FROM OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR : STRONG & DISTINCTIVE POLISH THEATRE

On Saturday, Polish company, Teatr KTO, return to Bell Square with their latest show, Arcadia.

The theatre company was set up in Krakow in 1977 by Jerzy Zon, who is still their director to this day. Over four decades, they have toured the world with an astonishing repertoire of both indoor and outdoor shows. In addition, every summer, they organise an excellent festival of outdoor performance called Ulica – or ‘Street’ in English. And since 2021, they have had their own ‘home’ venue in the Podgórze district of the city. This is a busy and very respected theatre company.

In Poland, there are public, repertory theatre companies in almost every big city – with a fixed group of actors and directors working full-time for the company, and accompanied by permanent technicians and set designers. The stability this brings to the companies leads to outstanding artistic achievement and also the time to experiment with new ideas. Typically, these companies have a very distinct artistic vision and a strong theatrical style.

This permanent cast of employed actors also enables them to maintain a repertory of dozens of shows which they present throughout the year – and generally, these shows are kept in repertory for many years. But they are also committed to creating new shows to add to their repertoire, usually developed by the company’s director with input from the actors during rehearsals.

This is all very different from the theatre sector in the UK and most of the Western world. Here, a company will recruit a group of actors for a specific show, paying them for the exact number of rehearsals and performances that they will be needed for. So for each new show that a UK theatre company creates, they will probably have a completely different group of people working together.

There are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. And both of these approaches are actually under pressure. Many years of static funding in the UK has eaten into the value of investment into the country’s theatre. And in Poland, since the political transformation and the introduction of capitalism in 1989, economic pressures have also affected the model of permanently-employed actors.

But Teatr KTO and many other companies have successfully navigated these changes and maintain their core group of performers and their large repertoire of touring shows. Teatr KTO regularly perform four outdoor shows (in addition to many more indoor productions). I have seen all four, and they all display this fundamental quality and distinctiveness. Regular audiences at Bell Square will remember their visit in 2022 with Peregrinus, an extraordinary depiction of a single day in the life of the contemporary ‘everyman’ in which it is so easy to become subsumed in capitalist and corporate cultures.

The show on Saturday, Arcadia, is equally distinctive but very different to Peregrinus. It is a look at the big moments of life – new arrivals, starting school, leaving home, weddings, having children (new arrivals again), getting old, and funerals – and how we reflect on them. It’s a strong show, very poignant at times, but also with lots of humour.

These comments from a review of Arcadia by Piotr Gaszczyński describe beautifully the strengths of the show and how they come directly from this strong tradition of Polish theatre making:

The strength of KTO’s latest premiere is the group. The team creating “Arcadia” works like a well-oiled machine.

“Arcadia” is a short, intense spectacle that breaks the viewers out of the traditional reception of a theatrical performance.

Come and see for yourself at Bell Square on Saturday. The performance is at 2.00 pm. As always, it’s free, no need to book, and everybody’s welcome.

Hope to see you there!