• Directed by

  Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak

• Dramaturgy

  Daria Kubisiak

• Premiered

  June 29, 2018

• Duration

  1 h 30 min (no intermission)

• Tickets

  70 PLN – regular

  40 PLN – concessionary

  30 PLN – rush

About

An acclaimed film director – Jean-Luc Godard comes to Warsaw to stage his performance in TR Warszawa. “The Chinese” is a fantasy on the encounter between an icon of the French New Wave with a Polish theatre troupe and,  at the same time, an attempt at creating a new revolutionary mythology. The script consists of fragments of Jean-Luc Godard’s screenplays, Fiodor Dostoevsky’s novel Demons and actors’ improvisations. The performance takes us on a surrealistic journey, where a low-budget romance meets a figure of a Worker, a speaking mineral meets Chinese revolutionary ballet, and a koala bear is caught up in a political scheme. The Chinese is a story of tenderness, gullibility and incompatibility – perceived as means of creating a temporary political project on the stage.

What will be the outcome of the encounter between TR Warszawa actors and the internationally renowned director? 

Can the involved creators allow themselves to reject systemic schemes, they are entangled in?

Cast

Jan

Dravnel

Monika

Frajczyk

Natalia

Kalita

Maria

Maj

(in his second theatre performance)

Tomasz

Trojanowski

Paweł

Smagała

Creators

Production

Gallery

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fot. Natalia Kabanow

Review

• “For me [this performance] is one of the most system-conscious statement on the politics of the theatre and its social powerlessness, resulting perhaps from the formal rules, class restrictions and communication limitations of the medium itself. Context of the performance is particularly important – it brings up and amplifies the diagnosis formed in “The Chinese”. The performance was produced within the frame of TR Debut, after Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak won the Young Directors Forum in Cracow with her play: “The Weavers – a true story, therefore such a sad one” [original title: “Tkacze – historia jak z życia wzięta, a przez to bardzo smutna”]”.

  Kinga Kurysia, Didaskalia

Inspirations

• Films by Jean-Luc Godard:

  „Breathless” (1960), “My Life to Live” (1962), „Band of Outsiders” (1964), „Made in USA” (1966), „La Chinoise” (1967)

• and fragments of the following books:

  „Coala” by Lukas Bärfuss (translated by A. Żychliński, Wyd. Ossolinuem, Wrocław 2017),
  „Demons” by Fiodor Dostojewski (translated by T. Zagórski i Z. Podgórzec, [w:] tegoż „Dzieła wybrane”, t. IV. PIW, Warszawa 1987),
  „The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future” by Theodore Kaczyński (translated by A. Miernik, Wyd. Inny Świat, Mielec 2003),
  „Godard. Pasaże” by Paweł Mościcki, Wyd. Ha!art, Kraków 2010)

• Consultations: Archipelag TR group

The new talents line/TR debut

The performance was produced within the frame of TR DEBUT Award, established in November 2015 in TR Warszawa. The award is announced annually at the Young Directors Forum in Cracow held by the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow. The award programme is intended to support artistic development of young theatre creators. Directors awarded the prize are invited to stage a performance in TR Warszawa in the following theatre season.

So far, within the TR DEBUT programme the following performances have been produced:  “Puppenhaus. Treatment” based on Magda Fertacz’s text, directed by Jędrzej Piaskowski (2017), “The Chinese” inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s movie scripts and Dostoyevsky’s “Demons”, directed by Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak (2018), “Woyzeck” by Georg Büchner, directed by Grzegorz Jaremko (2019), “STREAM” text by Katarzyna Minkowska and Tomasz Walesiak, directed by Katarzyna Minkowska (2020).

TR Debut is one of the elements 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”).