Author and Director: Simon Mol
Length: 1 hour
Actors:
Exile Masters (Theatre group of the Association of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Poland - Actors are drawn from over seven different countries)
Inspired by the poem the ‘Stand-still Moment’ this mystical, musical spectacle shows ‘the beauty and bestiality of a city’ through the combination of Caucasian, Oriental and African dances. Well knitted together, these cross-cultural ingredients rightly portray ‘Happiness and Grief’ as natural human legacies, irrespective of race or culture. Above all, the entire play displays the runs that the human emotional mechanism experiences in the course of incarnation.
By the use of traditional wrestling, the author introduces ‘Death’ unexpectedly in the height of happiness in a ‘Nightclub’. At this point the scale tilts entirely to the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. ‘Death; the unavoidable’, is the ‘Common Mark’.
With the introduction of this part, the play takes on a more metaphysical dimension. In chronological order the actors revoke consolation through what the human psyche understands best in the face of disaster; vocal reaction through singing. Here, the human psyche is felt in action. Spiced by poetry that suits the subject, and with the aid of special lighting effects and other theatrical paraphernalia, the message which the author hopes to pass ultimately reaches the audience. The humanistic property of the play is evident from start to finish. This makes it easier for the audience to identity with all the emotional elements that the play evokes.
Sumarising the play as a ‘humanistic spectacle’ won’t be at all wrong. A member of the audience, who watched the premier of the play at the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, sums her feelings: “The real and deep piece of truth about each of us
you can't read it if you are not strong enough to change yourself...
I wasn't aware that I was crying during this performance...
thanks for this standstill moment which made me think about one key-thing - what's the most important in my life.”
Comments