fragmenty:

Staniewski odnajduje drogi na ucieleśnienie rezonujących motywów sztuki Eurypidesa...

(...) Pozostają w pamieci obrazy:

*członkowie chóru, bębny między ich nogami, grają unisono i śpiewają

*Agamenon, wzniesione ramiona, ostrzy noże, esencja przemocy.

*Ifigenia stoi bezsilna, długi czerwony szal oplata jej szyję, ofiara dopełniona.

*Klitajmestra, oddzielona od chóru kręgiem światła, pyta: "I nikt się nie sprzeciwił" Potężny moment będący kombinacją spektaklu, rzemiosła scenicznego i tekstu.

Interpreting the Rhythms of Euripides

By RACHEL SALTZ

Published: October 12, 2007

The Gardzienice Theater's vivid if frustrating "Iphigenia at Aulis" at the La MaMa Annex comes at you in a rush. At only 45 minutes, it's not exactly the play that Euripides wrote but an impressionistic meditation on it, what this Polish company calls a "theater essay."

The stage pictures stay with you: The chorus members, drums between their legs, pounding in unison and chanting. Iphigenia curled fetally on a chair, a sacrificial lamb in white. Agamemnon, arms raised, sharpening knives with barely contained violence. Iphigenia standing motionless, a long red scarf dragged across her throat, the sacrifice complete.

Wlodzimierz Staniewski, the Gardzienice's artistic director, worked with the avant-garde director and guru Jerzy Grotowski before founding this company, and it shows in his emphasis on movement, music and rhythm. He adapted Euripides' play - Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, so the Greek armies can sail to Troy and wage war - and directs here. His disciplined performers, bodies as expressive as faces, seem at times more like dancers than traditional actors.

Chunks of the play are delivered in Polish, mostly at breakneck speed (and without supertitles). There are also segments in ancient Greek and English. Words aren't primary here, just one more element of sound and rhythm. Still, those who don't have a good working knowledge of the story (or Polish) may not glean much about "Iphigenia" from this production beyond its general atmosphere of tragedy.

That's too bad because Mr. Staniewski has found ways to physicalize resonant themes in Euripides' play. He makes the chorus central, foregrounding the communal will that can operate in terrible ways. (Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter because he's afraid of the massed armies; Achilles fears he'll be stoned to death if he tries to prevent it.)

In this production Iphigenia's mother, Klytamnestra, separated from the chorus by a circle of light, asks, "Does no one speak against this?" It's a powerful moment, a revealing combination of performance, stagecraft and text.

" Iphigenia at Aulis" continues through Oct. 21 at La MaMa Annex, 74A East Fourth Street, East Village;