Creators: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb - Patrycja Kowańska i Dominika Knapik
Direction, choreography, dramaturgy: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb
Video: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb
Costumes: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb
Light, technical direction: Wolfgang Macher
Music: Szymon Lechowicz
Music arrangement: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb
Photos, make-up: Magdalena Kasjaniuk
Cast: Gruba i Głupia / Fat and Dumb - Patrycja Kowańska i Dominika Knapik
Premiere: 16.03.2024
Date: 30.08.2024 / Friday
Time: 7 pm
Place: Stage, Art Factory in Lodz, 3 Tymienieckiego Street
Tickets: 30 PLN (reduced) / 40 PLN (regular)
Tickets purchase: from July 29, 2024 / via kicket.com portal (online payment) / at the festival office (payment in cash or contactless card payment)
Duration: 75 minutes (no intermissions)
Viewers' age: 15+
Performance in Polish, with English subtitles
Performance with audio description
After the event we invite the viewers to a meeting and discussion with the artists
The discussion will be led by Małgorzata Jabłońska
The discussion will be held in Polish
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
If you're in your thirties/forties and nothing hurts in the morning, it means you're dead. We may be more or less healthy, but each of us, at a different pace, experiences the passage of time on a day-to-day basis, on our own skin and bones. We live long enough that at some point we start to fall apart. Our bodies are walking (or lying) stories about passing. "Very Sad" is another, after "Very Funny", direct encounter of Fat and Stupid, and the second part of the "Very" trilogy. Previously, the authors created a bittersweet clownery with a Shakespearean twist, taking on the realities of the lives of actively working freelancers and their artistic friendship. In "Very Sad", the authors, using Schubert's "Winterreise" as their starting point, invite the audience on a journey into their bodies, plagued by a variety of physical and mental health conditions. They recount the more and less embarrassing effects of overwork and natural ageing processes. The play is an eclectic performative epigram with musical elements - both trashy and sensual, and both sad and cheerful. As Maria Konopnicka used to say, "I've tested it on myself, indeed, that in sickness, chamomile is what we need".
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Fat and Dumb - is a choreographic-dramaturgical-directorial duo, formed in 2023 by Dominika Knapik (Dumb) and Patrycja Kowańska (Fat). It emerged from the need to create a space for independent creative expression that would tackle difficult and uncomfortable topics. Their theatre play "Very Funny" won the Main Award of the SzekspirOFF contest and the Journalists' Award at the 27th International Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk. In "Penthesilea. Reconstructing the Body of Amazons" (Nowa Generacja at the Scena Robocza in Poznań), they address the topic of breast cancer through a dialogue with Kleist's classic text. Their next production, "Very Sad", which explores the theme of transience and illness-ridden bodies, was awarded the 2nd OFF Prize at the 44th Stage Songs Review in Wrocław (March 2024). In August 2024, the premiere of the next, final part of the "Very" trilogy, titled "Very Cheap", took place in Gdańsk. Wanting to continue their independent artistic work, the artists established the Kreatura Foundation.
Dominika Knapik - is a choreographer, director, and performer. As a choreographer she has been working with Polish directors for over a dozen years. For several years, she has also been working intensively in Germany. She is the recipient of numerous individual awards for choreography. In 2015 she was nominated for the Polityka Passport Award in the "Theatre" category. From 2007 to 2015, she co-created the artistic collective Harakiri Farmers, with which she carried out many original interdisciplinary projects. Since 2016, she has also been working as a director. In 2016, she directed "Bang Bang" (Stefan Jaracz Theatre in Łódź), in 2019 "A Woman of Wonder" (Wałbrzych Drama Theatre), in 2020 the choreographic monodrama "Agon" (Łaźnia Nowa Theatre), and in 2021 "Twitching and Other Games" (Wrocław Mime Theatre). Her latest works include "VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA", realised with the Sticky Fingers Club collective, and "HOTEL H****", created in collaboration with the HERTZ HAUS group. She is one half of the dramaturgical, choreographic and directing duo "Dumb and Fat", which she has been co-creating with Patrycja Kowańska since 2023. Their theatre play "Very Funny" won the Main Award of the SzekspirOFF contest and the Journalists' Award at the 27th Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk. In October 2023, they premiered their next theatre play "Penthesilea. Reconstructing the Body of Amazons", which features contemporary Amazons - women who have experienced breast cancer - alongside Fat and Dumb. Their next production, "Very Sad", which explores the theme of transience and illness-ridden bodies, was awarded the 2nd OFF Prize at the 44th Stage Songs Review in Wrocław (March 2024). Wanting to continue their independent artistic work, the artists established the Kreatura Foundation.
Patrycja Kowańska - is a playwright, author of texts and scripts, and performer. She graduated from the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków with a degree in directing, specialising in theatre dramaturgy (2018). As a playwright she has worked with various directors in theatres in Poland and abroad. In her own projects, she combines text work with an interest in physicality and movement. She regularly collaborates with choreographers D. Knapik, W. Pelczyńska, and M. Błaszczak. Director of "Second-hand 68" realised as part of the programme "Stranger in the House: March'68" at the Polin Museum/TR Warsaw (2018). Author of the MA thesis "The playwright's movement: An Attempt to Construct a Toolbox for a Dramaturgy of the Body, Installation and Performance", excerpts of which were published in "Didaskalia" (no. 151-152/2019) and the book publication of National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków "Dramaturgy. A Guide". She is a laureate of programmes for female theatre creators: Modelatornia, Placówka, Nowa Generacja. Her projects include "Spherists" at Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole, a play produced as the winning project of the Modelatornia programme. At the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw, she directed the play "Refraction: a choreography of gazes", as part of the Placówka programme. Since 2020, she has been collaborating regularly with Dominika Knapik ("Twitching and Other Games", "Agon", "VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA", and "Hotel H****" with Hertz Haus). She is the author of the "Furor" performance (2023), in which she made her stage debut as a performer, addressing the topic of fatphobia. She is also one half of the duo "Dumb and Fat" (as Fat).
FRAGMENTS OF REVIEWS
"A real bomb - after the spectacular "Very Funny", with which Dominika Knapik and Patrycja Kowańska won everything they could at last year's Shakespeare Festival, they leave William behind, reaching for Franz's Winterreise to talk about what hurts them - in a literal way. Their new production, without losing any of the energy of unapologetic silliness, becomes increasingly poignant with each passing minute. The framework remains the same, the theme in a general sense (the hardships, and less frequently, the joys of the artist) as well, but the new subject extensively touches the audience (and if I were to describe their reactions, it would be laughter and sighs, in roughly equal proportions), especially targeting those who, without paid health insurance, risk their lives every time they leave their houses. "Very Sad" features some of Fat and Dumb's favourite toys - vivid images (in a new form), recordings of Zoom conversations (the most touching being the voiceless one, marking the point at which the show changes its tone), and songs that talk about the main causes and perpetrators of misfortunes in this story - from hemorrhoids to herpes. There is also an open call to directors to finally allow the girls to deliver a show with a tangible budget. Finally, there is room for emotion, which I was not prepared for, even though it was clearly stated on the poster that it would be Very Sad. I have a feeling that the tears that rolled down my eyes had quite a bit of protein in them - those who have seen it know what I'm talking about."
(Magda Piekarska)
