You are viewing the Grotowski Institute'€™s old website. To visit our current site, go to www.grotowski-institute.art.pl.
Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego
  • Polish
  • English
Rynek-RatuszBrzezinkaNa Grobli
                                                              
Theatre Cinema: Teatr ZAR

Wed 18, 25 March 2015, 19:00
Cinema Room
Admission free


Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide
Screening of a performance by Teatr ZAR
The screening will be followed by a conversation with Jaros³aw Fret, hosted by Tobiasz Papuczys.

Cinematography and edited by Valeria Cocco; project leader Jaros³aw Fret; music collaboration Mariana Sadovska; collaboration on the movement score Vivien Wood; lighting Bartosz Radziszewski; cast Matej Matejka, Ditte Berkeley, Kamila Klamut and Nini Julia Bang, Przemys³aw B³aszczak, Tomasz Bojarski, Daniel Cunningham, Alessandro Curti, Jean Francois Favreau, Jaros³aw Fret, Aleksandra Kotecka, Ewa Pasikowska, Tomasz Wierzbowski; produced by Teatr ZAR and the Grotowski Institute, Poland, 2013; 50 minutes

The film was shot in Legnica between 15 and 16 September 2012 during Teatr Nie-Z³y Festival.

The title of the performance is a metaphor for suicidal compulsion and the involuntary force that pulls us back from the brink. It is about the potential of the necessary ability to prolong one’s breathing at the moment when one feels in the veins the pieces of glass that haven’t yet managed to reach the heart.

Caesarean Sections musical structure was developed from a base of polyphonic Corsican songs, into which Bulgarian, Romanian, Icelandic and Chechen songs were woven. Its subtle power and energy owes a debt to composer Eric Satie and his discovery of the intensity that can be transmitted by each and every drop of sound. Through contact with and integration into this contemporary theatre piece the traditional musical material becomes transformed and taken on a new form, becoming seamlessly interwoven with intensive movement by the performers. ZAR also acknowledges the great literary influence of Aglaya Veteranyi on this work.

During the research process, members of ZAR made several trips to Corsica in search of new material for the emerging musical score. Their active participation in paschal liturgy in Tox near Bastia represented a pivotal moment. Therefore the climax of the performance is characterised by the liturgical music of Corsican confraternities. While the score’s basic ‘tectonics’ are grounded in Corsican music, they have been interwoven by Bulgarian cries, calls and incantations to enhance the musical dramaturgy.
The first presentation of the project took place in May 2007 in Florence as part of the Fabbrica Europa festival, at the invitation of Roberto Bacci. The performance premiered in December 2007 in the Grotowski Institute, Wroc³aw. Performance shown at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in August 2012 was presented with the prestigious Total Theatre Award in the category Physical/Visual Theatre and Herald Angel Award.

Photo by Ken Reynolds


Held as part of Theatre Cinema’s series of screenings called “Theatre Out of the Spirit of Music”