Eurydice dies under tragic circumstances. Orpheus is left on his own. What next?
Apparently, bereaved people go on somehow, as long as they function in task-oriented mode, let’s say until the funeral. Apparently, mourning changes their sense of time. Apparently, the mourning process consists of specific stages, but people go through them by different paths. One leads first through savannas, then over mountainous landscapes and seas. Another starts at the Polar Circle, and then goes across several time and climate zones . . . There are people who begin wearing black and others who don’t see why they should. Some cry, others don’t, though they feel they should. Some go through motions offered by tradition and culture; others find relief in isolation.
Mourning in the modern world has been removed from the public sphere to become taboo. Rituals which in archaic communities were to connect the individual with the collective and interrupted life with life that goes have died out or have been undermined and erased. Orpheus evokes the ancient myth and raises questions about ways of experiencing loss, about the forgotten and new rituals, and their potential to bring people back from loneliness.
As he turns back leaving Hades, Orpheus loses Eurydice forever. The play’s creators examine this moment, interpreted usually as a moment of weakness. The turning back becomes a continuously recurring refrain providing a point around which they build the theatrical reality of the play and the mourning Orpheuses.
Creative
director: Anna Smolar
script and dramaturgy: Anna Smolar, Tomasz Śpiewak
monologues and dialogues: Jacek Beler, Jan Dravnel, Mateusz Górski, Natalia Kalita, Anna Smolar, Tomasz Śpiewak, Justyna Wasilewska, Julia Wyszyńska
stage design and costumes: Anna Met
choreography of puppet scenes: Natalia Sakowicz
music: Enchanted Hunters (Magdalena Gajdzica, Małgorzata Penkalla)
lights: Rafał Paradowski
puppet creator: Olga Ryl-Krystianowska
director’s assistant: Katarzyna Gawryś
second director’s assistant: Tymoteusz Sarosiek
stage manager: Monika Tuniewicz
technical manager: Michał Golasa
deputy technical manager: Andrii Pogorielov
sound technicians: Piotr Domiński, Andrij Pogorielov, Jakub Sapka, Jerzy Szelewicz
video technicians: Łukasz Karzewski, Maciej Kaszyński, Marcin Metelski
lighting technicians: Daniel Sanjuan Ciepielewski, Jędrzej Jęcikowski, Konrad Kajak, Kacper Stykowski
makeup artists: Milena Jura, Dominika Zatońska
wardrobe assistants: Elżbieta Kołtonowicz, Teresa Rutkowska
set construction manager: Łukasz Winkowski
props technicians: Mariusz Basiak, Marcin Puanecki, Tomasz Trojanowski
installation technicians: Mariusz Basiak, Paweł Iwaniuk, Marcin Puanecki, Tomasz Trojanowski, Łukasz Winkowski
set construction manager: Tomasz Ciężarek
carpenter: Tadeusz Tomaszewski
metalworker: Tomasz Ciężarek