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Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego
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Teatr ZAR



Wed-Fri 3–5 October, 8pm
Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide
Tent outside St. Elisabeth Church
Tickets: 15 PLN


Teatr ZAR is a multinational group that was formed in Wroc³aw by apprentices of the Grotowski Institute and formulated during annual research expeditions to Georgia between 1999 and 2003. During these expeditions, the apprentices collected much musical material, including a core of centuries-old polyphonic songs that are probably the oldest forms of polyphony in the world.
The name of the group, ZAR, is taken from the title of funeral songs, which in Caucasian tradition, among others in Svaneti, are the essence of singing understood as “column of sound”.
Work of Teatr ZAR attempts to demonstrate that theatre does not only relate to ‘thea’ (Greek for ‘seeing’) but it is something that above all should be heard. From such hearing, deep images are born that would be impossible to create even by means of the most modern theatre technology; where the body of a singing actor shines and emanates with the energy of sound, of the song that lies within.

Performances of the company are just part of a long process of research, expeditions, personal explorations and transformation. ZAR brings back theatre as it was before art ruptured into different disciplines and styles. Its work addresses themes that, in the contemporary world, seem to be reserved only for the religious domain. It comes from conviction, influenced by Polish Romantic ideas, that art is not only complementary towards religion but can fill the dynamic chasm between the everyday and transcendent life. Juliusz Osterwa, one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Polish theatre who tried to put these ideas into practice – and one whose ideas had a great impact on Jerzy Grotowski – once wrote: ‘God created theatre for those for whom the church does not suffice’.