• Directed by 

  Małgorzata Wdowik

• Duration

  1 h  (no intermission)

• Tickets

  70 PLN – regular

  40 PLN – concessionary

  30 PLN– rush

About

A football match in the theatre, the theatre of a football pitch – Małgorzata Wdowik combines football, theatre, and dance in one performance. On the stage, two professional footballers: Kacper Wdowik and Wiktor Bagiński execute a choreography inspired by elements of football game and player’s gestures often seen on the field. They are accompanied by an actor, Dobromir Dymecki – here the narrator and the inner voice of the mute protagonists. The text was created on the basis of interviews conducted with young players from Polish clubs where they discussed their experiences and their work on their bodies. What does a body subjected to market pressure and sport competition feel? Where does going beyond one’s own physicality lead to? Why in our culture is it so important to copy the footballer image and not to permit any deviations from the norm?

The artists about the project

“We have conducted interviews with young players, we have talked about their experiences and their work on their bodies. In the footballer circles, they have a common language/way of talking about the body, which is considered a machine, a tool. The footballers, however, are lost for words when asked about sexuality, importance of the skin colour, emotions, or experiencing their body outside the pitch. Most people consider the footballers mute. The only tool that allows them to rebel is their body.”

Cast

Wiktor

Bagiński

Dobromir

Dymecki

Kacper

Wdowik

Creators

Gallery

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fot. Katarzyna Chmura-Cegiełkowska

Reviews

• “Małgorzata Wdowik and Marta Ziółek – author of the choreography, while fantasizing on the sport stars’ grand escape from the golden cage, materialized and pictured a synthesis of the
  football pitch and the stage world. And not in the storyline but in the language. (…) With its intellectual and critical ambitions, “The Footballers” is still an attractive show, nearly a stand-up comedy.”

  Witold Mrozek, Gazeta Wyborcza

• “Both gentlemen play with the ball, show off their physical prowess but the subject matter here is the linguistic prowess, the ability to name what remains unnamed on the field and in the entire football world. About a different skin color, sexuality, expressing one’s expectations and need – or rather about the inability to express them.”

  Rafał Turowski, www.rafalturow.ski

Award

• the Main Prize of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

  “The Footballers” performance was awarded at the Sixth Young Directors’ Forum

Partners

The new talents line / Young TR

The performance was produced within the frame of Young TR – 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”).

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