Theatre Review: 4 x Hamlet (Teatr Studyjny, Łódź)

The sharing and doubling of roles has been a feature of almost all of the Łódź Film School Diploma shows I've seen so far (in particular Mariusz Grzegorzek's great devised extravaganzas Pomysłowe Mebelki z Gąbki and Nie Jedz Tego! To Jest na Święta!) - an approach that allows a range of actors to put their individual stamp on a character that they may all have had a hand in creating.

As its title suggests, the second of the 2019/20 shows, 4 x Hamlet, directed and designed by Jaracz Theatre Artistic Director Waldemar Zawodziński, continues the trend but applies it, this time, to a canonical text. The production shares this mightiest, most demanding of Shakespearean roles between four of the graduating actors. (Well, actually eight in total, since the production boasts two casts, whom you can watch perform on separate nights.)

In relation to Shakespeare's play, this seems a particularly apt - and democratic - gesture: Hamlet is, after all, to quote Harold Bloom, "a character so various that he contains every quality." At the performance I attended, Rafał Kowalski, Dominik Mironiuk, Krzysztof Oleksyn and Jan Butruk appeared in the title role, forming a compelling "relay" that rejects a "consistent" approach (if such a thing is ever possible in the case of Hamlet) to instead emphasise the contrasting qualities of the multifarious prince. 

If anything, the conceit could have been taken further: how about giving one or two of the female actors the chance to take on the role too, huh? But Kowalski, Mironiuk, Oleksyn and Butruk all bring interesting qualities to the table. Taking on the early sections of the play, his first soliloquy delivered directly to a particular audience member, Kowalski conveys both the prince's melancholy isolation and his scathing wit as he pops Gertrude's mourning veil over his head; still, his most galvanising moment occurs in the brilliant staging of the first encounter with the ghost. Mironiuk (who was memorable as the MC in Nie Jedz Tego!) brings a distinctive stealth savagery to the part, notably in the violence with which he turns on Rosencrantz and Guilderstern (a relationship that, it's suggested, goes beyond the platonic here) and, later, Ophelia. 

And Oleksyn is an absolute whirlwind, amazingly fast and dynamic in his movements, and equally dexterous with the language (the production mixes several Polish translations of the play); the closet scene, played between him and Victoria Zmysłowska's ever-imbibing Gertrude, is, as it should be, one of the evening's most intense and moving moments. 

The production itself provides a pacy, modern-dress context for the actors' committed efforts, with some illuminating ideas and also some questionable ones. Augmented by the between-scenes appearances of a posse of percussionists drumming frantically on barrels, the show seems to take its cue from those strident sounds; the early scenes are played with an upfront aggressiveness (plenty of shouting in faces) that sometimes cuts against the grain of the text. Far from a dodderer, tall, shaven-headed Michał Włodarczyk contributes the bolshiest Polonius I've ever seen, though his death scene - in plain sight here - is startlingly effective and disturbing.

Luckily, the tone is modulated as the evening progresses, allowing for some subtler touches and fine moments for Hubert Kowalcyz's well-drawn Claudius and Antonina Jarnuszkiewicz's exceptional, expressive-voiced Ophelia, who starts out in leather-jacketed, short-skirted stroppiness, succumbs to abuse, confusion and grief, yet still finds surprising strength in the character in a haunting performance. 

Complete with dressing room mirrors (where the Players pause to do their make up before delivering a Mousetrap with a touch of Drag Race about it), seating area (for the court to watch the Players' show and the final duel), plus a tomb at the front, Zawodziński's design nicely emphasises the themes of performance and mortality, while Maria Balcerek's costumes accentuate the notion of generational conflict, the suited older generation contrasting with the casually attired youth. 

A bold final flourish is somewhat fumbled, but, exactly ten years since Rory Kinnear performed the role for Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre, Zawodziński and company provide one of the stronger stagings of the play I've seen since, and one that's far superior to Robert Icke's overpraised 2017 Almeida Theatre take, with its Bob Dylan songs and Andrew Scott's awful orgy of gesticulation. Zawodziński's is a production to be seen for its performances, for the power of individual moments, and, particularly, for its innovation in turning an iconic role from a star turn into a collective endeavour. 



4 x Hamlet returns to Teatr Studyjny next month. Further information here. 

