29-30.09.2007.




The initial impulse for the project Gospels of Childhood was an interest in the Gnostic elements in the beginning of Christianity. The performance oscillates between two threads: the story of the resuscitation of Lazarus evoked through the mouths of Marta and Maria, his sisters and „the testimony of Mary Magdalene,” who according to some Gnostic traditions took a particular position among the apostles and was identified as one of the sisters of Lazarus. Among the texts which appear in the performance are scarcely known apocryphal gospels such as that of Mary Magdalene, Phillip, Thomas and fragments by Fiodor Dostoevski and Simone Weil. The songs which appear in the performance were collected by the company during its expeditions to Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece in the years 1999-2003. Of crucial importance was the work with the people from Svaneti who live in the highest part of the Caucasus mountains. In their tradition they kept the funeral songs, which root back to the beginning of our era and are the oldest form of polyphony in Georgia, probably also the oldest in the world. The second musical plot consists of liturgical songs from the Orthodox Republic of Monks – Athos. These songs, connected with the Pascha period, build the end part of the performance – consolamentum. The performance is an attempt to tell the „late story of the flesh” – after love, after humiliation, after death; an impossible story of resurrection.

With: Marta / Maria – Ditte Berkeley / Kamila Klamut and Nini Julia Bang, Przemyslaw Blaszczak, Tomasz Bojarski, Jarosław Fret, Aleksandra Kotecka, Ewa Pasikowska, Adam Phillips, and Tomasz Wierzbowski

Director: Jarosław Fret Performed by: ZAR Theatre

-----------
The Grotowski Centre is an institution which combines artistic and scholarly research projects that correspond closely to the challenges laid down by Jerzy Grotowski's artistic practice. Founded in 1990 the Centre operates from the former Laboratory Theatre premises located in Wroclaw's Old Market Square and from the forest base of Brzezinka near Olesnica.
In years 1991-2005 the Centre published the quarterly journal, Notatnik Teatralny (Theatre Notebook).
In 1991 the Foundation for the Centre for Study of Jerzy Grotowski's Work and for Cultural and Theatrical Research was established. The Foundation is run by Stefania Gardecka.
Since February 2004 the Centre has been led by Jaroslaw Fret and Grzegorz Ziolkowski.
The Centre works under the auspices of the City Council of Wroclaw.


________________________________________
The Centre for Study of Jerzy Grotowski's Work
and for Cultural and Theatrical Research
Rynek-Ratusz 27, 50-101 Wroclaw, Poland
ph./fax ++/48/ 71 34 34 267
ph. ++/48/ 71 34 45 320
office@grotcenter.art.pl
www.grotcenter.art.pl