Based on Karl Ove Knausgårda's "My Struggle"
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Directed by
Michał Borczuch
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Premiered
October 6, 2017
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Duration
4 h (1 intermission)
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Tickets
Normal ticket: 80 PLN
Concessionary ticket: 65 PLN
Normal group ticket (over 10 people): 70 PLN
Concessionary group ticket (over 10 people): 55 PLN
Please be informed that in the performance the strobe lights are used.
Cigarettes are smoked on stage during the performance.
About
6 volumes, 3600 pages, dozens of translations, millions of copies sold. “My Struggle” a series of novels by Karl Ove Knausgård has been a great success on the publishing market in recent years. Knausgård described in these novels his entire life, from childhood to adulthood. One night in TR Warszawa is all you need to get to know his whole story. A theatre production of this one-of-a-kind biographical novels is directed by Michał Borczuch, one of the most interesting contemporary Polish directors.
Enter the stream of life with the actors of TR Warszawa.
The performance is recommended for adults (18+ yo). Younger audience’s participation is subject to parent’s and/or legal guardian’s consent (please contact the education department:edukacja@trwarszawa.pl).
For organized post-gymnasium school groups we offer introductory workshops to the performance (please contact the education department edukacja@trwarszawa.pl for more details).
From the director
“’My Struggle’ is a sprawling, epic meditation about reality. Knausgård’s obsessively detailed narrative inspired me as the modern algorithm for preserving reality and ourselves within it. The extreme, obsessive subjectivity, which at times makes me hate the writer, reveals the truth about our modern times in which the experience of studying oneself as if in a selfie becomes a struggle for existence in the world brimming with people. Others can be very close to us, they can be part of our family, but when confronted with our egos, they are reduced to characters in a novel. Knausgård invites us to turn our lives into literature. But there is a paradox here: when our life becomes important, any other life – even if preserved in minute details – becomes anonymous. For this reason when we developed the project, we juxtaposed Knausgård’s novel with personal experiences of selected readers that will constitute a vital part of the production.”
Michał Borczuch
Michał Borczuch is a laureate of Polityka’s Passport Award 2018 in the “Theatre” category for directing „My Struggle” (among others). The committee awarded the director for „an original and moving theatre. Full of empathy but at the same time a theatre that carefully and without irony analyses the creation and functioning of our ego, memory mechanisms and the role of art in life.”
Cast
Creators
Text based on “My Struggle” / “Min kamp” by Karl Ove Knausgård
translation: Iwona Zimnicka
direction: Michał Borczuch
text adaptation, dramturgy: Tomasz Śpiewak
set and costume design: Dorota Nawrot
lighting design ATM: Jacqueline Sobiszewski
lighting design Marszałkowska 8: Michał Borczuch i Jędrzej Jęcikowski
music: Bartosz Dziadosz
lighting design: Jacqueline Sobiszewski
music: Bartosz Dziadosz
director’s assistant, video: Wojciech Sobolewski
stage manager: Malwina Szumacher
production manager: Natalia Starowieyska
project’s curator in Szamocin: Agata Siwiak
sound operators: Piotr Domiński, Jarosław Grzelak
video operator: Łukasz Faliński
lighting operation: Jędrzej Jęcikowski
wardrobe: Elżbieta Kołtonowicz, Teresa Rutkowska
prop master: Tomasz Trojanowski
photo shoot involved: Łukasz Raczkowski, Maria Raczkowska
Norwegian language lessons: Adrianna Smerecka
language consultations: Jacek Telenga
extras: Gaja Dravnel, Piotr Gromek, Stefania Smagała, Malwina Szumacher, Robert Tomala, Tomasz Trojanowski, Łukasz Winkowski
The following children from the Children’s Home in Szamocin participated in the recording of the projected video materials: Marlena Cholewa, Kacper Janiszewski, Krystyna Kogut, Leszek Kogut, Mateusz Peksa, Danuta Peksa, Grzegorz Peksa, Weronika Popkowska, Adrian Świątek, Jakub Świątek, Patrycja Świątek, Dagmara Świątek, Martyna Wawrzyniak, Gracja Wawrzyniak, Kacper Wawrzyniak, Kamil Zalewski oraz aktorzy: Dominika Biernat, Krzysztof Zarzecki
The following workshop participants took part in the recording of the projected video materials: Martyna Bakuła, Michał Grzegorzek, Agnieszka Jelonek, Małgorzata Kowalska, Aleksandra Listwan, Józefina Moczyńska, Alicja Pietruszka, Monika Rejtner, Alicja Sawicka, Karina Seweryn, Małgorzata Stasiak, Bartek Zdunek
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The performance is based on the following works: “Min Kamp” vol. I, II, III, IV, V and VI by Karl Ove Knausgård. Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011 Forlaget Oktober as, Oslo, all rights reserved.
Adaptation based on: Karl Ove Knausgård’s “My Struggle”, translated by Iwona Zimnicka, vol. I-VI, Wydawnictwo Literackie 2015-2017.
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In the performance the following works are used:
a film by Dominika Biernat
a film by Justyna Wasilewska
a film by Jan Dravnel
photos by Wiktor Bruchal
fragment of a movie “Blade Runner”, Blu-ray and DVD distribution – Galapagos Films.
“The Siege of Jerusalem” by Invicta
fragment the audio track from the movie “Stalker” directed by A. Tarkowski
Gallery
fot. Krzysztof Bieliński
Reviews
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“There is no way this could ever work, but it does. Michał Borczuch is staging in TR Warszawa an outstanding production based on the internationally successful novel.”
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“ Borczuch gives in to the temptation to veer away from the linear stage story and theatre in itself, and offer an illusion of life, instead. In that regard he is similar to Knausgård and thus, is the perfect person to stage ‘My struggle’.”
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“ On the modern world dominated by a narcissistic perspective, ego and emotions. A daring adaptation of the Karl Ove Knausgard’s autobiography.”
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“ Borczuch has already become a real theatre master. There is no other director from his generation, who can drive several complementing narratives in such intelligent and non-obvious manner. The narratives together with other components of “My Struggle” – excellent acting, superb set design by Dorota Nawrot, lighting by Jacqueline Sobiszewski and music by Bartosz Dziadosz – result in a state of the art theatre.”
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“ Michał Borczuch’s performance based on Knausgård’s “My Struggle” may seem as unreal and impossible as its inspiration. However both are. And both are worth returning to. This is more than theatre, it is a life experience.”
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“I am simply astounded, how a human mind can comprehend all of what Knausgård had written (which is in 80% a description and/or an internal monologue) and present on stage a story of a man who had accomplished nothing in his life.”
Partners of the performance
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Media patronage:
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Partner of the performance:
