Fast Forward 2024

Inspired by Joseph Conrad‘s HEART OF DARKNESS SERCE is Wiktor Bagiński’s debut at the TR Warszawa, his reward for winning the Polish Young Director’s Forum prize and with which he completed his degree at the National Academy of Theatre Arts. Bagiński‘s own biography is the starting point for an impressive artistic examination of Europe’s colonial history and its consequences, which are still being felt today. In collaboration with the writer Martyna Wawrzyniak, he overwrites Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS with the story of a young Pole who grows up as a person of colour without a father, whom he also never meets. His journey into the heart of his own history is performed by a white ensemble at the TR Warszawa. In this way, Bagiński opens up an extraordinary space on stage: of encounter, of conflict, of a story about one of the most important issues today: “My tragedy is not about being black. My tragedy is not even about being a black Pole. The tragedy that I am most afraid of – to paraphrase James Baldwin – is about accepting theology that rejects life. By that I mean accepting a possibility of being a subhuman. If there is such possibility, or rather if there is ever a glimpse of such a thought, then a fight for one’s humanity begins. This performance abandons discourse in favour of experience. Experience of loss and abandonment, that brought suffering. However it is the search of the source of the birth of hatred that brings carefree affirmation of ABSENCE. Absence of a father.” Wiktor Bagiński

Adaption & Direction Wiktor Bagiński / Script Wiktor Bagiński, Martyna Wawrzyniak

With Jan Dravnel, Dobromir Dymecki, Magdalena Kuta, Aleksandra Popławska & Wiktor Bagiński / Stage Design Anja Oramus / Costume Design Marcin Kosakowski / Light Design & Video Natan Berkowicz / Music Bartek Prosuł / Choreography Krystyna Lama Szydłowska / Assistant Directior Wojciech Sobolewski / Stage Manager Piotr Piotrowicz / Production Manager Magda Igielska / Production Co-operation Maria Herbich / Production TR Warszawa / Surtitles Jacek Telenga (Englisch), N.N. (Deutsch) / Production Photos Monika Stolarska

The production was inspired by elements from the following books:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, trans. Aniela Zagórska, Free Reading
James Baldwin "Notes of the Son of This Country", trans. Mikołaj Denderski, Karakter 2019 publishing house
Stanislav Grof "Cosmic game", Okultura publishing house, transl. Maciej Lorenc, Dariusz Misiuna, Warsaw 2014
Frantz Fanon "Black skin, white masks", trans. Urszula Kropiwiec, Karakter Publishing House 2020
Association of Poles of African Descent, "Oskar Kafel (President of SPPA) talks to Wiktor Bagiński" [in:]  

Das Gastspiel im Rahmen von Fast Forward findet statt with freundlicher Unterstützung der Stiftung für deutsch-polnische Zusammenarbeit. https://sdpz.org/