Eurypides enhanced, Staniewski is rubbing his hands

"Iphigenia in T..." directed by Włodzimierz Staniewski at Gardzienice. Written by Waldemar Sulisz, Dziennik Wschodni.

In the newest opening presentation of "Iphigenia in T..." (Staniewski is not fond of the word 'premiere'), the director surprised the old and new fans of his charismatic talent. He not only placed the Polish dramatic plane crash at Smolensk upon the foundation of a Greek drama, and enriched the old means of expression with multimedia, but also went onstage himself. He controlled the movement and singing to the limits of human endurance, sitting at the side or moving around the hall, taking a look on the Gardzienice park and rubbing his hands.

In the newest spectacle in the story of Iphigenia worshipped by the Crimean people of Tauri - Wlodzimierz Staniewski embossed the history of the Black Madonna, worshipped by Poles in Czestochowa. The likeness of the Greek goddess engraved in rock had fallen from the sky to the hands of the Tauri, while the image of the Madonna, painted upon a piece of the Last Supper table found its way to the hearts of Poles via an equally improbable and mysterious way. Both the Tauri, and the Sarmatians (and later, ourselves) did to their goddesses what they wanted.

In the spectacle whose course is impossible to render in words because it is received and absorbed with all the body - the director has shown "the Poles' own portrait": Poland as seen from under the cross that symbolizes the Smolensk plane crash.

Staniewski showed religious fanatics who in a trance will allow to be killed. He showed it as a warning to political gamblers, church officials and common people. What endeared to me the latest work by Staniewski was his ardent religiousness. And the defencelessness of a naked girl's body collided with this passionate spectacle that reminds one of the grand performances by Tadeusz Kantor. Upon the naked girl's breasts, Staniewski threw an image of a flame that symbolizes a pulsating life. In a moment this same flame appeared on the hanging skulls that symbolize both the Tauri, slaughtered by the Greeks, and the skulls gathered at the plane crash site at Smolensk. This excruciating and cruel juxtaposition shows forcibly how close love is to death.

"Eurypides przesterowany, Staniewski zaciera ręce"
Waldemar Sulisz