Dialog Festival
The Brothers Karamazov
after the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translation: Cezary Wodziński, adaptation: Janusz Opryński, set design: Jerzy Rudzki and Robert Kuśmirowski, costume design: El Bruzda and Jerzy Rudzki, music: Marek Dyjak, lighting design: Jan Piotr Szamryk, stage construction design: Konrad Synoradzki, visualisations: Aleksander Janas, sound: Jarosław Rudnicki, premiere: June 2011
cast: Tomasz Bazan, Anastazja Bernad, Jacek Brzeziński, Romuald Krężel, Łukasz Lewandowski, Mariusz Pogonowski, Karolina Porcari, Magdalena Warzecha, Adam Woronowicz, Marek Żerański
“Opryński has created one of those productions that don’t let us go to sleep, because after a performance something begins to talk in our brain. One of those productions that we constantly hark back to, that we analyse again and again.”
Łukasz Drewniak
The Brotheres Karamazov is Dostoyevsky’s most celebrated novel, trying to describe the debate going on among 19th century Russian intellectuals. It is a real phenomenon that the questions posed by the Russians at the time have become questions of successive generations of intellectuals all over the world. Young men would reach for this text, recognising themselves in the characters of Ivan, Dmitri and Alosha. Women would recognise themselves in the remarkable figures of Katia and Grusha. Coming back to this work today, in the 21st century, Janusz Opryński tries, in a way, to wake up the Brothers Karamazov – i.e. yurodivys, saints, madmen, holy fools – so that they would provoke us into rediscovering our spirituality.
“We watch the Lublin Brothers on tenterhooks. Not even for a moment are we bored with the images or tired with the dialogue. Though serious scenes alternate with humorous ones and the dramatic touches the comic, almost immediately we forget the dramatic-criminal skeleton of Dostoyevsky’s novel and start listening to fundamental conversations. We watch the protagonists’ spiritual journey as if it were the fastest action film. The protagonists’ dilemmas and desires, exciting tension and forbidden speculation are expressed here clearly and cleanly. The very act of talking equals understanding.”
Łukasz Drewniak, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna
Provisorium Theatre is a legendary alternative theatre with a cult status, a theatre that grew out of the student theatre movement in Poland. It was established in 1972 by students of the Polish studies department in Lublin: Stefan Aleksandrowicz, Wiesław Kaczkowski and Jan Twardowski. In 1976 they were joined by Janusz Opryński, Jacek Brzeziński and Sławomir Skop, thanks to whom the company presents stagings inspired by the poetics of alternative theatre.
In 1996 the company joined forces with “Kompania Teatr” (“Theatre Company”), established a year earlier by Witold Mazurkiewicz, Jarosław Tomica and Michał Zgiet, and since then the two theatres have been working as one company. Their productions have triumphed in Poland and abroad. Their Ferdydurke by Gombrowicz (1998) brought them seventeen awards at international theatre festivals, including, for the second time, Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival. In 2010 Janusz Opryński, Witold Mazurkiewicz, Jacek Brzeziński, Jarosław Tomica and Michał Zgiet received an award from the Minister of Culture for their services to Polish culture.