Power Play
If we are lucky, we are born queens or kings, with adults responding to our every gesture. We discover our power through crying, screaming, or an endearing smile; yet as we grow older, sooner or later we begin to experience our own powerlessness in the world around us, both near and far.
“Power Play” is a work made by children and adults that is not about childhood. Instead it explores the performativity and slipperiness of adulthood. In this encounter, children share the stage with the actors of TR Warszawa. They taste power; delight in its sweet seduction and confront its fragility, terror and ultimate betrayal. The script departs from improvisations between the cast and takes inspiration from “King Matt the First” — a groundbreaking children’s novel by Janusz Korczak, where a ten-year-old boy suddenly becomes king and attempts to correct the mistakes of adults.
At a time when political leaders are increasingly behaving like “children”, what does it mean to rethink the binaries between the child and the grown-up? “Power Play” asks: how is raising a child any different from raising a society? How do we allow children to remain “innocent and free” and who pays the price for this freedom? And, if “adulthood” is the greatest performance of all, then who better to learn from than a cast of professional adult actors?
Presented by TR Warszawa, Poland
concept and direction: Samara Hersch
script: Samara Hersch, Szymon Adamczak, Marta Keil, Solomon Thomas
The script incorporates improvisations from the entire cast —both children and adults.
dramaturgy: Szymon Adamczak
dramaturgy, curation: Marta Keil
associate artist and video direction: Solomon Thomas
set design and costumes: Marta Szypulska
set design and costumes collaboration: Natalia Dziarczykowska
lighting design: Jędrzej Jęcikowski
music: Karol Nepelski
concept collaboration: Aaron Orzech
costumes and props by: Marta Szypulska, Natalia Dziarczykowska, Wiktor Droszcz, Oliwia Repczyńska, Hanna Rosińska, and Julia Wasilewska
illustration (part of the tent interior) by: Marta Szypulska, Natalia Dziarczykowska, Apolonia Chmielewska, and Zbyszek Chmielewski
rehearsal translation and support: Kasia Kania
educational support during the process: Katarzyna Batarowska
assistant director: Wojciech Sobolewski
stage manager: Małgorzata Krawczyk
head of production: Magda Igielska
image used as the base for the poster: Patryk Różycki
drawing that inspired the poster: Aurelia Pawlak
photos: Adrian Lach
technical manager: Michał Golasa
deputy technical manager: Andrii Pogorielovsound engineers: Piotr Domiński, Jerzy Szelewicz
video engineer, camera operator in Act 1: Maciej Kaczyński
lighting engineer: Jędrzej Jęcikowski
make-up artist: Dominika Zatońska
wardrobe assistants: Ela Kołtonowicz, Urszula Musiał Kozłowska
propman: Mariusz Basiak
decoration constructor, welder: Tomasz Ciężarekstage crew: Łukasz Winkowski – crew chief, Marcin Puanecki, Tomasz Trojanowski, Mateusz Bożym, Paweł Iwaniuk
carpenter: Tadeusz Tomaszewski
The performance is created within the program line “Who does the theatre belong to?”, curated by Marta Keil.
