LOVE IN THE TIME OF ANXIETY

Big scale outdoor performance El Nińo is a kind of continuation of the performance "Femina" from the idea and aesthetic point of view, however absolutely autonomous.

El Nińo is the second part of the outdoor Trylogy of Human Existance by Marcin Herich & Teatr A PART (including also spectacles Femina and Faust). El Nińo is a story about hard love in the time of anxiety. This story is situated in post-industrial environment, in the world plunged in a shadow of disasters of the XX century, in contemporary world of plagues and cataclysm, suffering from AIDS, SARS and tragedy of September 11 with all its consequences. The spectacle is also a tragic parable about unsuccessful maternity.

In the performance, an universal, ordinary story about couple's life is thrown into contemporary, actual context, a world of "el nińo's" violent reality. El Nińo is also a kind of transcription of classical ancient tragedy into contemporary radical visual alternative theatre, full of strong symbols and metaphors. Style and aesthetic vision of El Nińo refers to the Roman pantomime pyrriche: perverted, bloody, cruel, full of wild sexuality and truly realistic. The show was created with an emotional composition method.

Except performances in Poland, El Nińo was shown in Brazil, Germany, Italy, France
and Serbia.

Big moving constructions, stilts, smoke, water and open fire create a background
of the show. But the essence of the show is a mute, emotional, quiver acting,
both delicate and rapacious.


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scenario, direction, staging: Marcin Herich

actors :
Monika Wachowicz, Natalia Kruszyna (Marta Waszkielewicz), Joanna Pyrcz (Katarzyna Pryc), Jakub Kabus (Marcin Kuszej), Maciej Dziaczko, Cezary Kruszyna (Michał Grzybczak), Lesław Witosz (Leszek Małyszek), Dariusz Piotrowski, Marek Radwan

stage scenery:
Marcin Herich (some costumes were made by Jolanta Wozimko)

music: fragments of the works by
Digitonal, In Slaughter Native, Kronos Quartet, Soma, G.Allegri, P.Glass, A. Piazzolla

sound design: Mirosław Matyasik

duration of the performance: 50 minutes
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FESTIVALS

*Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuka Ulicy (Warszawa, Poland, 2004)
*Internacionalni Festival Alternativnog i Novog Teatra Infant (Novi Sad, Serbia, 2004)
*Days of Contemporary Art (Białystok, Poland, 2005)
*International Festival of Artistic Street Acts La Strada (Kalisz, Poland, 2005)
*Theatre Festival A Part (Katowice, Poland, 2005)
*Cena Contemporanea (Brasilia, Brazil, 2005)
*Internationales Strassentheater Festival (Holzminden, Germany, 2007)
*Festiwal Teatrów Europy Środkowej Sąsiedzi (Lublin, Poland, 2007)
*Festival Europeo del Teatro di Scena e Urbano Arlecchino d'Oro (Mantova, Italy, 2007)
*International Theatre Festival A Part (Katowice, Poland, 2008)
*Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatrów Ulicznych (Kraków, Poland, 2008)
*Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatrów Ulicznych i Plenerowych Feta (Gdańsk, Poland, 2008)
*Międzynarodowy Festiwal Sztuka Ulicy (Warszawa, Poland, 2010)
*Festival international de théâtre de rue d'Aurillac (Aurillac, Francja, 2010)



CRITICS

The catalogue of formal subjects which operates vanguard theatre is limited. Outdoor spectacle and mime show can act only by light, movement, comparatively simple requisite, music at last, and history has to be straight line and universally comprehensible. Creator and team's talent we can estimate when we can see how these components were prepared and use in the performance and how strong it has influence into spectator. El Niňo has this special power. I grant that emotional strength of this performance be surprised. His influence on basic - physical level is amazing outright. Sequences are strong and clear, to be visible, that well-thought-out. Nudity and cruelty are not empty ornaments and they enrol in logic of events. This was it been proper to see it. Because however outdoor performances be played seldom and require serious preparations, on next demonstration of El Niňo we should will wait, may how the most briefly.
Piotr Dzik, Raport [Katowice, Poland]


