M.

Based on the prose Marta Dzido „Małż”
Directed: Anna Biernacka/Karol Rębisz
Music: Maciej Połynko
Visuals: Nordyk

Woman and life, version 2011 – „M.”

A monodrama is an almost an hour reflection over the different faces of a woman. A heroine is a young woman who is full of doubts of different kind. First of all, she feels rejected and not loved by her man- a workaholic who devotes, as she bitterly admits, “23 hours for work, one hour for her”. She also complains about the family that is unfriendly and pushes her to have a carer, give birth to children and be someone she does not want to be. An open criticism is also directed at employers who want to make her reeducate several times, know 50 languages and always be an elegant woman- monument, dressed in a grey suit and company smile. She does not want to fit into the scheme and canons that kill the remains of her individuality. She feels she does not belong here and no one understands her. She just wants to be herself. She does not like her own body that loses with the ideals launched on the colour Photoshop covers. She feels ugly but in her naivety she still desires someone to accept her and love her the way she is, without changing her. She feels bad with her nature that makes it difficult to be like others, same type of puppets. She is constantly between madness, euphoria, lack of fulfillment and depression. She wants to dream, feel, be herself, but she does not know how to do it and express it. The performance form can be shocking for some people, can make a nice surprise or not. There is almost no scenography there is only the audience, weak light, lightening the actress and music that can be heard from time to time that builds up the climate. The actress has a very personal contact with spectators, keeps all their attention, however she does not save a spectator. She says things about her life with the speed of light, making the things she says sound like the school poetry (and checking at the same time the knowledge of spectators who do not expect it!), vulgar words, young people’s slang and empty advertising slogans. She has no mercy for businessman living with a “target and work” and for sweet idiot girls who do anything for their men. She does not leave herself alone too („my mind is pissed” she shouts to the audience),she feels sorrow as she cannot be the person others want her to be and, at the same time, she saves her independence. We can see her as a liberated woman who wants to satisfy her needs in an accidental sex, and in the next scene she is on the floor and cries like a little girl who lost her way home. Biernacka show how different a female nature can be, ironically commenting this case as subordinated to the phenomenon „before, after and during”. She also talks about a vital issue of how the role of a woman has changed throughout the last hundred years- she is the mother, wife, employee etc. Sometimes it is hard to play so many roles at the same time and not go crazy. But also how changeable woman’s nature can be. It is worth seeing the Monodrama to feel the shade of uncertainty. Is what I am doing at a certain moment what I really want to do? If not, can I still change my way and start from the beginning?

Natalia Cichocka
http://www.iffestival.com/pl/to-ju-byo/122-monodramqmq-w-cia-relacja.html

Awards
3rd place at the All-Polish Theatre Festival of Small Forms KARBIDKA 2013
individual honor award at 38th Theatre Meetings in Tychy 2011
1st award – 4th Monodrama Festival MotyF in Tychy 2011
honour award at 32nd Theatre Feast – Small Forms Theatre Groups Confrontation
2nd award at the 16th Small Theatre Meetings "Słodkobłękity" in Zgierz
award for an actor play at the 2nd Amateur Theatres Review MIKSTURA Białystok 2010
2nd place at Independent Theatres Festival „Atena” 2010 in Pułtusk
audience award at theatre meetings BEST – 2010 – Będzin
1st place at Theatre Meetings BEST – 2010 – in Będzin
Grand Prix – Young Theatres Meetings 2010 – Warsaw
Grand Prix – the Halick Melpomena International Festival 2009 – Lvov – Ukraine
Woman and life, version 2011” - „M.”

RECYKLING

Theatre: A woman is something or someone? – after the first show

On May 18 in Carpe Diem club there was the premiere of the performance of Częstochowa Theatre Tlen „Recykling” [Recycling].
[...] The performance is clearly divided into two parts, not only with respect to the subject but also the style. It seems to start more interestingly than end, as the first scenes are magical and not connected with a particular space: till the end we do not know if they are happening in the mind of the main character or belong to the external world. It is not that important. It is more important to recognise the main character as a victim, a woman begging for love, dealing with her objectified body, trying to save her emotional and mental dimension. Intimate confessions are followed by an unexpected turn of events, intimate scenery changes into the space of a whorehouse. The main character assumes the role of a madam, starts dictating the rules of the body trade, drives the business that objectifies the physicalness of a woman and reduces her to the role of a product that is displayed, not for sale but for let.

