”Your rage shall erupt here and there, regardless of your political affiliation or your anger”.
Elfriede Jelinek started to write the script for the Rage after the Charlie Hebdo attack and the assassination of four customers of a kosher shop. The Rage is told by an individual voice, but it is the “we” that we hear the most, the “we” that smoothly transfers from victims to fighters.
”Kill everyone who is not with us! That’s a rather simple message. People hear and listen to it, and later it is already too late to do anything. The slaughterhouse has begun. There was uproar, there were screams, and nothing else”.
We are becoming the victims of a narcissistic, blinding anger of self-appointed fighters who proclaim that their fate is the fate of the entire world. Orphaned many times– by fathers, mothers, fatherland, property, and direction, they begin to orphan others in return. This is the reason why the perspective of the actors is changing and merging: an orchestrated rage which resolves all doubts and all apathy, building certainty and rules of the game. It is certain that Jelinek wrote a play that became a sad forecast about the present reality. “I could write the Rage ad infinitum” – says Jelinek.
For adults only.
The play features loud music, pyrotechnic elements, and drastic scenes
„I think that’s the play. Impossible text. Electric, shocking, frenetic staging. Blistering stuff, but somehow also tragic in its acknowledgement that even theatre *about* these topics, about any topics perhaps, is horribly limited and muted. Like, what good can it ever even begin to hope to do? Ironically, perhaps its most concrete good is the offence that talking about such subjects apparently causes to the anti-civil-liberties, anti-freedom-of-speech right-wing parties, who are very much in the ascendant in Europe; a right wing who behave <<like Soviet-era censors>> one might say” (Andrew Haydon, „Wściekłość – Teatr Powszechny Warsaw”, Postcards from the God - postcardsgod.blogspot.com,2.10.2016)
„ (…) Worth seeing <<Wściekłość>>, even for a couple of exemplary scenes as performed by Magda Koleśnik. If your jaw did not drop after seeing this crazy yogi covered in mustard and waving around on beef hanging from the ceiling, then you surely rendered speechless while seeing her in the role of Europe. Magda is an extremely promising, young actress, and her incredible talent spoke for itself, even in this lousy play. I also offer my congratulations to Julian Świeżewski who acted as a fanatical football fan. Despite the fact that we had to speak chaotically for a long period of time, in the final scene he dangled on a rope next to the piece of beef referred to above. Admirable… Julian is extremely charismatic (…)”
(Agnieszka Adamska, „Wściekłość”, agnieszkamalgorzata.blogspot.com, 05.12.2016)
„Regardless of the form used by Maja Kleczewska in the <<Rage>> directed by her, the script originating from Elfriede Jelinek conveys an important message. In this play, the Powszechny Theatre once again confirms its artistic declaration, and namely that this theatre <<butts in>>. In her essays << Meine Art des Protests>>, Jelinek calls for the involvement of the artistic milieu in any events which arose terror and take us back to the worst time of Nazism. Responding to this appeal, the producers of the play claim that theatres cannot escape responsibility for evil, especially in those times. (…). A rare phenomenon. Maybe the staging chaos created by the director slightly obscures the message, but the gist made it to the audience”
(Hanna Karolak, „Requiem dla świata”, „Gość Niedzielny” no. 44/30.10)
„The <<Rage>> is a terrific and provocative play which says that the responsibility of an individual easily disperses in the society, which triggers terrible consequences. The actors talk about the God a lot. But the God, once he actually appears in this weird world, in our world, he only acts as a catalyst for our hidden desires, gilded fetish, as an unfulfilled promise, a tool of a criminal ideology. Anyway, as aptly stated during the last scene by Elfriede (amazing Aleksandra Bożek) – is it possible that in this world which witnesses so much evil every day, there is still a chance for any true God? One thing is certain: regardless of the religious and cultural entourage, we are the architects of this misfortune. Hell is not them; hell is us”
(Michał Centkowski, „Czas zabijania”, „Liberte! ” magazine, 24.10.2016)
„The actors are great. My favourites: Magdalena Koleśnik, starring as Natrebko, who is in love with rare meat and hamburgers, and Julian Świeżewski, a Polish fundamentalist who was somewhat Promethean in his struggle. Aleksandra Bożek came as a big surprise – after all, she does not shine so often on the stage of the Powszechny Theatre. This time, it was different because of two facts: Kleczewska gave her a chance and she showed her talent, which had not been used too often. I favour them as they stole my hear, the rest of the team was equally good. The performance is one of the best plays directed by Kleczewska. (…) a very good play, touching every now and then” (Tomasz Domagała, „<<Wściekłość>>, Bogini, opiewaj Kleczewskiej – Jelinek w Powszechnym”, domagalasiekultury.blog.pl, 07.10.2016)
„The prayer to the God for vengeance of the harm is terrific. It is said by a figure in black, whereas it may address the God both as a Christian and a Muslim. The figure is filled with rage, but also helplessness. Kleczewska refers to the work of Jelinek to jointly bear witness to helplessness as regards the end of the world experienced by us”
(Aneta Kyzioł, „Do DNA kontynentu”, „Polityka” no. 41/05.10.2016)
„ (…) a collage about a growing violence, xenophobia, helplessness in relation to radicals and the migrant crisis” (Witold Mrozek, „Wściekli na pół gwizdka”, „Gazeta Wyborcza – Stołeczna” no. 225, 26.09.2016)
„A suspicion that the mass of chaos acts as deus ex machina in the work by Kleczewska does not ease my emotions aroused by the Rage. The director does not only offer an insightful diagnosis of modern times, but also forces us to confront the things we would like to forget. Her plays are in bad taste, but what is it we are disgusted with? Us. We are disgusted with us”
(Jolanta Nabiałek, „Pomalujmy sobie twarze na czarno”, „Krytyka Polityczna” online, 30.09.2016)