Density of Population. The Story of the Explosion
Teatr Kana, SzczecinDuration
Tickets
20 PLN (15 PLN for pass owners) - link to sale in description
Place
Teatr Kana, świętych Piotra i Pawła 4/5 square
There are diseases that cannot be cured. You just have to sit and stroke hands of the dying (S. Alexievich)
The chorus-like narrative on stage giving voice to people who have been touched by catastrophe, at the same time penetrating our contemporary anxieties, fears and premonitions and exploring the condition of the today’s world. The four actors, interpret the famous Svetlana Alexievich’s book “Chernobylskaya molitva” [Voices from Chernobyl/Chernobyl Prayer] in a deeply personal way. They engage in a determined and tender conversation with the difficult, the uncomfortable, and the painful – with the issues we would like to escape from and we would like not to know. They focus on stories of each character and each viewer. They listen attentively to our longings, fears and dreams. They recognise and face the unspeakable. And they dance.
Adaptation and Direction: Krzysztof Popiołek
Set Design: Anna Wołoszczuk
Costume Design: Piotr Popiołek
Production Manager: Piotr Motas
Lighting, Sound, Projections: Piotr Motas & Krzysztof Nowak
cast:
Bibianna Chimiak
Karolina Sabat
Dariusz Mikuła
Piotr Starzyński
premiere: June 2017.
Tickets
for the performance are sold stationary (Teatr Kana, świętych Piotra i Pawła 4/5 square) and online [online ticket sales].
Tickets for both performances of the Teatr Kana (diptych - Density of Population and The Possible Worlds) include a promotional price of 30 PLN (25 PLN for pass owners).
"Population density" and "Possible worlds" - a diptych about the catastrophe
Both performances, directed by Krzysztof Popiołek and produced together with the Kana Theatre company, are a peculiar dialogue with the present and the future; they use different theatre languages but complement each other into a coherent whole. The first, by means of a multi-voiced stage story about the Chernobyl disaster that took place on April 26th, 1986, attempts to establish a ritual of confrontation with personal fears and premonitions (and 'conjuring' them so that they do not come true...), the second - realised after the experience of the disastrous Russian invasion on Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 - in a perverse and ironic way seeks a new language and new hope.
„It can be said that the Kana’s production is a typical example of engaged theatre. At the same time, it proves that admonishing and warning performances which exhort and warn can be a source of viewers’ reflection on the world. However, this can only happen when – and such is the Kana’s case – an appropriate artistic form is found for it; when it is clear that the basis for the performance is not a fashionable interest in the current issues, but a real need to share one’s vision of the world – even if this vision is not very optimistic, and periods of peace appear in it as ‘small cracks in a continuous catastrophe’. Let’s dance, we are alive, and we have the strength to sing: ‘I will survive!’"
Joanna Ostrowska, teatralny.pl
Awards:
- Winner of the 12th edition of the Teresa Pomodoro International Naked Theatre Award in Milan in 2021
- The ensemble creating the performance received the 2021 Artistic Award of the City of Szczecin.
- The TopOFFFestival Audience Award 2019.
- Nominations for the 2017 Amber Ring Award in two categories: ‘the best performance of the season’ and ‘the best actor/actress’ (for Bibianna Chimiak and Dariusz Mikuła)