Krum at Stary Theater

From June 8-10, ?Krum,? directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, will be playing at the Stary Theater in Krakow ? this is one of the best shows in this theater, city and possibly all of Poland!
Krzysztof Warlikowski is currently one of Poland?s most interesting theater directors. When he began his career in 1993 at the Stary Theater in Krakow — Heinrich von Kleist?s ?Markiza O.?/?The Marquis O? — he was perceived like a provocateur and sensationalist because of his attempt to vocalize hard and inconvenient themes considered taboo at the time. He also tried to take Poland out of classical theater and history, thrusting it into the real world. Today he is one Poland?s most valued directors and the best-known Polish director in the world. Since 1999 he had been working regularly in the Theater Rozmaitosci (?Variety Theater?) in Warsaw (now called ?TR Warsow?), but he also directs or co-produces in other cities throughout Poland.
Warlikowski has worked in different European cities such as: Stuttgard at the Staatstheater, where he directed William Shakespeare?s Sturm (2000); Paris, were he studied the history of theater at the Théâtre National; Nice, where he directed Shakespeare?s ?A Midsummer Night?s Dream? (2003), and showed Christoph Willibald Gluck?s ?Ifigenia in Tauride? at the Opera Garnier (2006); in Amsterdam at the Toneel Groep, where he showed Mishima Yukio?s ?Madame de Sade? (2006); and other cities.
Probably his best-known work ?Cleansed,? by Sarah Kane (Variety Theater, 2001), received an award of the French Theater Critics? Union for the best foreign language production presented in France in the 2002/2003 seasons.
?Krum,? by Hanoch Levi (an Israeli playwright), premiered in 2005 and has emerged in co-produced with the Stary Theater in Krakow and TR Warsow. This theater is for people uninterested in shocking effects, but rather in the essential truths about contemporary man. The main character, Krum (Jacek Poniedziałek), has a dream. He goes abroad but his journey is fruitless and he returns. In the world around him everyone is also desperately seeking happiness but only find that everything is false. His tense relationship with his mother (Stanislawa Celinska) plays a key role. When she dies, Krum takes a retrospective look at his life.
This is a play about the fundamental values in human life: love, friendship, family, dreams, happiness and death… But this is also a play about human debility and escape before liability.
Krum is a 40-year-old man who has nothing and cannot imagine his life without his mother. Because of a belief that he will someday write a novel about the people in his town and become famous, he scorns them and thinks he is above them.
Deep inside though, he knows that he will never start to write and that his life will be just like that of his neighbors? and friends? whom he scorns. This character is torn between a disagreement for a banal, unhappy life and the ability to do something to change it. Krum?s 12 actors are all top performers on the current Polish stage. In this performance they show the full breadth of their abilities, as they play wonderfully and with full engagement. They transform into their roles completely and appear as though they could only exist on the stage.
The play was performed in Moscow earlier this year, where Krzysztof Warlikowski received the Wsiewołod Meyerhold award. It has recently been showing throughout Europe and will also come to New York this summer.