Photos: Aleksandra Pawłowska. 

Theatre Review: Śliskie słowa (Slippery Words) (Teatr Studyjny, Łódź)

Chatting, singing, grinning, gurning, the eight-strong cast of Artur Urbański's Śliskie słowa greet the audience before we enter the auditorium at Teatr Studyjny, via two TV screens set up in the foyer that present the actors individually, against different backgrounds, as "talking heads." It's a cool introduction to a show, which, as its title ("Slippery words") suggests, is much concerned with language: its expressive capabilities and its limitations; how it can be embraced, deconstructed, transcended, remade.  

The third and (aw!) final Diploma Show for this year's graduating contingent of Łódź Film School Acting Students, Śliskie słowa is a different beast to its two predecessors, offering neither an exhilarating collage of material as in Mariusz Grzegorzek's visionary Fever nor a fresh, distilled take on a modern classic as represented by Małgorzata Bogajewska's production of Angels in America. Rather, the new show has been built up from improvisation, an experimental approach designed, in the words of director Urbański, to give the actors "a chance to think differently about dramatic structure and character-building." 

The results are confident, strange and exciting. A timely thematic throughline of male/female relationship dynamics emerges, from the haunting opening moments, in which Faustyna Kazimierska and Filip Warot - slacklining and headstanding - share a shadowy balletic introduction that's one of several thrilling moments of movement featured in the show (and co-choreographed by the actors).

The sequence segues into a bravura display from Karol Nowiński, who turns the stage-floor floury as a celeb chef with a dark side, one that's fully revealed later in a taut scene with the excellent Katarzyna Majda that shifts from playful seduction into deeply disturbing territory. 

Meanwhile, Anna Paliga's love-seeking cashier Renata has a memorable Żabka meltdown with Karol Kunysz's well-drawn divorcé. Aleksandra Skraba bounces in benignly as Małolta, before morphing into the show's most rebellious and questioning presence. Skraba is startlingly good here, whether unleashing an epic string of "kurwas!" or taking to the mic with punk zeal to continue her "A-Z" alphabet run down; this process is begun in one of the production's most magical interludes, the stage flooded with purple light and falling bubbles. It would have been great to see more of the striking Jan Hrynkiewicz as the enigmatic "Silk Boy" but he and Skraba at least get a few memorable moments together. 

As Natalia Spychała's animations spin letters into psychedelic shapes, there are surprise revelations; the gorgeously melancholic sound of Kevin Morby's "Harlem River"; and a re-appearance for Majda - clutching balloons in a red dress - that, intentionally or otherwise, evokes Rosalie Craig's Bobbie in Marianne Elliott's just-closed Company. You leave the theatre surprised, challenged, confounded - and assured that, thanks to the great talent and versatility of these emerging young actors, the future of the Polish dramatic arts is in safe - and daring - hands. 

Śliskie słowa is at Teatr Studyjny between 25-28 April. Further information here. 

Photos: Aleksandra Pawłowska 

Theatre Review: Fever (Pomysłowe Mebelki z Gąbki) (Teatr Studyjny, Łódź)

Premiered in November, and already honoured at FIESAD, Morocco's International Drama Schools Festival (where it collected two prizes), Mariusz Grzegorzek's Fever (more opaque Polish title: Pomysłowe Mebelki z Gąbki) now returns to its "home town" to confound, challenge, delight and excite audiences anew. This production is the Diploma Show of the Acting Students at Łódź Film School, and, as such, serves as something of a showcase for the emerging talents of one of Poland's most prestigious and storied institutions. Since the 2018 Diploma Film from the school, Jagoda Szelc's Monument, was one of the best things that I saw on screen last year, and Grzegorzek's production of Jennifer Haley's The Nether was one of the best that I saw on stage, Fever seemed the ideal occasion to make my first visit to Teatr Studyjny, particularly as the performance was subtitled in English (which the theatre plans to make a more regular feature of its productions). 