The last sequence of outdoor performance El Niňo: big chimney is smoking. The action of spectacle tells about vicissitudes of the men's steam - the births, meetings, love and death. By these usual, ordinary matters people are involved in wars, obsessions, rapes, fears, paranoia be incarnated - and finally we fill it is not only world of the performance - it is world of whole sick community. The life is nightmare; crush us so as crush spectator. To build this gloomy vision of creator's reality were used huge movable constructions built from scaffoldings, black foil, fabrics and screens.
Magdalena Bartnik, Didaskalia [Katowice, Poland]


The scene's impact reaches the audience who vibrates at each appearance of the
Teatr A Part. "It is a bit morbid and I couldn't understand it very well. But the scenery was very beautiful", says the 39 years old architect Mario Viggiano. His friend Fabiano Castro, 26, said that he liked the local structure: "I was tense throughout the whole play, it touched my nerves". Teyla Boaventura, 27, had doubts wither she did or did not like the show:"The visual is very surprising but the story is too heavy. I imagine it is about a man and a woman who get involved with each other with luxury and start spreading deceases among humanity". The actors Ligia Cortez and Marcelo Lazzaratto (also director), participating of the festival had to hush from Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, where they were presenting the play "A ENTREVISTA" , in order to see El niňo. "I don't know why, perhaps because Europe is the centre of so many wars that it produces this kind of artistic manifestations with this desperate scream. It seems that there always is something bigger than the individual ready to destroy any human being" thinks Lazaratto. Ligia Cortez finds the association of Europe and wars very frequent: "This universe is quite different from ours. In the European culture love is always submitted to violent situations. We face ourselves against this other look on human relations". A large part of the audience was composed by university students. The foreign language student Eduardo Renno, 20, approved the stage design and stage construction. "I loved the show. It was able to explore very well on stage the messages, in a violent and awkward way. I had never seen anything so strong on stage". To the Anthropology student Felipe Jorge, 20, the performance was emotionant. "Both the visual images and the sound-track are full of impact."
Renata Caldas, Correio Braziliense [Brasilia, Brazil]


A street performance that's made to shock an audience. A spectacle made with impetus, solidly and with no swindle. And although the subjects are tough, painful and many times brought up the stage, still up-to-date and needed.
Daniel Arbaczewski, www.projektlublin.com [Lublin, Poland]


Mantova street burst into flame again thanks to Teatr A PART. On Sunday night polish theatre group showed El Niňo performance. Two gigantic movable constructions on two sides of a square marked out a space assigned for the stage, giving the actors opportunity to use different scenic means. Stilts, smoke, water and fire became a basic elements to create a symbolic transmission - metaphors of violence and abuse, which a man is willing to do so often. Commonness of existence of man and woman, presented at the beginning of the performance is absorbed by a maelstrom of misfortune, balancing from pervert sexuality to a loneliness of fright. El Niňo refers to stylistics of Romans "pirriche", to sensitize a spectator by bloody images and acts, wild sexuality, bringing reminiscence of a cruel incidents of 20th century.
Micol Ferreti, Gazetta di Mantova [Mantova, Italy]


Is your heart strong? You'd better have it strong to watch El Niňo, a second part of trilogy about humans condition, a cycle of modern tragedies by polish theatre group A Part. On a car park of Saint-Etienne castle, in a scenery remaining a storage-yard of post-apocalyptic wasteland, we were allowed to feel an atmosphere of atrocities and the world technological catastrophes. On this forbidden area, guarded by gloomy, semi-naked man wearing military boots, trouser and protecting masks, performance scenes change fluently one to another. A gallery of characters populating this world, man and woman wearing coats bringing to mind the Gestapo uniforms will step in erotic plays, obscene and brutal; will commit a sordid crimes. We can see bodies pulled on ground in a plastic bags. Silent hangmen in a white gowns and masks torture a rippled child. Weird characters on stilts will set the ground on fire. An innocent couple will be undress before it will be sent to get a shower, to go up with smoke. Staging of the performance is unimpeachable: the actors performance keeps in suspense, due to a mobile design and construction of the stage the space is well-organized. The music and the light perfectly harmonize with a body language of this emotion-filled wordless show.
Barbara Petit, theatredublog.unblog.fr [Aurillac, France]