Oubliette

Tickets
Address ul. Krakowska 41, Kraków
Entry 60 PLN
Venue's website teatrnowy.com.pl
Length 45 min
Director Karol Miękina
Release 2022
Author Karol Miękina

Performing: Karol Miękina, Dominik Olechowski, Damian Rusyn, Sebastian Szul

An oubliette is a type of dungeon constructed like a bottle, in which the only escape route is through an opening high above the isolation area. Without external interference, it is impossible to get out of this type of cell. In medieval times, it was a cruel punishment, strongly affecting the inmate's psyche by literally putting them in a no-win situation and taking away any hope of regaining their freedom.

Four men condemned to immortality meet in the same dimension, in the punishment cell of the future, where human consciousness is enslaved, where the self is embedded in a virtual reality. The world of the protagonists is a kind of surreal prison, where the laws of physics do not apply, existence has no end and the way to break free is unknown to anyone. They create a specific society based on the illusion of their own bodies left to them and their memories of the real world. The infinite space in which they are imprisoned is a workshop of forced labour, in which they constantly strive to solve the riddle of the matter around them and to regain their freedom and their longed-for humanity. They subject each other to unusual experiments aimed at achieving a desired but in reality unattainable goal, and their actions have varying effects on the functioning of the virtual system.

The performance Oubliette is inspired by the history of penalisation, imprisonment, systems of discipline and punishment, and execution as a performance 'acting on the body'. The performance is a story about the enslavement of both body and mind and the web of compulsions, renunciations, obligations and prohibitions. It is a tale of aimless and futile effort, of endless and predetermined hardship, but at the same time of immense hope and constant motivation. The world depicted is also meant to express visually the inner perception and condition of the lonely man.

concept and choreography: Karol Miękina
set and costume design: Katarzyna Jazienicka
lights: Wojciech Kiwacz

This performance will be presented in Polish with no surtitles.

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