„BIESY” Fiedor Dostoyevsky, directed by Janusz Opryński

Premiere 13 December 2019 - Dramatyczny Teatr m. st. Warszawy

Before the premiere I spoke with Janusz Oprinski the author of the adaptation and the director of the play:

Tomasz Ostrowski: As a teenager, you were fascinated by The Possessed, directed by Andrzej Wajda. Russian literature occupies a very important place in your work. These 'Bieses' here and now had to happen eventually.

Janusz Oprinski: There is no answer to the question of whether this is the point. But this is actually my third implementation. When I was in high school, I used to watch Vida's devils. Perhaps I didn't understand much at the time, but I got a powerful charge of emotions. I always find this charge of emotion in Dostoevsky. Then I learned, I think I learned to listen to these dialogues. Professor Wodzinski, who taught me, saw there a certain Socratic method of asking questions and not ending the world. Therefore, this Dostoevsky seems to me to be a constantly important space in which the world of today is viewed.

Dostoevsky's text was visionary in the face of later events in Russia (the October Revolution), but it is also timely in the face of current world problems: terrorism and totalitarianism.

Yes, but I leave that to the viewer. I want to convey this passionate dialogue, a heated dialogue. Let people watching the show find the problems of the world today in themselves.

You were encouraged to join the alternative theatre PROVISORIUM in the 1970s by your friend, actor Jacek Brzezinski. You soon became the director of this theatre. Your friendship lasted for years. We see Jacek Brzezinski in your next premieres, we will also see him in Bies.

Jacek accompanies, or rather I accompany Jacek, from the very beginning when I appeared in the existing PROVISORIUM Theatre, This is the story of our third stage. First there was the alternative theatre, the student theatre, the politically rebellious theatre. Then there was cooperation with KOMPANIA "TEATR", where we made, it seems, a few successful productions, such as "Ferdydurke" and "Transatlantyk" by Gombrowicz, or "Do piachu" by Różewicz, and then there is my next stage, probably the third one. Anyway, here in "Bies" there are actors who repeat themselves in my productions: Slawomir Grzymkowski, who will play Stavrogin here, Łukasz Lewandowski, who will play Piotr Wierchowieński, also Agata Góral. Let me remind you that these are the actors who were in 'Point Zero. Graceful' by Littell. Jacek Brzezinski is also now with us playing such a character composed of several people: Liputin, Shigalev but also Fedka. He has very aptly portrayed these characters.

I know that there is a group of actors who are very keen to work with you, and it is a little larger than the actors mentioned. What attracts them to you? After all, it's a completely different kind of theatre from the ones they perform in.

I think they are attracted to the literature that we choose, that it is the text. The power of the text. I'm not afraid to say it, these are literary masterpieces. And this is a certain difficulty, because a literary masterpiece can ridicule us. In this work, we allow ourselves such an extended creative process. There is room for contextual reading. It connects us and builds us up. The process of making a show is the president of some self-education. Afterwards, I hope that the shape we come up with is the fulfilment of the dreams we had in rehearsals.

During rehearsals, you support the actors with supplementary literature. You come with a bag of books to enrich individual roles.

Yes, these were complementary readings. First of all, Mikhail Bakhtin, who was the author of the genre of the polyphonic novel.. He has discovered it. It is brilliant. It can be studied endlessly. But he is also a rebellious man. This is Albert Camus. It's also Milosz's The Land of Urlo. It is André Gide and many other authors. It is also Heidegger, who said: "Is there something or nothing". These are insanely important contexts to choose from, to match with Dostoevsky's important themes.

Thank you so much for the conversation.

And I thank you.

BIESY

Social scandals, past crimes, political conspiracies and plans for revolution - Dostoevsky's world is thick with emotion. The writer was ahead of his time and today we view his masterpiece as in a distorting mirror. The madness of the text, the fervour of the dialogues show a world drunk with ideas. In the wake of the ambiguity of the writer's works, the play does not judge or point out the rationale.

Creators:
adaptation and directing – Janusz Opryński
translation – Tadeusz Zagorski
music – Rafał Rozmus
visualization – Aleksander Janas
costumes – Katarzyna Stochalska
set design – Jerzy Rudzki
producer - Barbara Sawicka, Dorota Stochmalska

Cast:
Slawomir Grzymkowski – Mikołaj Stawrogin
Łukasz Lewandowski – Piotr Stiepanowicz Wierchowieński
Marcin Sztabiński – Aleksy Kiriłow
Maciej Wzczański – Iwan Szatow
Anna Moskal – Barbara Pietrowna Stawrogin
Mariusz Wojciechowski – Stiepan Trofimowicz Wierchowieński / Tichon
Agnieszka Roszkowska – Maria Timofiejewna Lebiadkin
Adam Ferency – Kapitan Lebiadkin
Martyna Kowalik – Liza Drozdow
Agata Góral – Daria Pawłowna / Maria Szatow
Jacek Brzeziński – Liputin / Fiedka / Szygalew

The production is a co-production between the Dramatyczny Theatre and the Provisorium Theatre, one of the most important alternative theatres, which has always sought inspiration in outstanding texts from Polish and world literature.