TR Warszawa with Sarah Kane's, 4:48 Psychosis at St. Ann's Warehouse in NY

St. Ann’s Warehouse, Dumbo, BROOKLYN, NY, Oct 16 - 26, 2014

New York, September 17, 2014 - The Polish Cultural Institute New York, in partnership with St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw are proud to present 4:48 Psychosis—the last work by English playwright Sarah Kane. Adapted and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, one of Poland’s most prominent theater directors, the play is a monologue by a young woman suffering from terminal depression. It was first staged at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at The Royal Court Theatre in London 18 months after the author’s suicide, and has been described as Kane’s personal confession and testament. The Royal Court production had its American Premiere at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

It is a beautifully sculpted production, eloquently lit by Felice Ross on Małgorzata Szczęśniak’s depressing, institutional set, and driven by a superb, lacerating performance from Magdalena Cielecka, who unravels before your eyes. -- Sarah Hemming, FINANCIAL TIMES

4:48 Psychosis is continuation of successful collaboration between the PCI and St. Ann’s Warehouse -TR Warszawa’s Macbeth (Makbet) was presented in 2008 and Festen (Uroczystość) in 2012.

Fot. Stefan Okołowicz, courtesy of TR Warszawa

Jarzyna’s adaptation is a powerful narrative created by cutting and reassembling Kane’s written text, projecting an unsettling vision that gives a bleak insight into a profoundly tormented mind. Lyn Gardner from The Guardian observed that the main character is “made all the more potent by Małgorzata Szczęśniak's eerie hospital design, a soundscape that offers the almost industrial boom of a heart inside your chest and a crooner singing When I Fall in Love, the latter an ironic counterpoint to the central character's constant pleas to be loved. Felice Ross's lighting is extraordinary, too, creating tunnels and puddles of illumination in this malicious Alice in Wonderland nightmare […] not to mention Magdalena Cielecka's central performance - so fierce and fiery that even when she has been swallowed by the light, you feel you can still glimpse her scorched image somewhere in the shadows.” Periodic video projections of numbers flood the stage and add to the general feeling of anxiety: a repeated motif of counting down from 100 in sevens, an exercise used by psychiatrists to test a patient's sanity.

Grzegorz Jarzyna - Artistic Director of TR Warszawa, theater director. Since his debut in 1997, Grzegorz Jarzyna has been counted among the most important stage directors in Poland. His work has revolutionized Polish theatre and has received widespread international recognition. In 1998 he became Artistic Director of the Warsaw based Teatr Rozmaitości which he turned into TR Warszawa-one of the most innovative and progressive theaters in Europe. Jarzyna has staged classical dramas reinterpreted in a bold and innovative way (The Tropical Craze based two plays by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Magnetism of the Heart based on Aleksander Fredro’s Maiden Vows), adaptations of famous European novels (Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, The Prince Myshkin based on Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot), world-famous contemporary dramas (Unidentified Human Remains by Brad Fraser, Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis staged in Warsaw and Düsseldorf), as well as operas (Prokofiev’s The Gambler at the Opera de Lyon, Maurice Ravel’s The Child and the Enchantments and Alexander Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf at the Bavarian State Opera). He is renowned for combining different art forms and genres, which is reflected in such performances as 2008: Macbeth - a movie-like adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama which takes place in four different sets or Giovanni based on Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Moliere’s Don Juan - a performance combining theater and opera. He has authored several adaptations: two plays, Medea Project and Areteia, and two librettos: for Zygmunt Krauze’s Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy and The Trap. He has also directed TV versions of his performances: The Tropical Craze, 2007: Macbeth and most recently No Matter How Hard We Tried as well as a TV theater drama, History According to Gombrowicz. His last performances at TR Warszawa include the award winning plays T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T., based on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s work, and No Matter How Hard We Tried by Dorota Masłowska, which premiered in Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin as well as Nosferatu inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Jarzyna’s international reputation results in numerous invitations to stage guest performances in Europe and all over the world. Among others, he participated in the Odyssey Europe project developed within the framework of The European Capital of Culture RUHR 2010 staging his adaptation of Odyssey - Areteia at the Schauspiel Essen. The same year, he directed Jean Racine’s Phaedra at the Toneelgroep Theatre in Amsterdam. He has traveled with TR Warszawa to Avignon, Edinburgh, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Jerusalem, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Stockholm, Paris, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Adelaide, Wellington, and Hong Kong. In June 2008, his Macbeth was staged at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York, where a special stage was built under the Brooklyn Bridge and in 2012 the same play opened the Edinburgh Festival.

