Photo: Mathias Friedrich.
On 28-30 October 2015 (Wednesday: 7 pm, Thursday and Friday: 6 pm and 8 pm), the Art and Present Time Foundation and the Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle would like to invite everyone interested to the presentation of The Cleansing of Constance Brown by the Stan?s Café Theatre (Stodoła Club, ul. Batorego 10), organized as part of the 22nd International Meeting of Live Arts ROZDROŻE/CROSSROADS. Premiering in 2007, James Yarker?s piece is one of the company?s most acclaimed shows. Commissioned by the festivals Wiener Festwochen and Fierce!Festival, as well as the Warwick Arts Centre, the performance was staged in many countries, where it surprised viewers with its original form. Action takes place in a long, narrow corridor of a building that resembles both an office building from the 50s and a contemporary hotel, block of flats or a prison. The corridor is a place of passage, a peripheral spot for people lacking power; power that is exerted behind the doors and walls of the invisible rooms.
The action of this performance resembles a movie. The spectators watch a series of micro-scenes and try to interpret the relationships between several dozen characters that appear in the corridor just for a while. The kaleidoscope of images reminds us of daily events or TV coverage of public or personal disasters. The authors of the show are asking us, if such things can be removed from our consciousness. What will remain? The cleansing of Constance Brown is the removal of an excluded, marginalised person from the life and memories of others – a process that happened in many places and epoques. A critic from The Irish Times wrote that this show is ?visually delightful, imaginatively intriguing and resonant?.
On 27 October 2015 (6 pm), James Yarker will give a lecture on the oeuvre of the Stan?s Cafe Theatre at the Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle (KINO.LAB).
The Stan’s Cafe Theatre was founded in 1991 by James Yarker and Graeme Rose. Yarker manages the group and is the director of most of its performances. This Birmingham theatre features artists from different fields of art, who create shows at the crossroads of theatre, live arts and visual arts. For many years it has maintained a leading position among British experimental theatres. Its original shows make use of various forms and techniques: starting from a 4-minute film performance for one viewer, to a 4-day performance-installation with the use of over 6 billion rice grains. The group often touches upon the issue of peripherality and focuses on what is usually considered secondary and unimportant. The theatre has presented its plays, among others, at the following festivals: Edinburgh Fringe, Theater der Welt in Stuttgart, Theaterformen in Hannover, Euro-Scene in Leipzig and the festivals of Cork, Adelaide and Bucharest. The group also gave successful performances eg. in New York, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen. They also performed in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Brasil. It will be the first visit of this group in Poland.The tickets for the performances of the Stan’s Cafe Theatre will be sold at the Stodoła Club on the day of the show and the day before.
Ticket prices: PLN 50 (full price tickets) / PLN 30 (reduced tickets)
Following the presentation on 28 October, the artists will meet with the audience.
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2015 ROZDROŻE/CROSSROADS Festival: 22nd International Meeting of Live Arts is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Capital City of Warsaw.
