"An Evening Performance"

Performance directed, music arranged
and text adapted by Włodzimierz Staniewski

"An Evening Performance "

Gardzienice's first performance, realised within several weeks from moment of the company's foundation, premiered in the village of Wola Gardzienicka in summer 1977.

"An Evening Performance "

It is basically performed in the open-air, always at dusk, between night and day. It is a series
of etudes with one, two, three or a bigger group
of actors put together as one whole. It allows considerable flexibility, rearranging the scenes which is conditioned by various factors: situation, area, audience, artistic considerations etc.
The performance is never the same, sometimes the most spectacular elements are left out, some fragments get replaced, then on the next day everything goes back to the beginning.
The actual physical circumstances are of a crucial significance since in relation to them a scene acquires a slightly different meaning, depending
if it is performed on the meadow, on the roof, under a ruined barn or on a stone square.
The director is to inspire the actors, determine
the selection, put together separate scenes into one thing, watch how the performance progresses.

"An Evening Performance "

Rhythm is an organizing factor. All the elements: music, dance, singing, presentation of the text, gestures and actions are governed by it.
The performance features sudden counterpointing, ambiguity and interplay
of contradictory meanings. Within a fraction
of a second the key and mood change dramatically, shifting from seriousness to fooling around. There is no continuous action, there
is no psychological continuity: one actor
or actress plays several roles, demonstrating
a certain human type rather than showing a concrete person. Grotesque exaggeration,
sudden transition from one image to another, 'overlapping' of scenes - these are the most characteristic features of the performance's poetics. Hence the performance is based on associations and lacks continuity; it is a series
of images which speak to our imagination and subconscious. Despite its concreteness and sensuality it is symbolic. And evidently theatrical! This theatricality is extremely invasive; it is to overwhelm everything and everybody. It affects our senses and feelings more than intellect; imagination more than reason.

"An Evening Performance "

(...) It can be said that it is best to approach this performance directly and straightforwardly,
just like it is approached by the villagers.
This kind of reception - contact is what the company aims at. People in the country do not ask about the literary sources which is the case with the urban middle-class,
for them it is useless.
They understand the performance in their own way - and that's it. But if I were to satisfy
the expectations of the middle-class audience
I would provide them with the following information: apart from Rabelais, the company makes use of folk songs, Mickiewicz's 'Forefathers', Bogurodzica, the oldest Polish anthem in Latin and an old English song (…)
along with the words spoken by the country people during the Expeditions.

Zbigniew Osiński, "Gardzienice"
- więcej niż teatr". Radar 12/1979