And so it proved. By turns playful and political, serious and silly, raucous and reflective, the 3 hour Fever roars across the stage with dynamic youthful energy from its opening moments. Dance, music, poetry, trash TV and worrying Web 2.0 culture are among the grab bag of modes and cultural references that the show draws from. The kaleidoscopic collage structure of the piece both imitates and subverts the restlessness of Internet surfing or TV channel hopping by mobilising those tendencies for avant garde theatrical purposes. The audience is seduced and challenged by being whisked briskly from one contrasting scenario to the next then surprised with longer sequences that require sustained and immersive engagement.

Inevitably some of the scenes and interludes are more successful than others. But the mixing of wildly heterogenous material generates its own cumulative excitement. Fluidity is the name of the game here, with the show leaping from punk (an exhilarating shared scream through Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love") to classical (David Lang's "The Little Match Girl Passion") to a hilariously filthy take on Disco Polo ("Ass Dance"). 

The shifts from wicked parody to heart-wrenching sincerity test the vocal and physical prowess of the multi-tasking cast of 13 - Izabella Dudziak, Mateusz Grodecki, Faustyna Kazimierska, Karol Nowiński, Piotr Pacek, Anna Paliga, Zuzanna Puławska, Robert Ratuszny, Aleksandra Skraba, Michał Surosz, Ksenia Tchórzko, Filip Warot and Elżbieta Zajko - who work together wonderfully well. At times - lined up and striding towards us - they suggest a mob: insolent and looking for trouble. At others - when forming a supportive circle or gently holding on to Tchórzko's hair - they're an empathetic, caring coterie. We're clearly seeing the emergence of some Polish stage and screen stars of the future here. 

The amount of time given over to the TV reality show parody "Nabrzmiałe Problemy" ("Swollen Problems") - which documents a Łódź teen love triangle - may seem excessive, but the constant switching up of the performers keeps it fresh and funny. Check out, for instance, the brilliantly contrasting ways in which the actors playing the TV announcer approach that role, offering sinister relish (Filip Warot), cool dismissiveness (Robert Ratuszny), sincere interest (Mateusz Grodecki) and self-satisfied camp pose-striking (magnetic Piotr Pacek). Meanwhile, Aleksandra Skraba, Zuzanna Puławska, Izabella Dudziak and Elżbieta Zajko (the latter two also feature in Grzegorzek's Czarownice z Salem) all distinguish themselves with their memorable takes on the show's highly-strung heroine, Sandra. (And be warned: the hilariously inane theme tune of "Swollen Problems" is a definite earworm.) 

Complementing such sharing of roles, notions of family relationships and community form a thematic throughline, as the show slyly addresses the question posed by Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born's "Shallow" (and quoted early on here): "Tell me something, girl, are you happy in this modern world?" The brashness of the TV show parody is contrasted with sober sections dedicated to Hutsul customs in which attention to community rituals gives the performance a charged collective and historical sense. Some of the most potent moments of the night draw deeply from Polish literary tradition and history, too: witness the rousing choral rendition of the Gall Anonim/Czesław Niemen "Pieśń wojów" ("Warrior Song") or the grotesque and absurdist take on Władysław Bełza's poem "Kłamstwo brudzi" ("Lies Stain"). We're then brought bang up-to-date again with a daring sequence that directly confronts xenophobia and recent political woes. 

Grzegorzek's visionary directorial signatures are, of course, much in evidence, including projections that range from trippy psychedelia to simple black-and-white beauty (with a twist), while the sensational costume designs of Tomasz Armada (alum of Łódź Academy of Fine Arts and co-founder of the Limanka Fashion House) also ensure that the production is a visual feast as well as an aural one. Fine vocal coaching from Izabela Połońska and highly creative choreography from Mateusz Rzeźniczak further contribute to the dynamism of the event. 

The most breathtaking sequence is saved for last - an expressionist rendering of the bloody, tragic folk ballad "Four Miles From Warsaw," accomplished with bowls of water, towels, a sheet, brilliant accordian-playing from Leszek Kołodziejski - and spine-tingling vocal and physical commitment from the whole cast. It's hard to imagine seeing a more transfixing and imaginative piece of staging this year. Yet that's not everything, after all. Following the intensity of that sequence, a joyful, cleansing coda leaves the audience on a high as it takes us firmly into the liberating territory of Dionysus - by way of Donna Summer. I felt love. 

Fever is performed at Teatr Studyjny on 20th, 26th and 27th January. Further information here. 

Photo credit: Filip Szkopiński.