Without words

Kind of theatre: drama performance

Premiere: 2007

Time: 45 min
 

Screenplay and direction: Jan Molicki

Scene design and costumes: Rachela i Jan Moliccy

Music: Arkadiusz Reikowski

Therapeutical care: Rachela Molicka

pedagogical care: Gabriela Pierek, Monika Stanaszek, Elwira Piątek

Technical care: Rachela Molicka, Gabriela Pierek, Elwira Piątek / Joanna Gałka (attendants); Monika Stanaszek/ Kamila Topolewska (sound); Magdalena Miłoń (light); Gabriel Molicki, Anna Ziembińska ( technical support)
 

Cast:

Marta Gierałt, Ireneusz Buchich de Divan, Piotr Chmielek, Piotr Dylikowski, Konrad Gastoł, Marcin Kardacz, Paweł Kudasiewicz, Tomasz Pachel, Krzysztof Rogala, Maciej Sokołowski.

oraz: Rachela Molicka, Gabriela Pierek, Jan Molicki.

As guests: Grażyna Hojdus i Magdalena Smoławska
 

The performance was based on three one-act plays by Samuel Beckett: "Act without words I", "Act without words  II", "Catastrophy".
 

 

The performance won a prize of the jury on the International Festival Of Great Theatres,( Tczew, 2007 ) and took part in:

  • the International Theatre Festival ‘Arttherapy: from the margin to the middle’ ( Bańska Bystrzyca, Slovakia, 2007 );
  • The International Biennale VIII Theatre Meetings ‘Therapy and Theatre’ ( Łódź, 2008 );

And was presented to the Cracov audience in:

  • The VIII Week of the Disabled ‘I Am mutually in love with Cracov’ (2007)
  • A project „Wings of Theatre’ together with a partner organisation ‘Trisomie 21' from Luxemburg.

The performance tells via symbols  about everyone’s right to pursue their aims, the right to freedom and life among others.

The first etiude show two groups of performers: one consists of slow, clumsy people, always with a look of suffering on their faces. The poeple from the other group are contrary: full of energy, capable, proffesional. They all do the same things picturing the daily hardship: they dress up, eat, do their job,which is to cross the board that represents the new day coming. Some do it without a difficulty, the others get really tired, though the effects are all equal. Therefore, the audience can see that there are no better nor worse ones. Everyone does their best to make their aims happen, to reach their golas. And no-one should be pulled off to the margins, discluded from the main current.

In the second etiude there is a group of actors in the zone limited by the yellow tapes and kept by the cold-hearted guardians. The ‘prisoners’ are constantly deceived and manipulated by the cynical ‘caretakers’. It looks like ones make a horrible fun of others. Once they are called from different sides but then they are not allowed to pass farther. Then they are offered a gift like a mysterious bottle. But despite many efforts they do not manage to reach it. While it seems to be close enough, the guardian pulls it high enough not to let them catch it. Finally the bottle swoops just by the heads of the prisoners. But no-one reacts. They do not want to be someone’s toy. They can tell the truth from false, hollow promises from an honestly reached hand.

In the third scene there are a few people deprived of freedom, the ability to direct their lives, totally dependent of the spoilt helpers, guardians and a mysterious director. They are managed and dressed due to the guardians’ will. No-one takes into account their feelings, nor even their  presence. They are spoken of as subjects without a right to speak. Like if they were not there. And when it looks that they have been totally deprived of the will to fight for themselves, when any riot seems impossible, the prisoners  raise their heads and look straight into the eyes of the audience. Such big is the surprise that the applause of the invisible clappers dies out instantly. The imprisoned save their dignity, their defeat was just the surface. They turned out to be stronger than their oppressors.

Each of the scenes shows extremely clearly and even cruelly the position of a ‘different one’ in the Word of today. They are punched, manipulated, deprived of the right to speak personally.  But all the scenes end up with a victory of the weaker.  They raise their heads, fight for their dignity, bring their ‘carers’’ false and manipulations into the daylight. For sure this is not an entertainment show, it is not light, pleasant nor easy. But it carries hope. It shows that the ‘different one’ does not want to gile up, to resign of their right to lead their life, to live among the other people.