| La MaMa Presents New York Premiere of Witold Gombrowicz’s THE MARRIAGE, Directed by Zishan Ugurlu, Sept 26 - Oct 6 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 11:48 pm EDT 09/17/24 | |
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| LA MAMA PRESENTS NEW YORK PREMIERE OF WITOLD GOMBROWICZ'S THE MARRIAGE DIRECTED BY ZISHAN UGURLU SEPTEMBER 26–OCTOBER 6 Celebrated Play by One of Poland's Greatest Writers Receives Long Overdue New York Premiere Presented in Partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, Jan Kochanowski Powszechny Theater of Radom, and Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM) La MaMa is proud to present the New York premiere of Witold Gombrowicz's The Marriage with direction by La MaMa's director-in-residence Zishan Ugurlu. Written by one of the greatest Polish writers of the 20th century, The Marriage, translated by Louis Iribarne, is a play that explores themes of identity, power, and the nature of reality. Running September 26–October 6, 2024, performances take place at La MaMa's Downstairs Theatre (66 E 4th St, Manhattan). Tickets are now on sale at www.lamama.org. Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) was a Polish writer and playwright known for his innovative and often provocative works that explore the absurdity of human existence, most notably, the novel Ferdydurke. In his play The Marriage, we follow Henry, a young soldier who returns home from war to find his world in disarray. In a dream-like sequence, the boundaries between reality and illusion begin to blur. "Gombrowicz's writing combines philosophical depth with the wittiest sense of humor," said director Zishan Ugurlu, a member of La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory Company. "He is provocative, instructive, and grotesque. In The Marriage, Gombrowicz explores how language brings things into being, how utterance makes ideas material, and he asks who has the power to dictate reality and truth. In our production of the 1946 play, which has never before had a professional production in New York, 'indecent acts' and 'deformations' are explored in our hero's dreamland. They reveal themselves through upside-down flags, Hoots fingers and Hooters Girls, a bloody insurrection and declarations when our hero, Henry, returns home from war but finds that nothing is as he remembered. Even as he grapples with questions of identity and the authentic self, Gombrowicz imbues Henry's dream with fun and games, with poetry, terror, and struggle. The author is a tightrope walker–a provocateur–whose words are as valid today as they were almost 80 years ago." The nine-member ensemble cast for The Marriage includes Bill Bowers, Celeste Ciulla, Gardiner Comfort, Annie Hägg, Conor Andrew Hall, Anna Podolak, Alex Scoloveno, Jackson Scott, and Oluwaseun "Kayodè" Soyemi. The creative team for The Marriage includes Michal Dracz (set and lighting design), Krystian Szymczak (costume design), Sam Sellers (sound design), Alexandra Chasin (dramaturgy), Shari Perkins (dramaturgy), Dakota Silvey (production stage manager), Tomek Smolarski (producer) and Malgorzata Potocka (producer). Eight performances of The Marriage will take place September 26–October 6, 2024 at La MaMa's Downstairs Theatre, located at 66 E 4th Street in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of Thursday, September 26, which serves as the official opening. The performance schedule is Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 4pm. General admission tickets are $30 ($25 for students or seniors). The first 10 tickets to every performance are $10 each. Tickets are available at www.lamama.org. Please visit www.lamama.org/shows/the-marriage-2024 for more information. About the Artists Witold Gombrowicz (1904 –1969) was one of the greatest Polish writers of the 20th century and one of the Polish writers whose work is most recognised throughout the world, he is, next to Stanislaw Lem, the most frequently translated, read in 34 languages. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, and anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937, he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: problems of immaturity and youth, creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture. Gombrowicz gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature. His diaries were published in 1969 and are, according to The Paris Review, "widely considered his masterpiece." He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966. In his work, Gombrowicz struggled with Polish traditions and the country's difficult history. This battle was the starting point for his stories, which were deeply rooted in this tradition and history. Gombrowicz is remembered by scholars and admirers as a writer and a man unwilling to sacrifice his imagination or his originality for any price, person, god, society, or doctrine. Gombrowicz is exceptional in the history of literature, due for one thing to his philosophy, the way he built his texts, and the power of his language. He was tireless in arguing against Polish tradition, history, yet the dispute was a starting point for tests both rooted in the very same tradition and history and universal. He belonged among those Central European writers who were able to take advantage of the civilizational backwardness of his own country to have a critical perspective on contemporary ideas and art. He created works looking very far forward—he helped his readers move from a world of modernism to one of postmodernism. His influence on Polish literature was enormous, yet this theatrical inspiration proved even more fertile – without him, there would be no Tadeusz Kantor, or Jerzy Grotowski. Zishan Ugurlu has worked extensively as a theater artist in New York and abroad. She is an actor and