What's Demeter?

Cre­ators: CHO­REA The­atre

Ar­ti­stic su­per­vi­sion: To­masz Ro­do­wicz

Di­rec­tion in­te­rven­tions: Łu­kasz Kos

Mu­sic su­per­vi­sion: Grze­gorz Wie­rus

Mu­sic: To­masz Krzy­ża­now­ski, Ma­ciej Ry­chły, tra­di­tio­nal mu­sic

Cho­re­ogra­phy: Do­ro­ta Po­row­ska, Sara Ko­złow­ska, CHO­REA The­atre

Li­ght: Ka­mil Urba­no­wicz

So­und: Mar­cin Do­biś Do­bi­jań­ski

Vi­su­als: Ka­mil Wal­la­ce

Cast: Ja­nusz Adam Bie­drzyc­ki, Maja Ca­ban, Jo­an­na Chmie­lec­ka, Jo­an­na Fi­lar­ska, Ju­lia Ja­ku­bow­ska, Sara Ko­złow­ska, Mał­go­rza­ta Lip­czyń­ska, Ma­ciej Ma­cia­szek, Anna Ma­szew­ska, Ewa Oto­mań­ska, Mag­da­le­na Pasz­kie­wicz, Do­ro­ta Po­row­ska, To­masz Ro­do­wicz, Ola Shaya, Eli­na To­ne­va + The Old Gu­ard and In­vi­ted Gu­ests

Pro­du­cer: Ola Shaya

Pre­mie­re: 24.08.2024, In­ter­na­tio­nal The­atre Fe­sti­val Re­tro­per­spek­ty­wy, Art Fac­to­ry in Lodz

Du­ra­tion: 180 mi­nu­tes

Vie­wers' age: 12+

"What's De­me­ter"...

This eve­ning will be exc­lu­si­ve­ly de­di­ca­ted to the CHO­REA gro­up. This event will be com­po­sed of qu­otes and excerpts from the most si­gni­fi­cant per­for­man­ces, con­certs, and pro­jects that make up our 20-year hi­sto­ry. The cen­tre­pie­ce, or ra­ther the thre­ad, that we will use to we­ave the­se events, is an­cient Gre­ece, the star­ting po­int of our jo­ur­ney and our in­i­tial fo­cus - its mu­sic, chants, dan­ce, and dra­ma. We will be­gin here, and this the­me will gra­du­al­ly se­rve as a co­un­ter­po­int and com­ple­ment to the new ren­di­tions of frag­ments from CHO­REA's per­for­man­ces and con­certs. The­se frag­ments have been se­lec­ted by each CHO­REA ac­tor, as im­por­tant and per­so­nal­ly si­gni­fi­cant on our sha­red jo­ur­ney.

The eve­ning will open with the Ho­me­ric "Hymn to De­me­ter" who is the "Muse" of this year's RPS fe­sti­val edi­tion. This my­thi­cal fi­gu­re em­bo­dies the sto­ry of loss and re­co­ve­ry, il­lu­stra­ting the in­se­pa­ra­ble con­nec­tion be­twe­en life and de­ath, de­par­tu­re and re­turn, the cyc­les of dy­ing and re­birth, and lo­sing and re­di­sco­ve­ring the me­aning of life. This is also our sto­ry.

Ho­we­ver, we are not cre­ating a new per­for­man­ce, a new com­pi­la­tion, or a jig­saw puz­zle of past CHO­REA sto­ries. It is abo­ut wor­king with the in­di­vi­du­al and col­lec­ti­ve me­mo­ry of past and cur­rent cre­ations, pro­ces­ses, and expe­rien­ces of each ar­tist, that is, each mem­ber of the gro­up that forms CHO­REA.

The es­sen­ce of this eve­ning will be songs, ima­ges, so­unds, words, frag­ments, ge­stu­res of ephe­me­ral cha­rac­ters, for­med as if from pa­pier-mâché, un­der­go­ing con­stant, stran­ge trans­for­ma­tions - like in Schulz, qu­estio­ning them­se­lves, in­com­ple­te, am­bi­gu­ous, but full of en­thu­siasm and hope. With no chro­no­lo­gy, lo­gic or con­si­sten­cy.

In just two ho­urs, it is im­pos­si­ble to tell the sto­ry of our 20 years, but it is po­ssi­ble to show the pe­ople and the­ir pas­sions, and to see what has been most im­por­tant to them over the past two de­ca­des.