KRESZANY
Director:
Text author:
Olga Maciupa, Olena Apczel, Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski
Duration:
about 120'

Olena Apczel comes from eastern Ukraine, near the border with Russia. Today, these areas are under the Russian occupation. In Ukraine, she worked in three paradigms: eastern (Kharkiv), central (Kiev) and western (Lviv). In Poland, she created, among others at the Wybrzeże Theatre, where she directed the famous play “Więzi” (“Ties”), which was awarded at the Premiere Festival in Bydgoszcz. Now she comes back to Poland with her most remarkable project, co-produced by the Zagłębie Theatre in Sosnowiec and the Divine Comedy Festival. “Kreszany” is a record of motion and songs that break the cycle of oblivion. It is a fairy tale-ritual, built on the basis of real and imagined Slavic beliefs, in which everything has its own place – other than we know it. The script of the performance is a joint work of Olena Apczel, Olga Maciupa and Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski.

Memories and imaginations are formed in the same place in the brain. What we remember is therefore not necessarily a faithful record of the past, but an image of it. And how we imagine our past shapes our future. So let us imagine that we grow out of a culture whose memory is embedded elsewhere – deeply in the Slavic region full of various gods and goddesses. Would such a culture be more open than the one we know from our reality? Would there be more room for tenderness and less for shame? Would it be less exclusive? Would female voices be better heard in it? In such a culture, would pain be a tool of purification rather than revenge? If such a culture has not survived in any archives, has it not perhaps survived in us? “Kreszany” is a record of motion and songs that break the cycle of oblivion. It is a fairy tale-ritual, built on the basis of real and imagined Slavic beliefs, in which everything has its own place – other than we know it. Can you disarm a mine that should have exploded a long time ago?

Section Biała strzałka w prawo
Purgatorio
Premiered on 6 December 2021
Olga Maciupa, Olena Apczel, Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski
dramaturgy
Natalia Mleczak
set design and costumes
Mateusz Zegan
music
Anna Steller
choreography
Paweł Szymkowiak
video
Maria Oneshchak
vocal development
Katarzyna Giżyńska
stage manager
Ewa Żurawiecka
prompter
Cast:
Natalia Bielecka
Agnieszka Bieńkowska
Ryszarda Bielicka-Celińska
Beata Deutschmann
Weronika Janosz
Mirosława Żak
Paweł Charyton
Tomasz Muszyński