Performance “Nieosobni. A romantic programme in four parts laced with mycology, esotericism and psychotronics” | Poland
Creators: Malabar Hotel Theatre
Direction: Marcin Bartnikowski, Marcin Bikowski
Dramaturgy, text: Marcin Bartnikowski
Choreography: Marta Bury
Music: Anna Stela
Stage design: Marcin Bartnikowski, Marcin Bikowski
Costumes, puppets: Marcin Bikowski
Lighting: Marcin Bartnikowski
Cast: Marcin Bartnikowski, Marcin Bikowski
Production, content care: Katarzyna Szumlas
Premiere: June 13, 2023
The performance was created in cooperation with the Konopacki Palace in Warsaw, the Praga Cultural Centre in Warsaw and the Wola Museum in Warsaw.
The performance is co-financed by the City of Warsaw under the “Cultural Heritage of Warsaw” programme.
The performance was created as part of the OFF Polska programme organized by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Date: August 31, 2025 | Sunday
Time: 5 pm
Place: Room A_22, Art Factory in Łódź, 3 Tymienieckiego Street
Tickets: 40 PLN - early bird / 50 PLN - reduced / 70 PLN - regular
Ticket sales: kicket.com portal / online payment
Early bird tickets: on sale until July 13, 2025
Regular and reduced tickets: on sale from July 14, 2025
Duration: 60 minutes
Age Restrictions: 14+
Language: Polish
Content Warning: artists offer food to the audience and feed the audience voluntarily during the performance
After the performance, around 6:30 pm, we invite the viewers to a meeting and discussion with the artists.
The discussion will take place in Room A_22 in the Art Factory in Łódź.
The discussion will be led by Tomasz Domagała.
The discussion will be held in Polish.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
Creative insatiability is generally a necessary and desirable phenomenon. A hungry artist is a fertile artist. However, we are interested in the unspoken consequences of creative insatiability; the shameful and undesirable ones.
Inspired by the exhibition “Białoszewski. nieosobny” (“Białoszewski. not seperate”) - presented last year at the Wola Museum - the performance is a dream fantasy about the 1950s. It is a story about a time when creative hunger functioned alongside a gripping physical hunger. Such were the realities of the mutilated post-war Warsaw, in which the Teatr na Tarczyńskiej and Teatr Osobny were created. Its creators, who practiced art that was ahead of their time, created a unique and colorful artistic commune, in which extraordinary theatrical, visual, literary, philosophical and esoteric ideas were hatched. It is no coincidence that the guests of the Teatr Osobny included Allan Ginsberg, Simone de Bouvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. We want to revive theatre, which, by negating the psychological reproduction of life, became life itself and flowed beyond its framework. We recall art that, created in conditions of material deprivation, is infected with hunger for life. The hunger for life distinguished a strong, creative and ephemeral community.
The performance won a distinction in the 30th National Competition for the Staging of Polish Contemporary Drama in 2024 and received six distinctions in the survey of the “Theatre” magazine - “The Best in the 2023/2024 season”, in the categories: Off Performance and Puppet Theatre Performance.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Malabar Hotel Theatre - was established in 2009. From the beginning, it has been run by Marcin Bartnikowski and Marcin Bikowski. The name of the theatre was inspired by a fictional space - Malabar Hotel - which appears in three of Witkacy's dramas: “Tropical Craze”, “Independence of Triangles” and “Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf”. These texts are the result of an anthropological expedition on which Witkiewicz accompanied Malinowski after the death of Jadwiga Janczewska. The sadness and splendor of the tropics inspired the theatre's creators to travel on their own, and the Indian Malabar (although in “Mister Price”, Malabar Hotel there is a Burmese Rangoon, which we also managed to visit and set off from there to the Irrawaddy Delta in search of white crocodiles, but that is the basis of another story) became our paradise on earth and a source of inspiration. Supposedly, we have a recognizable writing style, but it evolved thanks to cooperation with directors (Hendrik Mannes, Magda Miklasz, Michael Vogel, Ewa Piotrowska, Maria Żynel, Agnieszka Glińska, Marcin Wierzchowski) and is a mixture of puppet, dramatic and plastic theatre, to a degree that always depends on the meaning. For us, form is only a support for content and even if it is exuberant, it is not “pure”, although Witkacy inspires us constantly and does not cease to be a guest in our repertoire. Since 2013, Malabar Hotel Theatre has been regularly cooperating with the Dramatic Theatre of the capital city of Warsaw, whose guest stages have become our second home. We have been closely cooperating with theatres in Poland (STUDIO Theatre in Warsaw, Roma Theatre in Warsaw, Białystok Puppet Theatre, Polish Theatre in Warsaw, Jan Wilkowski School Theatre in Białystok, Collegium Nobilium Theatre, Socho Theatre in Warsaw, Ochota Theatre in Warsaw, Fredro Theatre in Gniezno) and abroad (Shaubude in Berlin, Westfluegel in Leipzig).
