Absence. Reminiscence. Parting. Void. Hope. Death. Clinging. Letting go. Resolve. Prayer. Confession. This performance, made up of two parts, talks about the Mother-Child and Father-Child relationship through the texts of Salvatore Quasimodo and Tadeusz Różewicz. Its frame is a fictive situation in continuous movement and change. Happening.

 

Created by Csongor Köllő (actor) and Grzegorz Ziółkowski (director);

with texts by Salvatore Quasimodo and Tadeusz Różewicz and viola da gamba music played alive by Soma Salat-Zakariás

 

Texts:

​

• Salvatore Quasimodo’s poems Letter to the Mother and To My Father, English translation by Csongor Köllő, Hungarian translation by Géza Képes

• fragments of Tadeusz Różewicz’s book Mother Departs; English translation by Barbara Bogoczek, revised by Grzegorz Ziółkowski; Hungarian translation by Gáspár Keresztes, revised by Csongor Köllő

 

Performed in English or in Hungarian

 

The performance’s first etude was created by Csongor Köllő (RO) and Grzegorz Ziółkowski (PL) during ATIS 2013 RECYCLE led by STUDIO||ROSA at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (PL). The piece was elaborated and shared as Emergency Exit during ATIS NICHE in September 2015 in the Grotowski Institute’s forest location in Brzezinka (PL), within STUDIO||ROSA’s Feeling the PULSE theatre exploration. In February 2016, also as part of Feeling the PULSE, the second part titled Emergency Entrance was sketched with help from light designer Marta Pautrzak (PL) and musician Maciej Zakrzewski (PL). The miniature was presented as Emergency Exit in the Theatre Laboratory Space in Wrocław (PL) on 23 and 24 February 2016. It was developed into a performance A Small House for the Dead with help from viola da gamba player Soma Salat-Zakariás (RO) and Zsolt Visky (RO) in August 2016 in Cluj (RO). The performance was first presented in the village of Kide/Chidea (RO) on 29 August 2016 at the beginning of The Boatwork session organized by Shoshin Theatre Association and led by Köllő and Ziółkowski. It was later presented in Miercurea Ciuc and Cluj-Napoca during the 2nd edition of KaravanAct festival, as well as in Satu-Mare in the 8th edition of Ifeszt (Interethnic Theatre Festival)

 

Special thanks to Zsolt Visky for his help with the set.

Tadeusz Różewicz - A small house

 

I – a small house for the dead

here they found their

last shelter

 

hands moving

in my direction

take me

with you take

don’t let go

 

I was opened

and they moved in

to the cold

the void

the dark

 

this is

their

eternal light

this is forgiveness of sins

the resurrection of the body

 

this is the life everlasting