Fear

The project was developed under the brand Młody TR (Young TR), which TR Warszawa uses to support the development of talented young artists. As the title suggests, Małgorzata Wdowik decided to make a play about fear, and about our ways of experiencing the ever more common anxieties. Fear grabs you before you bat an eye. Your breath quickens. Hands sweat. Body goes rigid. Time slows to a halt.

The director’s initial assumption was that discussing fear could not exhaust the subject if only words were used. This is why the audience must be presented the sensations accompanying fear. That makes the sonic and visual aspect important, as they are most strongly combined with the fears, and anxieties experienced by the young generation.

Anxieties meld with images, sounds, and fragrances more strongly than the story of the horrible event itself. This is how the experience of a group of actors, performing mostly in darkness, is built.

The groundwork for the script were folktales, motifs from pop culture, family memories, and political experience. They make the protagonists veer from fantasy to nightmare, where the fight for your fear, rather than a sense of stability, becomes crucial. It is under the pressure of that fear that they act, even worse: often not realising that. Whether in the society or in the family, fear is also an element of policy-making. Anxiety disciplines an individual, and makes them toe the line for the fear of the nightmare that may only be imagined returning, and yet it denotes stepping over the permitted border.

The sonic layer of the production is exceptionally important, as the audience watch it with headsets on, receiving an especially prepared audio layer.

The play makes use of a paraphrase of an excerpt from Ludwik Starski’s “Ach śpij kochanie” [Oh, Sleep, my Darling], and “Babylon Lullaby” translated by Jacek Telenga.

Directed by: Małgorzata Wdowik

Text: Robert Bolesto

Dramaturgy: Joanna Ostrowska

Set Design: Tomasz Mróz

Costume and Video Design: Dominika Olszowy

Lights Director: Aleksandr Prowaliński

Sound Director: Katarzyna Szczerba

Choreography Consultant: Ramona Nagabczyńska

Dobromir Dymecki, Monika Frajczyk, Cezary Kosiński, Piotr Trojan, Agnieszka Żulewska