PREMIERE
Messiahs, or if we have nothing left to believe in, should we undermine the thing we could believe in again?
Near the mid-19th century, after the defeat of the November Uprising (1831), the followers of Andrzej Towiański formed the Circle of God's Cause, a strange religious and nationalist sect of messianists and heretics. Along with Towiański, members included leading Polish Romantic poets Adam Mickiewicz and Julisz Słowacki, and representatives of the Polish intelligentsia in exile in France. Powerless in the face of history, they transformed their frustration at their statelessness into a religious philosophy by which they believed in the unique, God-given role of the Polish nation, demanding changes within the church and rejecting the necessity of warfare, accepting as their basic principle the Christian commandment of loving one's neighbour. Why is it worth revisiting today this episode in the life of the Polish emigration in France? Aneta Groszyńska, Jan Czapliński: „First, to look at how the legacy of Romanticism and all its ideological insanities has been inherited: the echoes of national messianism are quite loud nowadays, while nationalist involvement strays onto ever darker paths. Second, to see what an outsider can tell us about Polish Romanticism – the performance is inspired by György Spiró novel Messiások (Messiahs). And third, to follow in the footsteps of the Towiański-ites and try to revive the fantasy, born of severe disappointment, of a different and better country'
The performance is a co-production of Malta Festival Poznań and the Zagłębia Theatre in Sosnowiec.
ANETA GROSZYŃSKA
She is the artistic director of the Zagłębia Theatre in Sosnowiec (since 2017). She is a graduate of directing and theatre studies at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, and of the Gardzienice Academy for Theatre Practices. Groszyńska has directed at the Stary Theatre and the Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, at the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw, the Nowy Theatre in Łódź, and the Dramatyczny Theatre in Wałbrzych. She also works regularly with Klub Komediowy in Warsaw. Her most renowned performances include Zapolska Superstar (czyli jak przegrywać, żeby wygrać) (Zapolska Superstar (or how to lose in order to win)) and Sienkiewicz Superstar (czyli zupełnie spóźniona anegdota biograficzna na chwalebną okazję stulecia odzyskania niepodległości) (Sienkiewicz Superstar (or a completely belated biographical anecdote on the glorious occasion of the hundredth anniversary of independence)).
JAN CZAPLIŃSKIHe is a dramaturge, playwright and translator. He studied theatre studies at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. In theatre, he has worked with directors including Aneta Groszyńska (Zapolska Superstar and Głód), Ewelina Marciniak (Księgi Jakubowe, Mapa i terytorium and Bzik. Ostatnia minuta), Radoslaw Rychcik (Łysek z pokładu Idy and Dwunastu gniewnych ludzi), Magdalena Miklasz (Avenue Q) and Piotr Ratajczak (Bohater roku, Szewcy and Piszczyk). Two of his plays, Piszczyk (co-authored with Piotr Rowicki) and Zapolska Superstar, reached the finals of the National Competition for the Staging of Contemporary Polish Drama.