PLACE: Proxima New Theater, Cracow
TYPE OF PROJECT: theatrical performance
FUNCTION: director, stage designer
OTHER CREATORS:
Text: Weronika Murek Video: Tomasz Schaefer Music arrangement, arrangements: Paweł Harańczyk Cast: Katarzyna Chlebny
PREMIERE: June 2022
DESCRIPTION OF THE SHOW:
One hundred and fifty years ago, policemen broke into a cell in the Krakow convent of the Discalced Carmelites, near today’s Kopernika Street. The bare walls, a bricked-up window, straw and feces scattered on the floor – and in this „scenography” a starved naked woman. Barbara Ubryk spent twenty years in these conditions.It was accepted to think of her as mentally ill, but what was it really like? Perhaps the illness appeared as a result of years of isolation? Why – despite unequivocal evidence incriminating the Carmelite nuns – was the investigation into her case discontinued? And finally – why are the archives of the Carmelite nuns of Krakow still closed?The story of the incapacitated and isolated woman shocked Poland at the time and reverberated around the world. Despite the passage of years, the topic proves to be still relevant. The question of what goes on in the head of a woman doomed to exclusion remains open….Katarzyna Chlebny – best known for her magnetic Macabra Dolorosa – once again tackles a controversial, not easy subject.