Born July 14th, 1989 in Białystok, playwright. Graduated from the faculty of Journalism and Social Communication at the University of Warsaw. Debuted at age 16 with a short story entitled Retaliation, published in the Death For a Good Beginning anthology. "Searching for the Polish Shakespeare" play contest laureate (2010) and recipient of three scolarships: two for outstanding results in education (from the Marshal of the Podlaskie Voivodeship in 2008 and one granted by the University of Warsaw in 2009) while the third, in the field of literature (Minister of Culture and National Heritage, 2012). He received invitations to creative writing workshops (twice in 2006) and playwrights' workshop (2010) as a literary contest laureate. He debut as a playwright on the New Theatre of Lódź stage with And Iphigenia (Teatr Nowy, directed by Tomasz Bazan, premiered in January 2012) for which he was awarded the Golden Mask, the Łódź theatre critics' prize. For the Drama Theatre in Wałbrzych (Teatr Dramatyczny), he wrote Pin-okio, a subversive interpretation of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (directed by Jakub Porcari, premiered in June 2012). His new play entitled 0 v(directed by Tomasz Bazan), inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando, will premiere at the upcoming International Festival Theatre Confrontations in Lublin.
Author of yet unstaged, daring drama Under.
Works on intertextual literary form, creatively transforming and redefining philosophical heritage and that of cultural criticism. He portrays today's society by exploring the individual, involved in a web of oppressive relationships.
Currently studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and Birckbeck College in London.
PLAYS (translated by Adrianna Frank)
Under
The catastrophic world of „Under" has been entirely dominated by civilization and is governed by proctologists – surgeons specialized in large intestine and rectal diseases. The character's language - both schwabian and fecal – parallels the play.
It is a civilization that has overcome cancer and ceased needing nature, as „photosynthesis has been mastered". It has revoked culture and replaced it with entertainment. Hygiene is sacred, that is why handshakes have been discarded. People have been convinced that there isn't anything outside of civilization. Aids, bidet and tide chose to believe otherwise; a disagreement which pushes them to flee their rectal civilization. A civilization that has unfortunately scared the protagonists with its beauty; bidet's language resorts to voicing and understanding commands, while aids got homosexuality programmed into him, thus his relationship with tide can only be consummated through his simultaneous masturbation. The ruthless and commanding bidet is in charge, with a secret plan in mind which he intends on executing thanks to the naive aids and tide. The clash with their own needs and nature is shocking. The forests, of which none were unaware this far, turn out to be hideouts for the "excreted" – civilization's defectuous products.
The couple begins doubting the purpose of their escapade and revolt against bidet's dictatorship; fortunately, luck reaches out with a helping hand and bidet falls down a precipice. Aids and tide decide to pursue the journey on their own and climb to the mountain top where they discover a pile of people – holy fathers who work the out-of-civilization incinerators on a daily basis. They hope to discover the reason for their journey, which is only later revealed by a proctologist, who unexpectedly suggests they meet with the prophet's buddy's son. Once at the top, he turns out to be ill, making him a true „excreted". He reveals the essence of their quest: they have been chosen to experience indirect rebirth, yet the two must first retrieve their happy beginning from their memory (civilization cut them short of their real memories) which can only occur once they kill him. The prophet's buddy's son, made impatient by the hero's hesitation, commits suicide. Tide and aids dispose of the body, as previously agreed, then jump into the precipice themselves.
The form and language oscillate between surrealism, brutalism, that of Werner Schwab and Elfriede Jelinek. An original vision of an inescapable civilization deprived of meaning. The polemicizing Orłowski grins mockingly at the understanding of humanity as a skillful mastering of nature.
Infection
In Euripides's tragedy, the victory lusting Agamemnon decides to offer a sacrifice, his daughter Iphigenia, in hopes to defeat Troy. The plan is no secret to Clytemnestra, the mother, who withholds the scheme from her daughter. As a way to lure Iphigenia to Aulis, Agamemnon promises marriage to her. The ruse is soon discovered yet Iphigenia chooses sacrifice nevertheless, aware of its grandiose cause. In his play, Orłowski switched the emphases; from focusing on Iphigenia's heroism and devotion to depicting her doubt. Iphigenia dreams of her own death – her symbolic passing as Clytemnestra's and Agamemnon's daughter, the end of her present identity, foreshadowing her soon coming death that is being arranged by Agamemnon. Iphigenia also questions marriage as her true desire, she learns from her mother what it is to be a wife – illustrated in the text is the process of molding and shaping one to fit this social role. However having discovered Agamemnon's plot, Clytemnestra reassesses her views on the purpose of marriage. Witnessing a mother's affection towards her daughter is contrasted by the same one's rebellion against the all-mighty Agamemnon. Is in not perhaps a mere illusion, a lie? Here, the need to live up to social expectations is at essence of the character's determination.
