"....and suddenly I saw an angel"
1. Why is it so good? And why do I like it so much? These are
rare questions after leaving the theatre, because more often than
not I ask why it is so bad and why I dislike it so much. But usually
I ask no questions because the performance is so perfectly neutral
that I do not feel like asking.. But this time I do feel like
asking and there is something worth asking. This something is
a bit troublesome: there is no denying that I am leaving the theatre,
but am I leaving the performance? What was it that I saw while
in fact listening? And what was it that I listened to while watching?
2. This is what I could listen to (I have written it down the
way I heard it):
I was home alone
when suddenly I saw an angel
flying among the clouds
I saw him from a distance
but he was big
he was white
white clothes
and white wings
he had no shoes
but he had a sword instead
because it was Archangel Gabriel
he protects God with his sword
he approached my window / he flew to my window
and I saw him - so large
I got terribly frightened
because I had never seen an angel like that
before
but then I took a closer look
and stopped being afraid
he looked interesting
and he was very nice
in his face that is
he said nothing
only stood and watched
me
it lasted for about an hour
and then he flew back to heaven
he must have had an appointment
3. Can anyone doubt that it is poetry in its purest form? What
does poetry mean anyway? Brandstaetter once wrote beautifully
that not everything that is a prayer is a prayer, and that a prayer
does not have to be a prayer... It is true about poetry, too:
poems sung and recited on the stage of the Studio Theatre have
not been written by poets. But still their authors are poets,
perhaps experiencing poetry deeper than many professional writers.
Who are they? They are young people with celebral palsy. Almost
all of them have at one point attended a rehabilitation centre
in Kraków. It is clear that writing is for them a form of therapy,
but when we look at what they write beyond its therapeutical usefulness
we see how literature emerges: poetic space of incredible associations,
surrealistic imagination, whimsical sense of humour, intense experiences,
joy, suffering and hope. If we delight in it, it is not because
we, the healthy (?) look with empathy and care at them, the sick
(?); if we delight in it, it is because we care, we are moved
and made to laugh by the expression of another human being, locked
in an artistic form, the way we are moved by poetry and art in
general.
4.I do not know how Wojciech Waglewski came across those poems:
the fact is that he illustrated them with wonderful music and
inspired the performance or something resembling a theatrical
concert entitled Music with Words. It owes its theatre-like quality
to the two actors Maria and Jan Peszek, the arrangement of the
space and very descreet but obvious presence of the director -
Piotr Cieplak. The atmosphere is, of course, dominated by the
music performed live by Waglewski and Voo Voo (acoustic quartet,
except the lead guitar, consisting of a bass, drums and acordeon
plus a few different saxophones and flutes). Simple, melodic themes
grow into long improvisations, which seem to dominate the performance
for a few minutes. The music - alternating between delicate lyricisim
and extatic dynamism is balanced by words, sung or recited by
the actors, sometimes in a complete silence, like the poem about
the angel quoted above. The actors make no attempts at creating
characters or dramatic situations: they use words to present poetic
worlds, which appear on the stage like epiphanies - intense, short
and surprising. Actors use the proscenium and a platform running
along the stage, close to its middle. The musician are palced
in front of the platform. The set designer uses predominantly
light, which seems to be blooming - from darkness and blackness
to very warm colours; they have their equivalents in geometric
blue, orange and red ornaments, which gradually emerge from the
darkness, creating a colourful frame around the platform. The
director's task was, I think, to give this verbal and musical
enterprise a stylistic unity and emotional tension. It may not
seem much , but this performance is a moving and beautiful surrender
of the theatre or rather theatricality before poetry and music.
It testifes to the sensitivity, tenderness, delicacy and humbleness
and a few other features, which in fact decide about the quality
of art.
Janusz Majcherek TEATR
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