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Directed by
Magda Szpecht
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Dramaturgy
Łukasz Wojtysko
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Japanese premiere
November 8, 2019
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Polish premiere
March 6, 2020
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Duration
about 90 min.
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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
About
“Always Coming Home” performance, based on a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, starts at the point where most of dystopian science-fiction stories end. The story depicts what will happen after our civilization collapses, hundreds of years after the climate catastrophe. Instead of showing us a high-tech near-future where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide, artists go further, travelling in time as far as necessary to see people living close to nature again. We meet a functioning society, where the feeling of community and non-hierarchical connection with the surrounding world play the most important role.
Protagonist of the performance, a woman named Stone Telling, has a double identity – she’s a representative of two tribes: the Kesh people and the Condor tribe. Obsessed with the prospect of development, Condor Tribe is not afraid of conflicts with other communities. The Kesh people, on the other hand, are reluctant to embrace technological progress, they nurture a strong spiritual bond with the nature, and in their language “to give” and “to take” have the same meaning. An American writer – Jonathan Franzen wrote in the New Yorker: “The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it. Kindness to neighbors and respect for the land will be essential in the crisis and in whatever society survives it.” Similar vision of the future is described by Le Guin in her book from 1985.
“Always Coming Home” is coproduced by Festival/Tokyo, TR Warszawa and The Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Premiere of the Japanese version of the performance took place on November 8, 2019 at the Festival/Tokyo in Japan. It accompanied the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Poland (1919–2019). The idea behind the project was also presented at the TPAM 2019 – Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama in February 2019. There are two sets of actors engaged for the performance: a Polish-Japanese cast (performed in Japan) and a Polish cast (perform in TR Warszawa).
Cast
Creators
direction: Magda Szpecht
script, translation and dramaturgy: Łukasz Wojtysko
set, costume and lighting design: Michał Korchowiec
music: Krzysztof Kaliski
choreography: Paweł Sakowicz
video: Ryohei Tomita
text editing: Mateusz Borowski
Production
director’s assistant: Malwina Szumacher
production manager: Karolina Pająk
stage manager: Aleksandra Śliwińska
Gallery
photo by Natalia Kabanow
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In the performance fragments of:
“Always coming home” by Ursula Le Guin, Orion Publishing Co, London 2016 (translated by Łukasz Wojtysko) and quotes from “The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future” by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway translated by E. Bińczyk, J. Gużyński, K. Tarkowski, PWN, Warsaw 2017 are used.
“Always Coming Home” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Copyright © 1985
All Rights reserved.
Cooperation
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Coproduced by:
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Patronage:
The new talents line
The performance was produced within the frame of the new talents line programme. TR Warszawa for many years now has been promoting new artistic talents through such projects as: Warsaw Area [orig.: Teren Warszawa], TR/PL, Field TR [orig.: Teren TR], Young TR [orig.: Młody TR], TR Debut [orig.: Debiut TR], artistic residencies, guest showings of diploma works and performances, repertoire showings of performances co-created by new artists and production of selected projects in cooperation with foreign partners. TR Warszawa provides artistic shelter, where artists may experiment and implement their ideas for theatre.
Within the new talents line in the past artistic seasons, the following directors presented their productions: Wojciech Blecharz (“Soundwork”), Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak (“The Chinese”), Grzegorz Jaremko (“Woyzeck”), Katarzyna Kalwat (“Holzwege”, “Rechnitz. Opera – The Exterminating Angel”, “Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies”, “Staff Only” – coproduced by Biennale Warszawa and TR Warszawa), Anna Karasińska (“Ewelina’s Crying” and “Fantasia”), Katarzyna Minkowska (“Stream”), Jędrzej Piaskowski (“Puppenhaus. Treatment”, “David Is Going To Israel”), Piotr Trojan (“Grind/r”), Magda Szpecht (“The Possibility of an Island”, “Always Coming Home”), and Małgorzata Wdowik (“The Footballers” and “Fear”).