relentlessly on them, lush vegetation, forests, grasslands and swamp plants. There are numerous nature reserves and monuments in the park itself.
Countless waterfalls give it an extra mystery. It is an oasis of silence, so close and so far from everything.
Here in the arms of the Old Mountains there is an emotional need to connect with nature.
It creates an indescribable sense of belonging and connection to it.
In fact, it is a symbol that emphasizes the need to respect what Mother Nature is to us.
Idea: Jelena Stojanović Patrnogić
Direction: Emilija Mrdaković
Set design: Klaudia Lamante
Design and construction of puppet: Tina Suhonen
Music: Łazar Nowkow
Starring: : Milica Vraneš
Schedule
Description:
On a winter morning, the Mole realises that she has never left her hole in years. She didn't know if she would survive outside. She didn't remember what the world looked like anymore. She filled another plate with memories and ate them. She got heartburn. Then fell asleep and dreamt of flying.
"The Flight of the Mole" is a declaration of love to the fears that we alone create. We cultivate them like children, we feed and nurture them with our souls, dreams and longings. Until they grow and devour us.
Author of the text: Polina Hristova
Verses by: Veselka Kuncheva
Director: Veselka Kuncheva
Scenography and puppet design: Marieta Golomehova
Composer: Milen Apostolov
Schedule
There is no Philosophy... (Nie ma Filozofii...)
Unia Teatr Niemożliwy i Teatr Scena 96
Description:
The performance, inspired by selected Old Testament parables interpreted by Professor Leszek Kołakowski, consists of 5 mini philosophical lectures. The lectures are illustrated with sculptures designed and made by visual artists for each lecture.
Parable entitled ‘God or the Contradiction between the Motive and the Effects of Actions’ illustrated with sculptures by Marek Kowalski.
Parable entitled ‘Esau or The Relationship of Philosophy to Commerce’ illustrated with sculptures by Alicja Ruczko.
Parable entitled ‘Rachab or Real and Pretended Loneliness’ illustrated with sculptures by Marcin Rząsa.
Parable entitled ‘Jael or the Pathlessness of Heroism’ illustrated with sculptures by Aleksander Kuberski.
Parable entitled ‘Balam or the Problem of Objective Guilt’ illustrated with sculptures by Grzegorz Durlik.
Author: Leszek Kołakowski
Adapted and directed by: Marek b. Chodaczyński, Maciej Dużyński
Music: Marek Żurawski
Cast: Ina Levska i Maciej Dużyński
Schedule
Description:
TRACKS is a story about the history of Poles living in the east of Poland during the Second World War, and inspired by the fate of the grandfather and grandmother of the author of the play - Sylwia Niekolaas. Sylvia is trying to understand the past of her grandfather, who was very close to her, and yet she didn’t know much about him. With the help of self-made dolls, she discovers events she had no idea about before. The reality of war turns out to be very complicated - because where does evil end and good begin?
TRACKS is a story about grandchildren and grandparents, about the face of war we never knew in school, about women, trains and ants.
Schedule
Wieprz River Atlas (Atlas Rzeki Wieprz)
Ludomir Franczak
Description:
Let us listen to the out-of-time current of events, history and experiences, the archetype of which the river Pigrz carries with it.
What is her narrative? Do humans and animals form a community? Is it possible to be quiet on the river? What does it mean? Let us abandon our human perspective, close our eyes and listen to the pulsating water!
Concept and execution: Ludomir Franczak / Piotr Pukala [abq]
Performative work selected within the framework of the open competition – open call Space of Arts Theatre in Lublin 2023.
Task financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the Art Space Program, implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance and the Theatre Institute named after them. Zbigniew Raszewski. The local operator of the program is the Cultural Center of Lublin.