When the plague epidemic known as the “Black Death” was dying out in Europe in 1353, the people of the Old Continent faced unimaginable losses. The population was reduced by nearly 40%, and interpersonal relationships were marked by distrust and suspicion. With help came dance. Its communal nature helped restore compassion and mutual trust, as well as renewed sense of one’s own body and the bodies of Others. In 2020, an incomparable pandemic brought the entire world to a halt. Subsequent waves of disease, sequential lockdowns, and fear of the unknown affected interpersonal relationships, shattering our habits. Regardless of one’s living situation, the pandemic became everyone’s issue. It reinforced social distrust of the other. It has increased bodily distance. In her latest choreographic work, Renata Piotrowska-Auffret explores the movement and social dimension of Danse Macabre, focusing on the communal and bodily potential of continuous, purifying dance.

CHOREOGRAPHY, DIRECTION, TEXT:
Renata Piotrowska-Auffret
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN:
Zuzanna Srebrna
LIGHTING DESIGN
AND DRAMATURGY COOPERATION:
Joanna Leśnierowska
MUSIC:
Marcin Janus
VOCAL COMPOSITIONS:
Anna Szwajgier
ASSISTANT:
Aleksandra Osowicz

CAST: Aleksandra Bożek-Muszyńska, Cecylia Caban, Dana Chmielewska, Magdalena Fejdasz, Katarzyna Osipuk, Aleksandra Osowicz, Artur Paczesny, Konrad Wosik

STAGE COORDINATOR:
Urszula Kraska

Something in between a musical and a drama. In between a serious reflection on the generation of 30-years-old and a parody of a “hipster” lifestyle. In between film and theatre. Neither this nor that.
Tomasz Cymerman, using a contemporary text written by Martin Heckmanns, wants to tell a story about the doubt in contemporary intelligence. People who are not grown-up enough for family and social life, self-centred, nurturing internal longings and their own needs, are completely detached from reality.
Through the formula of a modern musical, the creators try to grasp the phenomenon of immature society, the narcissistic personality of our times preoccupied only with itself. Those people, by ignoring the outside world, live in a glass bubble of their own, carefully nurtured identity and cannot see that something very important is slipping through their fingers: their life. The Wonderful Neither This Nor That is a bitter tale about a fictitious utopia that each of us can very easily create around themselves, and from which it is not easy to just escape.

DIRECTION AND DRAMATURGY:
Tomasz Cymerman
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN:
Kornelia Dzikowska
MUSIC:
Michał Dymny Piotr Żyła Karol Kossakowski
SCRIPT TRANSLATION:
Elżbieta Ogrodowska-Jesionek
TRANSLATION OF THE LULLABY:
Tomasz Cymerman

CAST: Małgorzata Biela, Bartosz Dziedzic, Karol Kossakowski

STAGE COORDINATOR:
Jerzy Laskowski

“Top Secret Research” is everything we hide from the world – dreams, worries, incorrect beliefs, and innermost thoughts. It’s a place that not even loved ones have access to. ‘Research’, on the other hand, is associated with some kind of scientific process.
The play “Top Secret Research. New Constructive Ethics” by one of the most acclaimed contemporary playwrights – Iwan Wyrypajew, is an extremely intelligent, psychological game, which can draw one in like a criminal puzzle. Its characters try to answer fundamental questions: What is a man capable of? Is he a monogamous being? What are the chances for survival of the human species? However, the fate of the world is only a pretext to show our complicated nature and our confusion in the chaotic reality of the 21st century.

PLAYWRIGHT:
Iwan Wyrypajew
DIRECTION AND MUSIC ARRANGEMENT:
Norbert Rakowski
CHOREOGRAPHY AND MUSIC ARRANGEMENT:
Janusz Orlik
SET DESIGN:
Maria Jankowska
COSTUME DESIGN:
Krystian Szymczak
VIDEO:
Wojciech Kapela
LIGHTING DESIGN:
Bogumił Palewicz
SCRIPT TRANSLATION:
Michał Rogalski
LIGHTING DESIGNER’S ASSISTANT:
Mikołaj Kałużny

CAST: Katarzyna Herman, Karol Kossakowski, Karolina Kuklińska, Joanna Osyda, Bartosz Woźny

STAGE COORDINATOR:
Urszula Kraska

5:00. UA is an extraordinary project. A dozen actresses from Ukraine, under the aegis of the Forum of Theatre Directors of the Silesian Voivodeship, created a performance in which they share with us their experiences of the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, their escape with their children to Poland, and their stay in our country. The performance consists of a series of improvised scenes linked by the theme of war. There are serious, dramatic and tragic scenes, all the more moving because we know it is all true, but there are also images like from a good protestcabaret with songs and choreography. We are watching a poetic-documentary record of feelings, impressions and experiences, which make up a stage letter of Ukrainian women - first to Poles, then to the whole world. The performance created by Ukrainian women artists as part of an artistic residency under the auspices of the Forum of Theatre Directors of the Silesian Voivodeship.

DIRECTION:
Yuliia Maslak
CHOREOGRAPHY:
Nina Zakharova
PROJECTIONS:
Szymon Suchoń
LIGHTING DESIGN:
Bartłomiej Sowa
SOUND:
Marcin Łyczkowski
PROJECT COORDINATION:
Magdalena Molska

CAST: Dariia Novykova, Nataliia Pisarieva, Yerheniia Prysiazhna, Halyna Ryba
Kseniia Svistun, Kateryna Vasiukova, Nina Zakharova

You can watch the trailer of this performance here.