| Oh, How Nobly We Lived |
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Performance by Trzeci Teatr Lecha Raczaka (Lech Raczak’s Third Theatre), as part of 2nd Season of the Masters “The World as a Place of Truth” Sun 8 November 2015, 19:00 Laboratory Theatre Space Admission: 20 PLN Bookings and tickets: sekretariat@grotowski-institute.art.pl; tel. 71 34 45 320 Please collect your tickets from the Office (Przej¶cie ¯ela¼nicze) at least one day before the performance. (…) So what are the prospects of development for the alternative theatre that rejects literature and negates dramaturgy as a necessary creative impulse? Doesn’t it deprive itself of an important plane of comparison, of the reference points necessary for our self-awareness and development? How to save and keep a living memory of one’s self? Perhaps the theatre should, even if only rarely, return to imperfect biological memory, backed up by the vestiges of material records (notes, photos, film footage) to process the memories of past achievements? That is why, perhaps, Polish alternative theatre makers have recently staged a number of productions referencing classic works, their “remakes” (which I would prefer to call by the French word hommage, which combines a reconstruction/reinterpretation effort with a tribute). Lech Raczak Directed and written by Lech Raczak Performers Daria Anfelli, Ma³gorzata Walas-Antoniello, Adam Wojda Lighting and video Krzysztof Urban Produced by Centrum Rezydencji Teatralnej Scena Robocza Premiered on 3 December 2014 Running time 40 minutes
Lech Raczak (1964) is co-founder of the Theatre of the Eighth Day (Teatr Ósmego Dnia) in Poznañ. Originally an actor, he also became a director in 1967, and then Artistic Director in 1968. In 1984, after the Polish Ministry of Culture imposed restrictions on the Theatre of the Eighth Day (defunding, loss of property, performance ban), the group performed irregularly, mostly in churches. In 1986 Raczak emigrated. Over the following few years, with some of the company members and a number of international performers, he toured Europe for a few years. In 1990 the group returned to Poland. No-Man’s Land was the last production created together by the director and the group. After 1993, with the international group Sekta (The Cult), Raczak continued exploring some themes from his previous work (Orbis Tertius). Between 1995 and 1998 he was Artistic Director of the Polish Theatre in Poznañ. From 1998 he worked in Italy. Between 1993 and 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Malta International Theatre Festival in Poznañ, Poland. Lech Raczak has directed about 70 theatre productions, all of which he co-created or written. His productions with the Theatre of the Eighth Day have garnered more than 30 awards in Polish and international theatre festivals. He has received solo awards for writing and directing, including the Konrad Swinarski Award, Polityka’s Superpassport, the Prize of the Minister of Arts and Culture, as well as the Gloria Artis Medal for Cultural Merit and the Officer Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Raczak gives theatre workshops in Poland and abroad. Since 2003 he has been a lecturer at the University of Arts in Poznañ. In 2013 he established the Orbis Tertius Foundation. With Teatr Trzeci Lecha Raczaka (Lech Raczak’s Third Theatre) he has staged his two original plays, Smolensk Conspiracy and Oh, How Nobly We Lived, as well as Mistero Buffo based on the play by Dario Fo, and a new interpretation of Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve. He has authored many theoretical and critical texts which have been published in Poland and abroad.
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