A series of short stories by Olga Tokarczuk form the basis of "Open Your Eyes", a pioneering production directed by Igor Gorzkowski and currently bein staged at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. Marcelina Burzec went to meet the cast.
A crime story that is meant to entertain. A Reader who slips into the very story she is following. Awkward situations and characters full of flaws.
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In his production "Open Your Eyes", Igor Gorzkowski draws inspiration from two short stories by Olga Tokarczyk from the 2001 collection "Playing on Many Drums": "Open Your Eyes, You’re Already Dead" and "Dress Rehearsal".
"In the first story the protagonist is a passionate reader; she devours crime novels. Why crime novels? Because, as she says, she is looking for some kind of order in a chaotic world," explains Gorzkowski. "And the crime genre really is a form in which a crime takes place. We are given clues that allow us to uncover the mystery of who committed it," he adds.
In the book the crime takes a long time to happen, the Reader grows impatient and… steps into the world she is reading about.
"Here we have a device that may be more familiar from cinema than from theatre: we have a world in which the heroine from a realistic setting crosses into this stylised, fictional reality in search of sensations that are missing from her life," says Gorzkowski.
"The Reader is definitely the character who narrates this entire story," actress Anna Cieślak, who plays the role, tells Euronews. "She is also the driving spiral that sets the rhythm of the comedy. We should not forget that this is a crime comedy, so my task as the Reader is to lead the audience into a free, playful meander of the imagination and wind up the tempo so that everything tightens more and more and heads in a specific direction – in tandem with my colleagues, the characters the Reader imagines.
"It is precisely through reading that our imagination expands and gives us boundless possibilities. And that is exactly what, with this show, we would once again like to encourage you to do, to read. Reading gives you courage, gives you space and also gives you distance from today’s fast-paced world, which feels prepared for anything."
"Nothing is clear-cut or obvious in this story. In fact, at no point is the viewer sure who is writing this story, who the author is," says Ewa Makomaska, the actress playing Ulrika. "Here nobody has a soft spot for anyone. All these characters embody the very worst traits. They are jealous, they are in love with themselves. Above all, they are petty and childish."
The make-up and styling suggest a resemblance between the character of Ulrika and Olga Tokarczuk through the writer’s distinctive hairstyle.
"Let me deny it straight away – I am not playing the author, Olga Tokarczuk. It is an inspiration, but also a wink to the audience and to the author herself," the actress stresses.
"Crime fiction is a form in which these characters are usually vivid and built on certain templates. I feel the author is reaching here for a line-up of figures we can also find in, say, Agatha Christie’s crime novels. Each of these characters has been invited by a world-famous writer," says Gorzkowski.
"In the background there is the issue of succession and a throne to be taken – the throne of the most widely read crime writer. Each of these characters arrives from a different country and from a slightly different crime-fiction convention, but the author is playing with the form here," continues Gorzkowski. "And that is also delicious to stage in the theatre – when, on the one hand, we have something realistic, brushing up against a kind of truth, and on the other, a world that is highly stylised and very aggressive," says Gorzkowski.
"In the second story we have a couple who live in hostility and avoid one another even though they are condemned to be together, and then there is a mysterious explosion, some kind of disaster, an apocalypse is announced, people are shut up in their homes and forced to live only with each other," says Gorkowski.
"That situation sharply intensifies relationships and means these conflict-ridden situations can no longer be dodged. There has to be a confrontation, which is interesting. The collection dates from 2001, but it describes, in a painfully precise way, the reality we know from the pandemic period," adds the director.
"At first glance it might seem that these stories do not have much in common. They are very different in terms of the way the narrative is led and how the tension is built. But what links the stories is the condition of the main characters, who are immersed in a kind of hopelessness and normality and, in different ways within the action of these stories, have to respond to that normality," concludes Gorkowski.
"Open Your Eyes", directed by Igor Gorzkowski and based on short stories by Olga Tokarczuk is on now at Teatr Polski in Warsaw.
