SETTINGS WITH THE SAINTS, OR IMAGE CONVERSATIONS directed by Agata Duda - Gracz.

Premiere 20 September 2019. Theatre Academy in Warsaw

Ahead of the Warsaw premiere of the play 'Settings with the Saints, or conversations of images', I spoke to the actors: Dorota Bzdyla (Saint Angel Guardian) and Damian Mirga (Saint Andrzej Bobola).

Tomasz Ostrowski: You should be happy to have been able to work with Agata Duda on your graduation play. The premieres she prepares in theatre schools are completely subordinated to the actors-students, which was not a common practice until recently, as they were mainly self-created by the artists. Agata Duda-Gracz always gives the students ample room to express themselves, to show their abilities, to make contact with the audience. She writes texts for specific actors, all roles are important to her. There are no episodic roles in student performances.

Dorota Bzdyla: I think Agata took great care and took it to heart that this really was our show, one that flowed from within us and from what we wanted to play, what we wanted to show and what side of ourselves we wanted to show. An important feature of the show is that it is played by almost our entire year with the exception of two people who had private commitments. The rest of us play, we are together. As well as everyone being able to play individually, we can play as a group as we have learned so far over three consecutive years. There are twenty of us on stage and that's how many saints we present in the play.

What did the training look like? Were you supposed to start before the holidays?

Damian Mirga: We started our preparations by talking to Agata. She asked us what we would like to play in this graduation. We came up with the idea of playing saints. Each of us could choose the character we wanted. If someone wanted to be unpredictable, they could choose a saint who was indeed unpredictable. If someone wanted to be passionate, they could choose a character from the group of martyr saints. We were given the chance to show our best side, because that is what a graduation should be about. We began intensive preparations in mid-June with a ten-day block, for which Agata arrived with a written Act I, containing all the monologues of the saints.

D.B. We worked on characters, everyone got a monologue. There were improvisations to find as much information as possible about their character. In June we were preparing the base for all that was happening from August onwards. It was really fruitful work and learning great craft.

In this spectacle and specifically in the first act you have a lot of space for direct contact with the audience. You direct your monologues to the audience, who are pilgrims going to their saints.

D.M. It is an amazing experience. Like even today, at this press rehearsal, during my monologue, one of the journalists was standing, listening to me, nodding. I was touched by the fact that someone was agreeing with me. I said this sentence "What is it in people that one should inflict such torment on another". It is a sentence that is the punch line of my character. The Lord answered me simply with a nod, an affirming gesture, that it is a terrible thing to torture another human being. An unimaginable thing. Through this close contact, I am moved and the viewer can be moved.

Doesn't that threaten to go out of character?

D.M. No, absolutely not.

D.B. That's what the whole of June and the exercises were for, so that our character could find himself in any situation. We had the great pleasure of playing this performance during the Łódź of Four Cultures Festival. There I had an experience with the audience. People came up to me as I was playing the Guardian Angel, touched me, hugged me. They confessed that they believed very much in the Guardian Angel.

Audience honesty.

D.B. Full sincerity and full devotion, which touched me very much. I was shocked at how people respond to these figures of saints in between.

D.M. The amazing thing is that faith has enormous power. It has a power that is immeasurable. The moment people walk into the show, into this gallery of saints of ours, they can encounter some images or depictions of people they believe in, people they pray to. Sometimes this is an amazing experience for them. I have encountered such glimpses, such a feeling from the viewer that is so uplifting, that what we are doing is extraordinary.

But some characters may have problems, for example Unholy Lucifer aka the Devil?

D.M. This is true, but if you delve deeper into the history of Lucifer, then not everything is so white and black.

D.B. So is the image of him that Lucifer has behind him.

Are the make-up images that complement the sets and costumes designed by Agata Duda - Gracz yours?

D.B. As for the paintings we have behind us, they are the designs of Magdalena Mucha, and the make-ups all came from the imagination of the director Agata Duda - Gracz. We actually memorised it and, if we can, we duplicate it before each performance.

The play had its premiere in Łódź, as part of the Łódź of Four Cultures Festival, and was produced jointly with the Jaracz Theatre. Does this mean that the play will be included in the repertoire of this theatre?

D.B. We suppose so. We believe we will have the opportunity to play at the Jaracz Theatre, where we have worked wonderfully.

D.M. I hope so, because it was really beautiful there

Do you have a final year at the Theatre Academy ahead of you?

D.B. Yes this was our first graduation, there are two more awaiting us. For one, we will start work as soon as the premiere performances "with the saints" are over. It will be a diploma with Mr Piotr Ratajczak, and we will prepare a story about the inter-war period. It will be performed by half of our year.

I take it that the other students, the other half, will perform in the next graduation performance?

D.B. That's right. It will be Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Physicists, directed by Marcin Hycnar.

Good luck. Thank you for talking to me.

D.B. , D.M.  Thank you

 

SETTINGS WITH THE SAINTS, OR IMAGE CONVERSATIONS
Creators:
director, script, sets and costumes – Agata Duda – Gracz
light – Katarzyna Łuszczyk muzyka – Łukasz Wójcik
choreography – Tomasz Wesołowski
assistant set designer and collage artist - Magdalena Mucha
assistant directors: Aleksandra Boroń, Dawid Chudy, Vanessa Gazda, Karolina Przystupa, Marta Skowiera, Małgorzata Woźniak

Cast:
Kaja Kozłowska (Saint Joan of Arc)
Natalia Jędruś (St. Michael the Archangel)
Bartosz Włodarczyk (Unholy George)
Monika Cieciora (Holy Rose)
Barbara Liberek (Holy Father John)
Katarzyna Obidzińska (Saint Catherine of Siena)
Karolina Szeptycka (St. Valentine's Day)
Piotr Kramer (Unsanctified Lucifer, or the Devil)
Ina Maria Krawczyk (St. Paul)
Jowita Kropiewnicka (St. Olga)
Arina Piskovskaja (Saint Godoleva)
Mariusz Urbaniec (Holy Father Pio)
Damian Mirga (Saint Andrew Bobola)
Dorota Bzdyla (Holy Guardian Angel)
Elżbieta Nagel (Saint Mary the Egyptian)
Justyna Fabisiak (Holy Child of Symphorian)
Sebastian Figat (Five Holy Brothers of the Poles)
Jędrzej Hycnar (Saint Moses of Ethiopia)
Konrad Żygadło (St. Stanislaus)
Bartosz Bednarski (Saint Gervasi).