| TAZM Silence of Light |
|
Performance by STUDIO||ROSA Thu–Sun 22–25 January 2015, 19:00 Laboratory Theatre Space Admission: 15 PLN Bookings and tickets: sekretariat@grotowski-institute.art.pl Tel. 71 34 45 320 Online tickets A theatre performance based on Tahar Ben Jelloun’s This Blinding Absence of Light. The book is a literary adaptation of an account by a former prisoner of a dungeon in Morocco, who survived 18 years in the darkness of Tazmamart. The piece, dedicated to Prof Dobrochna Ratajczakowa, was first presented in Poznań in December 2012. Since then – thanks to kind support from Drama, Theatre and Performance Department and from the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University – more than 50 free presentation have taken place in the Theatre Studio at Collegium Maius, Adam Mickiewicz University. In 2014, at the invitation of Prof Paul Allain, TAZM was performed in Tehran (Iran) and at the University of Kent in Canterbury (UK). SALIM: N-I-… N-I-G… N-I-G-H-T… Night will be my companion, world and cemetery. Night. A blanket of frozen dust, a stand of black trees. Night. A queen of sufferings. It does not fall here – it is all the time. Night is no longer a night, since there are no more stars, no more moon, no more sky. Night – a bottomless well, a tunnel bored in hope for a ray of light. Night – my body is made of it, my breathing, and heartbeats, and hands fumbling on the walls. Night – dank, sticky, dirty, clammy, smelling of urine. Night. It arrives on a grey horse… SALIM and TEBEBT: Night! Followed by a pack of mad dogs. Night! It throws a heavy cloak of wet sand on my face. Night! My fingers are rubbed raw when I touch it. 10, 10… On the night of July 10, 1971, I became ageless. TAZM Silence of Light, Scene 6: “Night” In translating the Polish adaptation into English we consulted Linda Coverdale’s translation of TAZM Silence of Light (Penguin Books, 2005). Directed by Grzegorz Ziółkowski Actors Maria Bohdziewicz (Tebebt) and Maciej Zakrzewski (Salim) Text by Grzegorz Ziółkowski based on Małgorzata Szczurek’s Polish translation of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s book This Blinding Absence of Light; fragments of Albert Camus’s The Stranger in Polish translation by Maria Zenowicz-Brandys Dramatic inspirations Le nombre d’or by Matila C. Ghyka and The Niche of Lights by Al-Ġhazāli Music The Remote Viewer by Coil, and Henryk Górecki’s Quasi una fantasia performed by Kronos Quartet First performance: 8 December 2012 Running time: 65 minutes  STUDIO||ROSA is an inter-human space for long-term work on oneself and for research into the relationship between theatre training and creativity. The work is focused on awareness and harmonization of breath, body and voice. The heart of the practice is the quality of lightness, sought for in the flow of actions and dialogues with oneself, an environment, a partner, a group. We strive to make it present in training and in improvisations, understood as a space for being playful. Improvisations help to build a bridge between training and the spheres of the imagination, composition and creation. It is in this domain where performances appear – created by a common effort. Presently STUDIO||ROSA is working on a new performance piece, HEART Silence of Polygon (Listening to Meriam Ibrahim’s Story…), based on Wajdi Mouawad’s play Scorched. The piece will form the second part of A Duet ON SILENCE (the first part being TAZM Silence of Light). It is planned to open in December 2015. Since 2012 STUDIO||ROSA has led the ATIS Acting Techniques Intensive Seminar at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The seminar, of a highly practical and exploratory nature, aims at studying elementary and advanced skills of the performer. ATIS, led by Prof. Grzegorz Ziółkowski, is rooted in an anthropological approach. It is addressed to those international artists, researchers and students who wish to study acting and theatre as well as those would like to deepen their understanding of human creativity and expression in a practical way.  Led by Grzegorz Ziółkowski Co-created by Maria Bohdziewicz and Maciej Zakrzewski Acting collaboration Maria Kapała Collaboration Adam Domalewski More information: www.grzeg-rosa.home.amu.edu.pl, www.facebook.com/pracowniarosa Grzegorz Ziółkowski is a teacher, director, editor, translator, and author of books on Peter Brook (2000) and Jerzy Grotowski (2007). He is Professor in the Drama, Theatre and Performance Department of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He directs STUDIO||ROSA and the ATIS Acting Techniques Intensive Seminar. He is currently writing a book on self-immolation in contemporary culture. More information: www.grzeg-rosa.home.amu.edu.pl Maria Bohdziewicz is an actress with STUDIO||ROSA, an AMU theatre studies graduate. She has led educational and artistic projects in local communities and with disabled people. She writes poems and raps. More information: www.facebook.com/MariaHZdaniaDoCzytania?fref=ts Maciej Zakrzewski is an actor and musician with STUDIO||ROSA. He is a PhD student in drama at AMU in Poznań and teaches acting techniques in the Poznań Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA). An ethnology and cultural anthropology graduate at AMU, he is a theatre photographer More information: www.facebook.com/fototeatr.zakrzewski   |