Apart from Euripides, the voices many great minds, writers and researchers such as Tournier, Kafka, Ovid, Wittgenstein, Fromm, Lacan, Kristeva, Zizek, Freud, Heidegger, Kubin, Kępiński, Thorwald echo throughout the text alongside those of scientists exploring bioethics and medicine surrounding brain death.
The preview showing, directed by Tomasz Bazan, took place on January 14th 2012 at the New Theater of Łódź.
0
Take a second to envision yourself as a sensitive person. Should you believe to be sensitive, all the better – the task has already been completed.
Next it would be best to imagine yourself locked away somewhere, at the fringe of civilization. Civilization that provides a sense of security, although illusory, that people need. And all of a sudden we find ourselves beyond the crowds, clusters, and pseudo communities, where the majority seeks this "security". Society, a true salvation providing a "friendly" environment for the masses, might turn out to be oppressive towards the sensitive or/and damaged individuals. The need to maintain a social existence and participate in the information flow, even – or especially – virtually, intensifies one's dispersion and antinaturalness as an individual. Face multiplicity. Besides, it is difficult to tell what is natural anymore – accusing anyone of being unnatural is hypocritical, the more people there are, the fewer trees remain.
Now please imagine yourself, in isolation, being forced to solitarily confront everything we push aside and hide, all we fabricate and twist by babbling. Virginia Woolf fought this battle, as well as her dream, Orlando. Taming the subconscious, self-analysis leading to freedom. And the trap built by this assumption.
Perhaps we have to do with a contemporary fantasy about the Bloomsbury Group and its isolation? With Virginia Woolf as the first character, Leonard Woolf as the second and Virginia's dead brother, Thoby, as the third one? A fantasy about being locked in the Woolfs' house to endure the pain of existence, while cherishing their helplessness which ultimately fails resulting in suicide? Does it mean as much as to give up? Or has the goal been achieved beforehand? Orlando, a spirit searching for truth, has lasted through several hundred years and will continue to exist with there being no sign of a solution appearing in the near future. Virginia Woolf may have been aware of that.
Following one of the tracks from "Orlando", 1, 2 and 3 may represent different selves that confront each other inside someone's brain. Maybe he is Orlando? Or she is Orlando? Male or female? Maybe it's Orlando and Sasha? And the Archduke? Or Shelmerdine? Or a reflection in the mirror? Whose? All exist within; a place deprived of time that passes continuously on the outside, unacknowledged.
Or.
1 (a woman about thirty-years-old) and 2 (a man in his forties) resign from any social life and lock themselves in an isolated squatted house. They attempt to confront pieces of their own identity, which ruin them from the inside – traumas, unfulfillment etc. The long lasting relationship between 1 and 2 enters a phase of decay so their decision to detach from the world also aims at recovering each other, as they might have once been. They design a game and take part in it themselves. Existing in separation reveals components that have been hidden this far. It is like a spiritistic session with no possibility of reconciliation with the summoned spirits.
1 and 2 wish to dissolve their identities, to erase any stigmas imprinted by society, through renouncing their names for instance or by referring to one another without paying any attention to biological gender – at the beginning of the play, they address each other in forms opposite from their actual gender, searching for a "true" anchor in their only uncontestable foundation, the body, they later identify with. 1 and 2 lose themselves in the process of authenticating their memories and ideas. No dreams were dreamed, they have all been made up. The past becomes a dream, a virtuality that captures the present using artificial language. Rather than reintegrate, the experiment only deepens the atrophy – as 1 and 2 sink in their venomous dialogues, their catastrophic thinking,
confusion and complexes solidify. As much as 1 and 2 are unable to be together, being apart is equally impossible, being bound by a tight, invisible tether.
We meet 1 and 2 at an advanced stage of the derailed experiment, drifting in and opposite direction from the one planned for quite some time. Disappointed 1 wishes to withdraw and return to civilization. Thanks to 2's initiative, they decide to invite an outsider, someone who will allow them to pull out of the deadlock of their merely insuppressible autoaggression towards one another, caused by each other's constant company. Someone to reinstate their lost desire. All they must do is show up.
3 (a man reaching thirty) triggered by a sudden impulse (a personal tragedy perhaps) decides to (might be necessary) cut himself off from his previous life, rearrange everything from scratch. Short after arriving at 1 and 2's residence, 3 gets drawn into the ongoing conflict between the remaining characters, becoming a helpless witness as well as a victim of their symbolic violence. But it is 3 who turns out to be the ultimate catalyst, disintegrating the virtual world that 1 and 2 are constantly building.
Perhaps we are in a mental hospital. Or in a pediatric one, or we simply find ourselves in the situation from "The Exterminating Angel" by Luis Buñuel. Possibilities are endless, some more ironic than others. It is best to enter this world intimate being and see for yourself whether it is true. Just as Orlando tried, so did Woolf herself in those few moments of existence.