PRIME TIME directing Anna Sroka-Hryń

Premiere 13 October 2022 - PROM KULTURY Saska Kępa

I talked to Anna Sroka-Hryn about the performance PRIME TIME

Tomasz Ostrowski: Prime Time, based on a text by Wiesława Sujkowska, is a description of the drama of war through the eyes of Waldemar Milewicz, a war journalist who died in Iraq in 2004. The premiere of the monodrama took place just a few months after the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Surely the coincidence of dates is not accidental?

Anna Sroka-Hryń: Well, I think it was accidental after all. Wiesia finished writing this text and put the final dot two weeks before the war broke out. The war is a context which, unfortunately, has been painfully created and additionally forms the backdrop to this performance. The character of Waldemar Milewicz is electrifying primarily because of what he did, but also what path he went through and unfortunately how his life ended, with what death. This was our starting point for the whole staging. The sentence that falls in the play, "I was not prepared for his passing. In my, after all, dangerous job, this is a unique privilege". And something like that happened with us, because, of course, the war in Ukraine, next door to us, continues and is a painful, also our experience. Probably less painful than for those who are experiencing it directly. Nevertheless, somewhere in the back of our minds we are in the so-called squeeze zone, as they call it in the West. Poland is on the so-called route of the 'Russian waltz', so we constantly feel the fear that accompanies us every day. Won't this big spoiled old kid push that button? We don't know. That being said, this show is also lined with what we come with, what we live in. Certainly the war in Ukraine creates the context for this show.

Waldemar Milewicz has been involved in many armed conflicts and has observed the political side of these conflicts. The leaders of the parties to the conflicts try to censor journalists so that only news favourable to them reaches the community, or even no news at all.
Parallel to the Vietnam War, the war in Laos lasted 22 years. Only two years after it ended, the Americans revealed that they had carried out 580,000 air strikes there, during which they dropped 270 million bombs. Correspondents were isolated from this conflict. The situation was different in Iraq. Before going to the front, 900 US and British journalists signed a 50-point agreement with the Pentagon specifying what they could and could not report on. Under this agreement they were provided with protection, transport to the war zones. British journalist Maggie O'Kane later wrote of the Iraq war: "We did the dirty work of this war, with truth and with blood. We in the media were harnessed like two thousand beach donkeys and led across the sand so that we could see what the American and English military wanted to show us in this beautiful and clean war."
Waldemar Milewicz was true to his ideals, he did not enjoy special privileges, he was a reliable correspondent. Today the situation is changing, it is increasingly difficult to hide the truth. New technologies and social media are omnipresent. Therefore, if only out of respect for Waldemar Milewicz, it is worth taking a look at the role of a war correspondent past and present.

Waldemar Milewicz was in fact a pioneer as far as Poland was concerned. He pioneered this phenomenon of the war correspondent. Now, as you said, the flow of information is on a completely different level, both technologically and mentally. This is something unprecedented. Citizens themselves are creating separate channels where we can see what is really happening.
What is really changing is the role of the citizen, who becomes such a correspondent, so to speak. But coming back to Waldemar Milewicz he was indeed a pioneer and a passionate person. Yes, it was dangerous work, even very dangerous, because it ended tragically. He knew it was possible; after all, he was often on both sides of the conflict, in very dangerous places. The uniqueness of this character fascinated me a lot. I remember his programme "Strange is this world", his reports. But I also remember his eyes. I remember that those eyes had a lot of sadness in them. They were eyes that had seen a lot. In our show, we can't escape from that. We pose the question: are we able to erase cruel and traumatic images? Waldemar Milewicz would later return to his country, to Poland, with them. Of course it was not a Poland flowing with honey and milk, but in the context of the countries he visited, the people he met, after all we had electricity in our sockets, we had glass in our windows and we had a few products to choose from on the shop shelves. And this contrast affected him quite a lot and built up an inner conflict within him.

Many of the remembered traumatic images he recorded in his memory, which we learn about from the stage, are difficult to show in public for ethical reasons. Communicated in large quantities, they cause indifference.

It's very painful because it affects us all. It's just that we get used to what we see and as it falls on the stage, we want more. We watch violent videos. The internet is saturated with it. It seems to me that we seemingly control it. And yet a lot of brutalism permeates our lives (computer games, films, etc). This raises the question, where is the limit? Simply, when do we finally say stop. I turn off the television. I don't let my child watch certain things. But I realise that I won't be able to protect him from a lot of things and a lot of information. We can't control everything. We just soak it in.

A lot of very drastic scenes, we are attacked from all sides. In the computer games you are talking about, it is very easy to shoot people.

Exactly, we practice certain behaviours in ourselves and push those boundaries. The question arises: when are we as a people going to start celebrating beauty more and not murder? This is striking. Let alone the war that is taking place in our immediate neighbourhood. I don't want to get political, but nevertheless we are living what is happening. A massacre has happened right next door to us, mass graves are still being discovered. And this is probably not the end.

