TEATR KTO – ARCADIA
Sat 21 October, 2pm (60 mins).
One of Poland’s legendary outdoor theatre companies returns to Bell Square with Arcadia, looking at life - its big moments, its memories - as a simple, innocent, poignant reflection of everything that is most cruel and beautiful.
Regardless of where we live, in most cases we have abandoned the ability to sit on the street and its neighbourhood benches. This loss deprives us of the ability to observe the world and watch it closely. It also robs us of the chance to look beyond the horizon and stare at this symbol of hope for a much-needed rebirth. This journey of vain faith to the cradle of Mediterranean culture, inspired by Różewicz’s Et in Arcadia ego, turns into a dramatic poem about how we live now.
In his newest premiere, Jerzy Zoń makes us strain our eyes to achieve the state of all-seeing. It exposes the present as a destroyer of the past. From the first to the last scene of this dream-like theatre piece without words the audience will be accompanied by the irresistible sense of longing for the world, for art, for oneself, and with the desire to obtain a gift of transferable roots. In this piece the author paints an Arcadian landscape made of everything that is most beautiful and cruel in earthly life, where echoes of mythical words appear to us in every nook and cranny.
Script, direction, selection of music: Jerzy Zoń
Stage movement, choreography: Eryk Makohon
Stage set design: Marek Braun, Jerzy Zoń
Costumes: Joanna Łagowska, Elżbieta Kwasek
Performers: Magdalena Dymsza, Paulina Lasyk, Grażyna Silver-Rosa, Marta Zoń, Sławomir Bendykowski, Aleksander Kopański, Tomasz Łukawski, Franciszek Muła, Szymon Pater, Mieszko Syc
About the Company
Teatr KTO | Poland
The KTO Theatre was established in 1977. Its first production was The Garden of Delight. The initial ten performances were closed to the general public and presented to no more than several hundred people. In the following year, however, they were attended by the audience of nearly three thousand in Krakow and some other Polish cities.
In the 45th year of the company’s operation the statistics are considerably different: over 80 productions, performed indoors and outdoors in Poland and around the world, have been attended by more than 3 000 000 people. The group has visited over 250 cities in over 40 countries on 5 continents. It has performed in Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Iran, Mexico, South Korea, Tunisia, the USA, and almost all the countries in Europe.
The worldwide stature of the KTO Theatre has also been reflected in its involvement in numerous international projects, including: Operation Opera, a show created together with the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, and The Refugees, a theatre installation presented in Leipzig to an audience of 120 000 viewers on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Since it was founded the KTO Theatre has operated under the leadership of Jerzy Zoń.