Hymn to love
director
Marta Górnicka
premiere
21 January 2017
running time
50 min
stage
scena duża

PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEO


CREATIVES

concept, director, libretto – Marta Górnicka

music – Teoniki Rożynek
choreography – Anna Godowska
dramaturgy – Agata Adamiecka
set design – Robert Rumas
costumes – Anna Maria Karczmarska
puppets – Konrad Czarkowski (Kony Puppets)
lighting director – Artur Sienicki
producers – Izabela Dobrowolska, Agnieszka Różyńska
director's assistans – Arnold Prządka
chorepgrapher's assistant – Anna Krysiak
costume designer's assistant – Agnieszka Majkutewicz
assistant and music consultation – Joanna Piech-Sławecka
chief engineer – Andrzej Szwaczyk

cast: Sylwia Achu, Anna Andrzejewska, Maria Chleboś, Konrad Cichoń, Piotr B. Dąbrowski, Tymoteusz Dąbrowski, Maciej Dużyński, Anna Maria Gierczyńska, Paula Głowacka, Maria Haile, Wojciech Jaworski, Borys Jaźnicki, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Ewa Konstanciak, Irena Lipczyńska, Kamila Michalska, Anna Rusiecka, Filip P. Rutkowski, Michał Sierosławski, Ewa Sołtysiak, Kaja Stępkowska, Ewa Szumska, Krystyna Lama Szydłowska, Kornelia Trawkowska, Anastazja Żak

 

SYNOPSIS

This is a show about Europe closing its ranks. Nation after nation is crying out: “Give us back our country!”. And Poles are eagerly joining in the chorus.

It is also a show about how every nation loves to forget. And how human time-bombs are so furious they're blowing their fuses. Thus, history repeats itself. So, just for us, the chorus will sing The Song of the Forgetful Nation:

 

The TRUTH is that this NATION let all of this happen. It let certain of its children, the chosen children, die, even though they were never its children, children of that nation. OK. So that makes it all right. And, anyway, it wasn't THIS country but THAT ONE: (high and low) GERMANY. And we don't know anything about it. WE DIDN'T SEE IT HAPPEN. Certain facts have been tailored to fit the story. And since it's only been a short time that we've had this country and this nation for OUR VERY OWN, we fight, fight to make it OUR country, our POLAND, ours and OURS ALONE.

So we can't afford to take in those Fugitives now, either. Oh, we simply can't allow that. We have a lot of room but it's not enough. We can't squeeze anything more in. We can love them when they're at home where they belong, and anyway it's those who are to blame who should help them first. Besides, they'd come and grab all the special offers on smartphones, and seize all the bargains and discounts.

And the thing about us Polish people is…
A GUEST IN THE HOUSE IS GOD IN THE HOUSE
…we sure do love low prices!

 

Marta Gornicka:
In HYMN TO LOVE, I've composed a monstrous “National Songbook” out of various versions of the national anthem, marches, patriotic songs, religious hymns and folk songs – our shared musical repertoire, so eagerly being mixed by the nationalist rappers of today: 'TIS A DAY OF BLOOD AND GLORY!

When working on this project, I was haunted by the image of the concentration camp orchestra, which played marches, German classical music, and tunes from prewar operettas. All the inmates were forced to sing along. Music played a part in the Holocaust. I am exploring the way songs were complicit in murder.

I believe that the CHORUS, as a figure of the community, can show the workings of the collective unconscious. Its song exposes the frightfulness of a community bound together by love of country: of a homeland exclusively for people like us. A homeland which is like a family that has to be kept safe and pure by eliminating all foreign bodies – other races, religions, sexualities. Such a love is a perverse fulfillment of the commandment “Love thy neighbour as thyself”! It inspires Champions of Purity/Saviours to fight for our right to love our neighbours, as long as they look just like us. “You must honour me for my seventy-seven victims,” Anders Breivik urges, “Actions like mine prevent a future civil war, which could result in the death of hundreds of thousands. I put the world in order. I come to heal”. With a smile, Breivik insists he is completely sane, as the entire history of our civilization attests. He is right. How are we to respond to this horrific logic?

 

 

The choir will be made up of actors and actresses from Teatr Polski in Poznan and from The Chorus of Women, amateurs, children, adults with Down's Syndrome, and senior citizens.

 

 

Teatr Powszechny
im. Zygmunta Hübnera
ul. Jana Zamoyskiego 20
03-801 Warszawa
tickets 22 818 25 16
22 818 48 19