Review: BALLADS AND ROMANCES at Wroclaw Mime Theatre

Three different approaches to Mickiewicz's legacy. Three is a magic number, so combining three magics in magic would bring all the best to the new piece of Mims Theatre in Wroclaw.

Part 1 by Piotr Soroka, looking for intimacy with a ghost. Let's be honest who hasn't done it during their lifetime? A ghost can be a memory, a visualization, or a wish but the intimacy is very real. This episode is the most bodily of them all. Karusia (Agnieszka Dziewa) and Jan's ghost (Eloy Moreno Gallego) are looking for and finding each other. They do a kind of mating dance full of desire, sorrow, and closeness. They are sharp in their movements at an extraordinary level. Lights (by Bogumil Palewicz) reinforce the situation as this perfect duo gets through the ups and downs. As we witness their romance, we are getting into a love triangle with them because the audience is physically so close to the actors and we almost feel their breaths. The touch is warm like a blanket during winter time.

Part 2 by Zdenka Pszczolowska, mystical lake. This episode is like looking at a calm nature scene. The story of research water reservoirs shrouded in the mystery leads us to an atmosphere built from understatements and magic. Nature has its own rules and uses human beings as puppets for its use. That's what we all are after all. The scene is based on a very special mood, you can almost feel the marshland, an unpredictable and irreconcilable nature force connected to folk beliefs. Sandra Kromer-Gorzelewska, Jan Kochanowski, Krzysztof Szczepanczyk, and Artur Borkowski create an ensemble full of mystical choreographies, I can see references to The Rite of Spring with changes of movements from light to brutal. Nature is expressing itself in a very touchable way.

Part 3 by Blazej Peszek, crime and consequences. This episode is the most literate. A murder, She is killing Him (unusual turn of events) and nature accompanies her in covering up the crime.

Grow lilies as high,

As deep his body lies;

As deep his body lies,

Grow high

For me, it's a dialog between what is inside a human being, a spirit, and motivation that leads us to action and consequences imposed by society. The Big Nature, manifested in a psyche accompanies every level of the crime and what happens next. It's a great force with its own justice which sometimes clashes with generally accepted rules. The trio Artur Borkowski, Izabela Czesniewska, and Mariusz Sikorski created a greatly told story about the approach to the interpretation of human conscience. We can feel the great connection to Nature itself with an amazing touch of art.

The show is so complex that everyone will find something that would move a soul. A huge advantage is a live music by Magda Pasierska and Szymon Tomczyk, it's like Earth is talking to us from the side of the scene. Sounds are like the surface of water carrying the action.

We all know Mickiewicz but this one is fresh and rewritten by the touch of directors' individualism and the present day. It's worth seeing as well as experiencing that he can be disenchanted with the boredom we witnessed all at school. This piece is important and magical and will take you to another world.

Photo: N. Kabanow