Szczelina

A performance based on the drama „Zanikam” [“I am disappearing”] by Arne Lygre, translated by Elżbieta Frątczak Nowotny. The performance makes use of fragments of poetic texts by Rumi and actors personal texts.

This is not a performance about refugees, who have suddenly lost the roofs over their heads and have to head out into the unknown. This is not a performance about those who do not know where they are going, but only where they came from. This is not a performance about people who have lost their loved ones, yet they still want to live. This is not a performance about those who are losing everything, yet still have hope that they will be able to start their lives anew.

"The Crack" is a performance about you - about us, who have roofs over our heads and plenty of food to eat, yet we still do not realize that we can lose it all, at any moment. That suddenly we can be thrown into the unknown, just because someone, without warning, might drop a bomb on our town, or poison our water, or decide that we do not have any rights to live in our city anymore. This performance is about our fears and about finding hope. And about the fact, that each one of us is, was, or one day will be a refugee, usually not by his own choice.

We read newspapers and watch the news every day. At times we feel like escaping to Noah's ark, or at least to Nepal. But thanks to the work on this performance we feel less helpless in relation to the world which surrounds us (this may sound terribly naive, but it is how I feel). Maybe because the struggle with our own helplessness begins with talking about it, and not turning our eyes away from what is happening. We are looking for a crack, through which a stream of light could shine through, and for a chance to reach the other side of despair.

Six women and one man try to tell, through words, movement and singing, very ordinary stories of people who have lost everything, and have nothing left but hope. Hope, which sometimes turns into a survival instinct, and sometimes into an acceptance of its loss.

I hope that, thanks to our performance, despite the aggression and fear against OTHERS which is growing day by day, we will be able to see people in these others. People like us. When the demons are gone, maybe then the conversation will begin... 

The show was awarded the "Golden Mask" award for the best off stage event in the 2015/2016 season, and was nominated in the "Łódź is Culture - BEST PREMIERE 2015/2016".

direction: Tomasz Rodowicz

choreography: Adrian Bartczak

Music: Tomasz Krzyżanowski

costumes: Anna Raczkowska

scenography: Tomasz Rodowicz

light direction: Tomasz Krukowski

sound direction: Marcin Dobijański

production: Teatr CHOREA i Fabryka Sztuki w Łodzi

cast: Ewa Łukasiewicz (as a guest) Janusz Adam Biedrzycki, Joanna Chmielecka, Majka Justyna, Małgorzata Lipczyńska, Elina Toneva

The presentation of the CHOREA theater performance was held at the Carte Blanche Theater - the Norwegian National Theater of Contemporary Dance in Bergen on 21st of April in 2023.