Almost every day we see houses collapsed after bombings and people being pulled out from under the rubble. One day four people came out from under the rubble in good condition, but how many people will not?

The moment the war broke out, I had the feeling that something jumped inside me and I saw it in people too. It also happened in us during one of the rehearsals in the theatre. Fiction started to become reality? It was no longer a film. It was really happening. And these stories that we bring to life in Prime Time really happened. They are just splinters, of what Waldemar Milewicz saw. He took a lot of stories, images, events with him.

He was also becoming immune to what he was seeing. In response to questions such as "Is he scared?", he spoke more about the stress associated with the discipline of the war reporter's profession: "I experience constant anxiety, will I be able to complete the material in time, will I overcome the obstacles piled up in front of me? Where there is war, there are dark spots that both occupiers and combatants want to hide. So I live in a constant state of tension: will I be able to outwit the various officials, obtain the relevant permits, circumvent the bans...?".

Yes, it had its own boundaries elsewhere. They were very strongly supported in it.

In the media world, there was a deadline, that is, the time at which correspondence can be sent, because later the statute of limitations expired for publishers. Someone else sells, and the journalist is left behind.

Yes, this is also an ethical and moral issue. We also touch on this in our performance. It's fair to go, collect material, then come back and live on it, because that's what they make money from.

On the other hand, looking at the current situation in Ukraine, we believe that the documents collected by international war correspondents going to the front lines will allow for the future prosecution of war criminals by international tribunals.

Exactly. They are now prosecutors of this situation, they are very much needed. My husband is a cameraman. I can see how much it is monitoring this conflict. One of his colleagues goes there as a correspondent. I can't listen to what they say for various reasons. It costs me a lot. These are often heroic decisions.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 66 journalists and 30 of their assistants were killed in Iraq. In addition to Waldemar Milewicz, his editor was killed and a cameraman was injured. In Ukraine, 39 journalists have already been killed in just a few months, from 24 February to 16 September. It is all inconceivable how little human beings mean in the face of the barbarity of war.

With this performance we are also asking about the human condition; when will we, as humans, break the train of evil and say STOP. But STOP within ourselves. What attitude will we take to what is happening, how do we position ourselves to this reality.
I think with this show, what is very important for me and Slawek Grzymkowski, that as people who are involved in the arts, in theatre, we can have our own personal voice on this issue. Prime Time allows us to do that.
Sławek Grzymkowski is worth mentioning. We have known each other for a very long time: for many years we played in the cult film 'Taxi', directed by Igor Gorzkowski. Now we have met in a different configuration. He is an exceptional actor and a beautiful man. We realise that without the crucial trust and openness to each other, the courage to ask ourselves difficult questions, such a tender performance would not have been made. One needs to have such layers of sensitivity within oneself to descend into human hell and be able to return from there. Slawek has it. I thank him for his confidence.

Have you met Wieslawa Sujkowska, the author of the PRIME TIME text, before in other productions?

Wieslawa has already written songs for a show about Billie Holiday, 'Lady Day at Emerson Abr and Grill', which you can hear in the concert version as part of my concert series KOBIETY, KOBIETY at the ROMA Musical Theatre. She also wrote the songs for the play "RIGHT AND OTHER TIMES", which I directed at the Theatre Academy as a graduation. "PRIME TIME" is my first work with her literary text, a monodrama. I am very happy because I think something very important has been created.

Since we have mentioned your connection with the Warsaw Theatre Academy, I must express my appreciation to you and to the rector, Wojciech Malajkat, for the fact that in a very difficult period for theatres and artists, performances that are exams or diplomas, you are transferring to the boards of public theatres. It is a unique situation that successive musical performances directed by you, with great success with the audience, enter the permanent repertoire of theatres. "LUNAPARK. Songs by Grzegorz Ciechowski" can be seen on the stage of the National Theatre since 2019, while the performance "A PLANET SZALEJĄ...(Młodzi w tribute Kora)" has been in the repertoire of the Warsaw Contemporary Theatre since August 2021. As part of your classes at the Theatre Academy, you have prepared the play 'SELLERS OF DREAMS'. It too will begin its theatrical life.

Soon, on 5 November, we will have the premiere of the performance "SELLERS OF DREAMS" with songs by Artur Rojek and the band MYSLOVITZ in the Roma Music Theatre on the Nova Stage. Further performances are scheduled for 6, 12 and 13 November. The performances are produced as part of didactic classes. They are end-of-semester examinations. Some have stage potential and are transferred, thanks to the support and interest of directors of Warsaw theatres, to professional stages. I am very happy that my students, young people, are open to my ideas and boldly enter into them. I thank them very much for that.

You grind the diamonds. We see the results of this work in the theatres to which they are later directed. The performances are also appreciated at festivals, including the Festival of Actor Songs in Wrocław.

