Here I am: Beautiful and FamousMichał Borczuch has debuted at the TR Warszawa theatre with his vision of Dorian Gray as an icon of pop culture. This play is one for the dandies. It is about the problems of a niche group of people, using methods that only a niche group of people will understand. "I'm not a victim, I'm a celebrity," notes the nymph in Lulu, Borczuch's famed play from the Stary Theatre in Krakow. This is exactly what Dorian Gray could have said in the new play from TR Warszawa. Perhaps even the director would agree to this statement. Ths theatrical market seems to have in Borczuch another idol of the "new generation" of directors, besides people like Natali Korczakowska, Monika Strzępka, Wiktor Rubin and Michał Zadara, who usually have nothing in common beyond their relative youth and the fact that they are celebrities.«Was the new directing star tempted to portray himself in the character of Dorian Gray? The play seems very personal because it is all about the "famous and beautiful" in Warsaw. Maybe it's about only the artists from the TR Warszawa theatre? In any case, the story of this young person who managed to maintain his freshness and his beauty thanks to the parciular nature of the portrait is met with many problematics that have had their place in Polish theatre for quite some time now.
The play features motives that we've previously seen in other works such as Zarathustra, Factory 2 as well as in the recent TEOREMAT. Namely - the quest for the modern Overman. The Idol. A being who is forever young, attractive and photogenic. Somehow who we could project our hopes upon, as well as our dreams and frustrations. People who live beautiful lives for us, because we are incapable of doing so.
Paradoxically, what is most interesting here is not so much the aesthetics, the camp, or the kitch, but the underlying ethics of the play (which are opposed to those of Oscar Wilde) that are fascinating. The cruelty of Dorian moves us. The fate of his victims is moving. Harry's theories outrage us. Wilde sounds like a soul-mate of Nietzsche in his monologues. There is a kind of maximalist approach to ideas here, a need to reach the "authentic" self, moving beyond the mean. Wilde's characters collected beautiful moments. They would have enjoyed this play because there are many beautiful scenes in it. And even less of an attempt to give those scenes any higher meaning.» |
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