Witkacy in Australia - 100th anniversary

WITKACY

Witkacy  ! Committed suicide on 18 September 1939 ( a drug overdose combined with wrists slitting). He was 54 when he died. An eccentric artist and free thinker, not widely recognized during his lifetime nowdays he is listed as a  leading theatrical innovator and one of the outstanding artists of the European avant-garde: The Forefather of the Theatre of Absurd. The creator of  The Pure Form In Theatre. Playwright and artist Sanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz commonly known as "Witkacy", was a Polish playwright, novelist, painter, photographer and philosopher. He wrote about 40 plays, which were directly challenging (and mocking, too) the most popular theatre conventions of his times, mostly operetta, melodrama and farce. Only 21 of his works for theatre survived the World War Two. 

Why mention him now?

 This year – 2014 – marks the 100th anniversary of  Witkacy’s trip to Australia. In 1914 Witkacy was invited to take part in a British scientific expedition to Oceania as a photographer-illustrator with a task of documenting the research.  In July 1914 the expedition arrived in Australia, where Witkacy learned about the outbreak of the First World War. He decided to return to Europe.

That short stay in Australia made a big impact on the artist himself and on his later writings. It consequently resulted in Witkacy's "tropical" plays inspired by the playwright's trip to the land Down Under: 

“Mr. Price, or Tropical Madness is a drama of heightened passion and greed among British colonists in Rangoon who seem to have stepped out of Joseph Conrad's tales of the South Seas.

Metaphysics of a Two headed Calf, set in New Guinea and Australia, pits savage European imperialists against a native tribal Australia and pits savage European imperialists against a native tribal chieftain whose fetish of a great golden frog offers greater insight into the mystery of existence than the Westerners' shallow rationalism.

Both plays puncture the white rulers' poses of superiority and parody their images of the tropical” * (From the foreword to the American Edition of Witkacy’s plays translated by Daniel Gerould)

Here is our long term plan: Auto Da Fe will be revisiting Witkacy’s works in context of their relation to Australia ( Australia being a socio-geo-metaphysical phenomenon in Witkacy’s life)  as part of our research/experimental wing. The Witkacy Project will not be limited to the two above mentioned plays, but they lend themselves as a natural starting point for this kind of journey. No rush, no hurry.  We will take it step by step. 

P.S. For those interested: This year a Sydney based Australian installation artist John Gillies is planning to launch his film-installation project focusing on Witkacy’s visit to Australia - “The End Of The Line”:  http://vimeo.com/85526539 

Everyman & The Pole Dancers: PLAYWRITING AUSTRALIA supported workshop in Melbourne - April 2014

The reading was folowed by the mentioned earlier Tokyo workshop,  made possible by the grant from the PLAYKING FOUNDATION. Then PLAYWRITING AUSTRALIA supported our next workshop, which took place in Melbourne in the first week of April. Here is the first report :
"I have just returned from Melbourne, where we completed a five-day workshop on my new play (and our new Auto Da Fe Theatreproject), EVERYMAN & THE POLE DANCERS.  The work was divided into three stages with Noriko Tadano (our wonderful composer) recording the musical material at first, followed by my individual sessions with the actors, who then were to examine the influence of the speech-specific music on the text, in order to introduce possible changes to the major monologues.

Our primary goal was finding the characters’ individual voices, expressed through their language, and this is largely what we focused on during the workshops. The outcome was not all as expected, but nevertheless the work was, as ever, very exciting and interesting (maybe with the exception of one of the cast – Matt Crosby – temporarily losing his voice in the process- an event neither exciting nor interesting but a bit annoying and a bit  funny in it's manifestation). As a result of the experiment I will be introducing some changes to the script. We also found that some fragments of the play proved stronger on their own than with the music, an unexpected discovery, but welcome as any realisation. In these instances previously scripted musical notes will have to make way for words.

Our actors, being such a wonderful and committed bunch of artists, ensured that I have plenty of material to work back through in the next few months, before we start the proper rehearsal period in September. Some of the cuts are already out. Some of the re-writes are already in. I can only say that it's been an incredibly successful week in the office.

This workshop enabled me to get together with some of the most accomplished Melbourne actors. Their input, which draws on their insights and knowledge of the stage craft, I rate as invaluable. However, the way I see it, the whole process doesn’t end here. When we meet again the editing and polishing of the text will continue, right until the day we open (at the Metanoia Theatre in Brunswick; Melbourne) - possibly even until the day we draw curtains on the last performance (at the Shinjuku Ryozanpaku Studio Theatre; Tokyo).  

As we all know, theatre is an ever transforming form of art. No performance is the same each night. The production lives its own life and so does the play. It is a living being. It’s a process. We have initiated this process and Playwriting Australia has come aboard to support us and to make possible the further development of what we believe to be a fresh and exciting new play/project. We are grateful for the opportunity they provided us. Each day we spend working on the script  makes the final outcome better. Thank you Playwriting Australia for recognising the potential in our project and supporting the always creative and often demanding process it requires to bring to fruition. 

Lech Mackiewicz"

Some photographs by Adam Hanuszkiewicz from the  workshop: 

Jane Bayly, Lech Mackiewicz, Matt Crosby

                                                         Lech Mackiewicz, Jayne Bayly

                                                                   Maude Davey

                                                            Matt Crosby, Jayne Bayly

                                                                      Emily Tomlins

                                      Lech Mackiewicz, Kathleen Doyle

The first public reading of EVERYMAN & THE POLE DANCERS took place at the Metanoia Theatre on the 12th of February 2014 with the following cast: Matt Crosby (Grandfather),  Jane Bayly  ( Grandmother), Maude Davey (Everyman), Emily Tomlins (Mother), Greg Ulfan (Father), Nikki Shiels (Daughter), Kathleen Doyle (Son), Glynis Angell (Narrator) Noriko Tadano ( Musician).

Photo: Naomi Otta.                                                                                

Everyman & The Pole Dancers: PLAYKING FOUNDATION supported Tokyo workshop - March 2014

Keina Denda will play Daughter and Kazuto Shimamoto will play Father in both: Melbourne and Tokyo productions of EVERYMAN & THE POLE DANCERS. During the Tokyo workshop we worked mostly on their Solo Pieces ( the English version)

Kazuto Shimamoto on stage in Tokyo.

Some shots from our March workshop in Tokyo.

Lech Mackiewicz & Kazuto Shimamoto at the Ryozanpaku Studio Theatre