New Take on Gombrowicz
A new production of Witold Gombrowicz's "Operetta" will premiere at the Dramatyczny Theater in Warsaw Oct. 12, promising to add a new dimension to musical theater.
"Operetta" is the last play by Gombrowicz (1904-1969), a Polish novelist and dramatist who lived and worked abroad for much of his life after he left Poland for Argentina before World War II. The play uses an operetta form and grotesque to show how the world succumbed to totalitarianism in the 20th century.
The Dramatyczny Theater production is by Wojciech Kościelniak, a Polish director who regularly wins applause from critics for each new work.
Critics agree that Kościelniak has managed to create his own style in musical theater and restored the genre to its former and long-lost artistic splendor.
"Basically, Kościelniak is single-handedly trying to create an interdisciplinary theater show in Poland, something that I would tentatively call music drama," says theater critic Łukasz Maciejewski. "This involves a combination of musical theater with drama, and sometimes also with operetta and literary cabaret."
Kościelniak said, "In the case of this production, the musical layer will be an important driving force, with the emphasis plaeed on an interplay of two forces: classical musie involving opera singing and folk musie with its distinctive white voice singing."
So-called white voice is a peculiar style of singing that primarily exploits the chest register and has been described by some as akin to controlled screaming.
The musie for the Dramatyczny Theater production is by Piotr Dziubek and the stage design by Damian Styrna. The cast includes Anna Czartoryska (Fior) Paweł Tucholski (Prince), Modest Ruciński/Paweł Paprocki (Charmant), Marcin Przybylski (Firulet), Piotr Kamiński (First Pickpocket), and Paweł Kamiński (Second Pickpocket).
The Dramatyczny Theater is based at the Palące of Culture and Science, 1 Defilad Sq.
