| Teatr ZAR’s US tour |
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Robert Hurwitt’s review on Teatr ZAR presentations in San Francisco Chronicle Theater Critic, 20 may 2011 The theatrical jewel in this year's San Francisco International Arts Festival crown, Poland's Teatr Zar opened Thursday with the regional premiere of its signature "Gospels of Childhood Triptych." Leading practitioners of the widely influential aesthetics of Jerzy Grotowski, the troupe is performing three deeply thematically interlinked pieces nightly in two locations. Review text here Teatr ZAR ventures across the Atlantic, this time at the invitation of theatre festivals San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) and Charlestown Working Theater in Boston. The ensemble has already presented its work at UCLA Live! in Los Angeles and in Chicago between 2007 and 2009. The Wroc³aw-based collective was enthusiastically received, as attested by numerous articles in periodicals such as American Theatre Magazine, Yale Theatre Magazine, and Los Angeles Times, which ranked Teatr ZAR’s triptych among the top ten most important music events in California in 2009 (Best New Music Theater). In response to new invitations, Teatr ZAR plans a tour to New York, Chicago and Chapel Hill in 2011. At the San Francisco International Theater Festival, Teatr ZAR is presenting its triptych 6 times for a total of 18 performances in two spaces: St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church (part 1 and 3 of the triptych) and the nearby Portrero Hill House (part 2 of the triptych). Along with performances and Q&A sessions, Teatr ZAR’s artistic work is one of the biggest and most important elements of this year’s festival. The presentations will be complemented by Q&A sessions for audience members and workshop participants as well as workshop sessions for practitioners – ACT trainees and Cutting Ball members and collaborators. In Boston, part 2 of the triptych, Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide, will be performed in the space of Charlestown Working Theater. 19–25 May, 7 pm Gospels of Childhood. The Triptych. San Francisco International Arts Festival St. Gregory's Episcopal Church 500 De Haro Street, Portrero Hill Neighborhood House 953 De Haro Street San Francisco  Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Trust for Mutual Understanding and Polish Consulate in Los Angeles    29 May – 1 June, 8 pm Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide (2nd version) Charleston Working Theatre 442 Bunker Hill Street Boston  In partnership with Double Edge Theatre The Gospels of Childhood triptych (part 1: The Overture. Fragments on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood; part 2: Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide; part 3: Anhelli. The Calling) was first presented in London as part of Polska! Year, a programme coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, at the opening of the Barbican’s bite09 sep-dec season. The third part of the triptych, Anhelli. The Calling, premiered at Saint Giles Church near the Barbican. In October 2010 the triptych earned Teatr ZAR the Wroc³aw Theatre Prize. The award committee said that Teatr ZAR had creatively developed the formula of anthropological theatre, drawing inspiration from music of sources, and that it corresponds in a unique way to the Grotowski Institute’s research programme as it constitutes an interesting combination of research work and theatre practice. Two first parts of the project, Gospels of Childhood and Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide, had been presented earlier – both as independent performances or together as a diptych – in countries such as Poland, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the UK, Egypt, Korea, India and the US. Work on Gospels of Childhood was first presented in October 2002 in the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices, and premiered in October 2003. The first presentations of Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide took place during Fabbrica Europa in Florence in May 2007, and premiered in December 2007 in Wroc³aw, Poland. One of the most important impulses to start the Gospels of Childhood project was an interest in the beginnings of Christianity in the Middle East. The performance centers around two threads: the story of the resurrection of Lazarus evoked through the mouths of Marta and Maria, his sisters, and “the testimony of Mary Magdalene”, who, according to some gnostic traditions, enjoyed a special position among the apostles and was identified as one of Lazarus’ sisters. The production incorporates songs collected during expeditions to Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece (Athos) between 1999 and 2002. The songs used in the performance were collected by the company during its expeditions to Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece in the years 1999 – 2003 Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide is an attempt to touch on the subject of suicide and an exploration of the limits of human freedom. The production’s musical structure was created based on traditional songs sung by women, motifs of Spanish, Corsican, Bulgarian, Rumanian, Icelandic and Chechnyan music. Anhelli. The Calling is a tribute to the Polish romantic poet Juliusz S³owacki and his journey to the Holy Land from Naples, via Alexandria, Cairo and Damascus, where he wrote his biblical stylized poem Anhelli. Anhelli's theme is a unique phenomenon that Theatre needs to face in order to protect the essence of its place in this world. This is also a theme of unity and presence of our life, our bodies, ourselves. The musical core of the performance is based on Byzantine and Sardinian paschal hymns as well as irmoses and Georgian songs. Teatr ZAR is a multinational group formed in Wroc³aw, Poland, by apprentices of the Grotowski Institute during its annual research expeditions to Georgia in the years 1999–2003. During these expeditions, the group collected musical material, the core of which is a group of centuries-old polyphonic songs that have their roots in the beginning of our era and are probably the oldest form of polyphony. Zar is the name of the funeral songs performed by the Svaneti tribe who inhabit the high regions of the Caucasus, in North-West Georgia. |