I am very pleased. It is beautiful what you say. It means that what I am doing makes sense. Thank you very much.

At the end of our conversation I would like to announce that on 29th and 30th October in Musical Theatre ROMA (on Scena Nova) there will be concerts promoting your album "NAJPIĘKNIEJSZA" with songs by Agnieszka Osiecka. I wish you good luck, further successes as a director, actor, vocalist and excellent exams with AT students, which will become hits of theatre stages.

 

PRIME TIME

CAST:
Jako Waldemar Milewicz   Sławomir Grzymkowski
live music  Robert Siwak
Text: Wieslawa Sujkowska
Directing: Anna Sroka-Hryń
Production: Piotr Duda
Music: Robert Siwak
Light Direction: Paulina Góral
Realisation of Light: Maciej Pachota
Sets and costumes: Julia Szeweluk
Photo: David Tejer
Graphics: Marek Twardowski
Promotion: Gabriela Figura
Coordination: Agnieszka Paszko

ANNA SROKA-HRYŃ

Graduate of the Faculty of Acting at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw (2000). Co-founder of the Koło Theatre Studio.

She has played in Igor Gorzkowski's plays, among others: "Russian Drama", "Page of Flowering Girls", "Love to Three Oranges", "Absolutely off show", "Taxi", "Old Man" according to the lyrics of Danil Kharms (Ochota Theatre). She performs her own recitals, including a recital of songs by Edith Piaf, Ewa Demarczyk, Billie Holiday accompanied by the outstanding composer and pianist Włodzimierz Nahorny, she also performs a recital of interwar songs "Vintage". She has performed on many of the capital's stages, including the Komedia Theatre ('Cinderella'), the Polonia Theatre ('Woman with a View of the Terrace'), the Montownia Theatre ('Peer Gynt', 'Lovv'), the Studio Theatre ('One Hand'), the Ochota Theatre ('Old Woman', 'Waves'), the Soho Theatre, and across the country, among others. Among others, the Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów ('Piaf', 'The Shape of Things', 'George & Ira Gershwin'), the Rozrywki Theatre in Chorzów ('Departure', 'West Side Story', 'Rent', 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill', 'The Adventures of a Ladies' Hairdresser').

For her acting in the play Taxi, she was awarded the Jan Świderski Prize of the Dramatic Theatre Section of the Association of Polish Stage Artists in the 12th National Competition for the Exhibition of Polish Contemporary Art in 2006.

Winner of the "Golden Mask" Artistic Award of the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship Janusz Moszyński in the category of vocal-acting role for the role of Maureen Johnson in the play "Rent" by Jonathan Larson, directed by Ingmar Villqist (2006) and the Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Award in the category of Best Female Singer for the role of Edith Piaf in the play "Edith and Marlen" directed by Marta Mészáros, the Mazovian Music Theatre (2013). Laureate of the 6th edition of the competition "Let's remember Osiecka", finalist of the PPA in Wrocław (2003). Other awards: 2003 - 1st prize of the journalists of the Coast in the 6th edition of the competition Remember Osiecka, 3rd prize in the Warsaw final; 2006 - Janina Nowicka-Prokuratorska and Stanisław Prokuratorski prize "for creative achievements and attitude strengthening the ethos of the artist" awarded by the then Rector of the Theatre Academy, Professor Lech Śliwonik.

He has dozens of dubbing, series and film roles to his credit. He collaborates with the Polish Radio Theatre and Audioteca.

Roma Theatre: 'The Trial' (dir. Jakub Szydłowski), 'Kiss Me All in the Receiver', 'Tuwim for Adults' (dir. Jerzy Satanowski), 'Alice in Wonderland' (dir. C.Domagała) on the Nova Stage of TM ROMA, while in the play 'Mamma Mia' (dir. Wojciech Kępczyński) she played the role of Donna Sheridan.

You can currently see Anna Sroka-Hryń in performances:

Theatre Polonia - 'Cafe Luna' (dir. Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz),

Warsaw Chamber Opera "Company" (dir. Michał Znaniecki)

Drama Theatre "Amadeus" (dir. Anna Wieczur)

Roma Theatre's 'Tuwim for Adults' and in the 'Women Women' concert series.

Directing:

National Theatre - Theatre Academy "Lunapark"

Contemporary Theatre 'And the planets are going mad',

Och-Teatr "Swing" ,

Theatre Collegium Nobilium 'Prawiek i inne czasy' based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk (adapted and directed),

"I want to have a peaceful heart" - performance-recital by Anna Grochowska, Collegium Nobilium Theatre

"Prime Time "monodrama inspired by the character of Waldemar Milewicz, text. Wiesława Sujkowska (Prom Kultury premiere)

In 2013, she defended her doctorate in arts at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, where she is currently a lecturer.