director-in-residence at La MaMa Theater and a member of the Great Jones Repertory Company. She recently directed Medea with Great Jones Repertory Company, drawing attention to a very specific dimension that explored Medea as an immigrant, exiled, investigating parallels between the myth and the current refugee crisis by collaging real stories, ancient tongues, and hackable audiovisual systems. Her recent directing credits include Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae written by Alexandra Chasin, featuring philosopher Judith Butler as a performer, presented at New York Live Arts. Hoppla, We're Alive! by Ernst Toller, The Franca Rame Project by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Agamemnon (in Greek) by Aeschylus, Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, Not About Nightingales by Tennessee Williams, She Talks to Beethoven by Adrienne Kennedy, Elegant Degradation based on Charles Mee's Orestes 2.0, Marathon Dancing: Letters to Wall Street in the Era of Wonderful Nonsense based on They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, The Judith of Shimoda by Bertolt Brecht, p-ROJECT (in Greek) based on The Persians by Aeschylus, The Law of Remains by Reza Abdoh, Purge by Sofi Oksanen, The Realm of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy, Baghdadi Bath by Jawad Al Assadi, The Father by August Strindberg, Temptation by Vaclav Havel, Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer W. Fassbinder, The Last Supper by Lars Norèn, Operetta by Witold Gombrowicz, Until the Next Whirl by Rumi, Watershed and Serious At All by Tom Soper, Blood Wedding by Federico G. Lorca, Big Love by Charles Mee. Her directing credits also include several solo performances. She was recently awarded "Best Direction" for Yu Ling Wu's solo performance, Dream American, by the United Solo Festival. Other solo performances, The Surrender by Toni Bentley at Off-Broadway, The Clurman Theater, Oysters, Orgasms, and Obituaries by Raina von Waldenburg (Nominated for New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance) and Request Program by F. X. Kroetz at La MaMa. She is the founding artistic director of "Actors without Borders-ITONY." It is an ensemble-based theater company with a commitment to introduce well known and highly regarded but rarely produced national and international playwrights to American audiences. She graduated from Columbia University with an MFA degree and teaches at Eugene Lang College The New School University. She is the recipient of the prestigious Fox Foundation Fellowship granted by Theater Communications Group. She recently received the 2020 Gramsci Award for Theater in Prison. About the Polish Cultural Institute New York Polish Cultural Institute New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission to the United States serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The mission of the Polish Cultural Institute New York is to share Polish heritage, history and art with American audiences, and to promote Poland's contributions to the success of world culture. The Institute does so through initiating, supporting and promoting collaboration between Poland and the United States in the areas of visual art, design, film, theater, dance, literature, music, and in many other aspects of intellectual and social life. The Institute's main task is to ensure Polish participation in the programming of America's most important cultural institutions as well as in large international initiatives. The Institute works with renowned cultural and academic centers and opinion leaders operating on the American market. Its main partners include such prestigious organizations as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Modern Art, PEN American Center, the Poetry Society of America, the National Gallery of Art, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, the Harvard Film Archive, the CUNY Graduate Center, the Julliard School of Music, the New Museum, the Jewish Museum, La MaMa E.T.C. and many others. https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/ About Jan Kochanowski Popular Theater Operating since 1976, Jan Kochanowski Popular Theater is the only professional theater in the city of Radom, Poland. It is a repertory theater. Talking to a diverse and possibly large audience (currently the establishment is visited by about 70 thousand spectators each year). It prepares from 8 to 13 premieres annually on four stages. The most important artistic showcase of the Radom theater is the International Gombrowicz Festival, which has been organized since 1993 - the only festival in Poland dedicated to the works of a single author and the only one promoting Polish literature abroad. During the fifteen editions of the festival, Radom has hosted, among others, ensembles from Argentina, Russia, the USA, Sweden, France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Lithuania, Spain, Japan. The event is kindly supported by Rita Gombrowicz, the writer's widow, with her recommendations. Starting with the eighth edition of the MFG (2008), it takes the form of a competition, with performances evaluated by an international jury of theater people. About La MaMa La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 63rd Season, The "La MaMa Beyond Season" expands our efforts to develop creative methods and tools for greater access to the arts. Pop up performances and installations will be happening in parks, neighborhood community centers, as well as online. By going beyond La MaMa's physical campus, new audiences and artists from different contexts are welcomed into the creative process. La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics' Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961. www.lamama.org |
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