The Beginning of the New Season in Pantomime

It’s great to kick off the theatre season with an explosive mix of colors and a generous dose of humor. In September, the WTP playbill features three titles: "Alpine Symphony. A Spiritualist-Mime Thriller Inspired by the Figure of Wanda Rutkiewicz with Music by Richard Strauss", "Ballads and Romances," and "I Love Chopin." If you haven't seen them yet, it's a great opportunity to catch up. If you have already seen them, it’s an additional chance to immerse yourself once again in the theatrical worlds created by the Pantomime ensemble.

"Alpine Symphony. A Spiritualist-Mime Thriller Inspired by  the Figure of Wanda Rutkiewicz with Music by Richard Strauss” directed by Cezary Tomaszewski

In September, we will start the new theatre season with Cezary Tomaszewski's phantasmagoric story of Wanda Rutkiewicz's missing body, haunting and summoning the mime troupe at the moment when refusal to discuss, escape, and disappearance seem to be the only right path. "Alpine Symphony" is a journey in search of corporeal-political healing, leading through mountain meadows inhabited by white, fluffy Yetis, reminiscent of popes and phantoms, deceptively similar to Tomaszewski; meadows shrouded in the legend of Wanda, hovering in the mist; Tibetan monasteries atop eight-thousanders.

"This extraordinary biographical reconciliation is presented in a theatrical structure that delightfully employs the 'thriller' tools announced in the title to build and sustain tension: a sense of danger and impending threat, the ambiguity of interpersonal relationships, or the ostentatious pursuit of a mystery-solving, climactic finale, though unceremoniously shifting and mischievously multiplying these established formulas. Consequently, the staging swells with constant plot puzzles, discoveries, or disappearances, with characters unexpectedly revealing their 'true' identities, such as Cezary Tomaszewski impersonating Henryk Tomaszewski or fluffy Yeti turning out to be connoisseurs of Wadowice cream cakes," wrote Anna Jazgarska in Teatr Magazine.

• Performance Dates: September 7 and 8 at the Centrum Sztuk Performatywnych Instytutu Grotowskiego (Piekarnia Żywa Kultura), 62 Księcia Witolda Street.

"Ballads and Romances," directed by Piotr Soroka, Zdenka Pszczołowska, and Błażej Peszek

Three directors – Zdenka Pszczołowska, Błażej Peszek, and Piotr Soroka – have each prepared a segment of the performance, allowing for a diverse presentation and interpretation of romantic ideas on stage. The performance was featured in the finals of the Living Classics competition during the 47th Opole Theatrical Confrontations, winning an award for music and its performative execution by Szymon Tomczyk and Magda Pasierska.

"One thing is certain – artists today rarely get this close to romantic thought, which is why the three-part performance by the Wrocław Pantomime is so stunning and surprising. In terms of amazement, much was said, or rather played, by the music composer – Szymon Tomczyk. Such outstanding sound in the theatre is rare. Together with vocalist Magda Pasierska, Tomczyk takes 'Ballads and Romances' to another dimension," wrote Katarzyna Mikołajewska in Gazeta Wyborcza.

• Performance Dates: September 11 and 12 at the Centrum Sztuk Performatywnych Instytutu Grotowskiego (Piekarnia Żywa Kultura), 62 Księcia Witolda Street.

"I Love Chopin," directed by Jędrzej Piaskowski, written by Hubert Sulima

The latest production from the Wrocław Pantomime Theatre, created by the duo Piaskowski/Sulima, humorously and tenderly engages with the works of Fryderyk Chopin. Chopin, an icon of Polish national identity, a source of pride, the subject of extensive research, and almost a cult figure, is also a pop culture celebrity known from liquor bottles and chocolate packaging. To this day, alongside John Paul II, Lech Wałęsa, and Robert Lewandowski, he remains one of the most famous Poles in the world. His music is considered a product of genius, as well as a representation of what is Polish, patriotic, national, and "ours."

"This opens a kind of dialogue with history, bringing it to life, uncovering its internal dynamics through questions that have so far been consistently overlooked in the dominant discourse. Enchanting with a whole gallery of theatrical techniques and conventions, the performance touches on issues such as the process of understanding the past, interpreting images of national heroes, and thus the mechanism of building our sense of identity. After all, the way we interpret history becomes our way of understanding the world here and now, determining who we are and who we become in each of our life choices, thus building our future," wrote Dorota Seńków in Dziennik Teatralny.

• Performance Dates: September 14 and 15 at the Centrum Sztuk Performatywnych Instytutu Grotowskiego (Piekarnia Żywa Kultura), 62 Księcia Witolda Street.