After the moving camera of filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, it's Grzegorz Jarzyna's turn. He' s a Polish director who borrows the tragic and universal story of the film Festen. Transferred onto the stage, this tardy denunciation of a family secret becomes a time-bomb whose ultimate detonator is the actor. Scene after scene, the play unravels the spirals of withheld speech, stifled by the years and by silence. The family feast begins joyfully, carefree and light-hearted. The father, a respectable figure is the toast. But his son, Christian, has something to say to everyone. The words stream out, as well as can be expected, in between manic-sounding music and piercing lights. His words are sharpened to the point that they become a drill obstinately digging a path through conformity and the unspoken. A confrontation, full of repressed violence whose only outlet is the actors' bodies. Tensions, concentration, waiting : all converge on a single point. To say, finally, what has occurred. Christian is never listened to, nobody even hears him. However, after that night, after the party, the early hours of the day outline the premise of a new future for the young man who seeks his right to live. The theatre is pummelled with flesh and sweat. Each one of us is forced to lend an ear and to face frankly the truth that is not necessarily very pleasing to the eye.
Distribution
stage direction H7 (Grzegorz Jarzyna)
cast : Mariusz Benoit, Tomasz Borkowski, Magdalena Cielecka,
Andrzej Chyra, Ewa Dalkowska, Chrystian Emany, Wojciech Kalarus,
Marek Kalita, Marek Kepinski, Magdalena Kuta, Lech Lotocki, Gustaw
Lutkiewicz, Adam Marszalik, Waldemar Obloza, Jan Peszek,
Aleksandra Konieczna, Aleksandra Poplawska, Julia Przebierala,
Stanislaw Sparazynski, Danuta Stenka, Danuta Szaflarska,
Franciszek Wardynski et Marcin Mazurek (musicien)
polish translation: Elzbieta Fratczak-Nowotny
stage design: Malgorzata Szczesniak
costumes: Magdalena Maciejewska
music :Pawel Mykietyn, Piotr Dominski
music adaptation: H7
choreography: Iwona Olszowska
lighting :Piotr Pawlik
dramaturgy and assistant director : Agnieszka Tuszynska
Production
Coproduction :Teatr Rozmaitosci (Varsovie), Ville de Varsovie, Hebbel Theater (Berlin), THEOREM (avec le soutien du programme Culture 2000 de l'Union européenne)
Avec le soutien de: l'Onda pour les surtitres