Faithless

Wiarołomna
  • direction: Hana Umeda
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NNEW SITUATIONS STAGE – PREMIERE: 24 JUNE 2022
Zegar65 MIN

The performance is an autobiographical reckoning by director Hana Umeda with her experience of religiosity shaped by the Family of the Nazareth Movement. Based on the idea of entrusting one's life to Mary, the spirituality of the Movement placed special emphasis on obedience and mystical union with God. In 2009, due to allegations of cult-like behavior, the community underwent reform. The performance is a public "confession of losing faith," raising the question of the effectiveness of the act of apostasy.

Cast

Creators

  • direction: Hana Umeda
  • text: Weronika Murek, Hana Umeda
  • dramaturgy: Daria Kubisiak
  • choreography: Katarzyna Sitarz
  • music: Olga Mysłowska
  • costumes: Marta Szypulska
  • light direction: Aleksandr Prowaliński
  • assistant director: Maria Dąbrowska
  • stage manager: Magdalena Kaźmierska

The performance includes video work by Jagoda Valkov from the series "Happy Sins."

The performance incorporates excerpts from archival recordings of conferences by Father Andrzej Buczel and Father Tadeusz Dajczer, training materials from the Family of the Nazareth Movement's "Towards the New Evangelization," and the document "Act of Consecration to the Mother of God for the Exclusive Service of the Church."

Premiere as part of the artistic residency New Situations Stage.

Theatrical Podcast: God doesn't exist, and even if he does, he's not a merciful God – a conversation with director Hana Umeda. Conversation in Polish

Plakat do spektaklu. Dziewczyna modląca się na łące.

Photo by Karolina Babinska, layout by Pełnia Studio

The artistic residency for the performance was tutored by Małgorzata Wdowik.

The project is being implemented with the support of the Polish-German Cooperation Foundation.

Logo of the Polish-German Foundation Cooperation


 

Reviews

  • „Faithful is about the trauma of coming into contact with an extreme, 'sectarian' faction within the Catholic Church, but also about how the Catholic Church, at least in Poland, treats children violently. (...) The result is an unpretentious, surprisingly light-hearted performance about terrible things”.
    – Witold Mrozek, Gazeta Wyborcza
  • „Faithful is devoid of pushy and moralistic ideology. With empathy and patience, it presents the natural stage of a crisis of faith. She does not attack, but tries to understand the situation of the victim-child, caught up against her will in the machinery of ecclesiastical abuse and manipulation. Looking at the wrongs in hindsight, Umeda gains distance and does not lose her humour. A daily practitioner of traditional Japanese dance, Jiutamai transfers, as it were, its ideas and principles to the performance formula. An aura of care and subtlety, compassion and tenderness hovers over the staging”.
    – Natalia Karpińska, Teatr dla Wszystkich

Multimedia

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