The second part of the performance is more literal, crueler; […] A good choice was to give Anna Biernacka the main role. This character’s domain belongs to long monologues and the actress managed with them well. Besides her acting shows scenic experience, freedom of acting and credibility: we believe both in the power of objection and a “lady’s” pose. “Recycling” is the performance that talks about the body objectivity, the deficit of feelings and primitivism of human relations. It is also the performance that drips with sensuality and sex- female body is processed, presented in the packaging of sexy underwear and seductive accessories.

There are a few good ideas, music and light solutions in the performance. Fortunately, there is not any overwhelming weight of the subject seriousness. Liszewska, though not always, tries to present the high tones in an attractive form, either funny (the so-called laugh through tears) or a bit deceitful. And finally we do not know if the whorehouse is an indicator of the body trade or the metaphor of the modern world.

The Theatre Tlen, „Recykling” (based on theratre texts of Elfride Jelinek „O zwierzętach” [About animals], „Chór sportowy” [Sport choir]).Directed by: Julia Liszewska. Music: Przemek Wosiński. Starring: Anna Fugazi Biernacka, Aleksandra Florczyk, Joanna Kapkowska, Klaudia Kulinicz, Konrad Chęciński and Szymon Motyl as Showman.

Ilona Matuszczak
THEATRE: A woman is something or someone? – after first show
7 dni [7 days]
http://www.7dni.com.pl/Aktualnosci/?id=839&addComment=no

WE HAVE NOT BEEN HERE YET

Screenplay: Ruta Kavalcanti (J.Filipski, A. Biernacka)
Directed : Kurt Manberg (J.Filipski, A.Biernacka )
Occurs: Anna Biernacka

The theme of the performance is: INTERNET
The theme of the performance is: LOVE
The theme of the performance is: LONELINESS
The theme of the performance is: SEX
The theme of the performance is: LIE
The theme of the performance is: SOMETHING ELSE.....

Awards:
award at the 1st Monodrama Festivals in Tychy „MotyF” Tychy 2007
award at Łódź Theatre Meetings 2004
award for the director’s debut and performance at 10th Słodkobłękity Zgierz 2004, and recommendation to Łódź Theatre Meetings
award for screenplay Windowisko Sopot 2004
award at Students’ Theatres Festival Olsztyn 2004
„Brązowa kulisa” at All-Polish Festival of Young People’s Theatre Łomża 2004
award for an idea and realization of the performance at 25th Theatre Feast - Theatre Groups of Small Forms Confrontation Horyniec Zdrój 2004
3rd place at the 7th All-Polish Students’ Theatre Festival to win The Cup of Częstochowa Technical University
1st place at the 16th Theatre Summer in Płośnice
award for the screenplay at Students’ Theatre Festival ATENA Pułtusk 2003
Journalists Award at the 2nd All-Polish Horizontal Festival Chodzież 2003
award at the 10th All-Polish Open Festival of Amateur Theatres ODEON Andrychów 2003

Fireworks (…) An actress of Narybek from Poland Theatre, Anna Biernacka, was awarded for the monodrama We have not been here yet. It is the only performance that comments reality in a wise way. It touches upon two current topics: advertisement that surrounds us everywhere and addictive internet chatting. Biernacka plays the role of a young girl who is in the contact with the audience, in a few-minute cycles she looks into the eyes of the audience. One can get an impression that we are partners in the virtual dialogue of a teenage girl who spends all nights in the virtual world, where twelve year old “Pawełs and Jaceks”, after a few hours of conversation about Lego blocks, offer getting undressed in front of the internet camera ", a little tête-à-tête. A girl chatting with them thinks that she is not a prostitute, though we can see how she dances in the red light. Because she has to earn to get new shoes….A fast and intense performance explodes when the actress puts on a black jacket, an ironed skirt and in a different voice she announces that a few minutes ago we took part in the presentation of the services for Internet users who spent many hours in front of a computer. The whole illusion is arranged, so that we, the potential clients, can buy the pack from the seller. As we do not care about the omnipresent street banners that advertise chickens, tined meat and holiday in Ibiza, we do not want to take the leaflets we are offered and TV spots give us time to go to the kitchen and open a fridge to get beer, advert producers do everything to keep us, encourage and beguile us. In the performance We have not been here yet, directed by Jarosław Filipski, a telecommunication company kept us in suspense for 40 minutes. (…) „Fireworks”

Bartłomiej Miernik
Teatr no 1-3/2005
Review from Łódź Theatre Meetings

BIO