Magdalena Cielecka (b. 1972 in Myszków, Poland) is one of Poland’s most recognizable film and theater actresses. As a student at the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Krakow, she made her stage debut in Gabriela Zapolska’s The Four of Them (Ich czworo, 1992) at Krakow’s Stary Teatr. Her film debut came in Barbara Sass’s Temptation (Pokuszenie, 1995), playing Sister Anna, a performance for which she received Poland’s highest acting prize at the 20th Polish Film Festival in Gdansk. She has acted in the repertory companies of some of Poland’s most respected theaters, including the Stary Teatr (1995-2001), TR Warszawa (2001-2007), and currently Warsaw’s Nowy Teatr under the direction of Krzysztof Warlikowski. Cielecka became established professionally in the 1990s, performing onstage in plays such as Witold Gombrowicz’s Operetta (Operetka, 1995) and Edward Bond’s Saved (1996), directed by the Israeli director Gadi Roll. She also made a name for herself on television, in classics such as Juliusz Słowacki’s Father Marek (Ksiądz Marek, 1998) as well as modern plays such as Witold Gombrowicz’s History (Historia, 1999) and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s The Hot Breath of the Desert (Gorący oddech pustyni, 1999). She became best-known, however, for her roles working under the famous Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna at Teatr Rozmaitosci, later known as TR Warszawa. Her performances in plays such as Gombrowicz’s Play (Sztuka, 1997) Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains (1998) made her internationally renowned, and in 2012 she came to New York to perform as Pia in Festen by Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov.

She has won awards most recently for her performances as Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2003), Stella in Harold Pinter’s The Collection (2007) and a Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2008 for her performances as Ariel in An-ski’s The Dybbuk and Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis, arguably her most powerful and harrowing performance to date.

This American Premiere is made possible by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Adam Mickiewicz Institute and The Polish Cultural Institute New York. The production is co-financed with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Additional support is provided by NoraLee and Jon Sedmak.

THE PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Oct 16, 2014 Thursday 8pm
Oct 17, 2014 Friday 8pm
Oct 18, 2014 Saturday 8pm
Oct 19, 2014 Sunday 5pm
Oct 21, 2014 Tuesday 8pm
Oct 22, 2014 Wednesday 8pm
Oct 23, 2014 Thursday 8pm
Oct 24, 2014 Friday 8pm
Oct 25, 2014 Saturday 8pm
Oct 26, 2014 Sunday 5pm

WHAT: 4:48 PSYCHOSIS
WHEN: Thu, Oct 16 - Sun, Oct 26, 2014
WHERE: St. Ann’s Warehouse, 29 Jay St, New York, NY 11201; (718) 254-8779
TICKETS: General admission: tickets start at $30, BOX OFFICE­ 718.254.87­79­
Tuesday - Saturday, 1pm - 7pm
TRANSPORTATION: Subway: F to York Street ; A and C to High Street; 2 and 3 to Clark Street. Bus: B25 to the corner of Front Street and York Street
MORE INFORMATION: www.polishculture-nyc.org.

THE POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE NEW YORK, The Polish Cultural Institute New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission to the United States serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
The Institute’s mission is to build, nurture, and promote cultural exchange between the United States and Poland by presenting Polish culture to American audiences and by connecting Polish artists, researchers and scholars from various fields to American institutions, introducing them to their professional counterparts in the United States, and facilitating their participation in contemporary American culture.

The Institute produces and promotes a broad range of cultural events in theater, performance, dance, music, film, visual arts, literature, and the humanities. Among its past and present American partners are such distinguished organizations as Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish Museum, PEN American Center, the Poetry Society of America, YIVO, the National Gallery of Art, Yale University, 92nd Street Y, Columbia University, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Princeton University, the Harvard Film Archive, the CUNY Graduate Center, the Julliard School of Music, Film Forum, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Morgan Library & Museum, Anthology Film Archives, The Santa Fe Opera, the New Museum, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Symphony Space, the New York Public Library, the Cinefamily, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Kennedy Center, and many more.

Our programs have included American presentations of works by such a wide range of distinguished artists, including filmmakers Agnieszka Holland, Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi, Jerzy Skolimowski, Małgorzata Szumowska and Andrzej Żuławski; poets and authors Wisława Szymborska, Czesław Miłosz, Adam Zagajewski, Zbigniew Herbert, Tadeusz Różewicz, Ryszard Kapuściński, Stanisław Lem, Witold Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz; composers Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Mieczysław Weinberg, Andrzej Panufnik, Witold Lutosławski, Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki andPaweł Mykietyn; theater directors Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Grotowski, Krystian Lupa, Grzegorz Jarzyna and Krzysztof Warlikowski; visual artists Alina Szapocznikow, Mirosław Bałka, Katarzyna Kozyra, Paweł Althamer, Edward Krasiński, Zofia Kulik, Józef Robakowski, Zbigniew Libera, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Magdalena Abakanowicz; and many other Polish researchers and scholars, public intellectuals, and social and cultural activists. www.PolishCulture-NYC.org

For 34 years, ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE has commissioned, produced, and presented a unique and eclectic body of innovative theater and concert presentations that meet at the intersection of theater and rock and roll. Since 2000, the organization has helped vitalize the Brooklyn Waterfront in DUMBO, where St. Ann’s Warehouse has become one of New York City’s most important and compelling live performance destinations. Among the many acclaimed St. Ann’s productions include Lou Reed and John Cale’s Songs for Drella; Marianne Faithfull’s Blazing Away and The Seven Deadly Sins; Artistic Director Susan Feldman’s Band in Berlin; Carter Burwell, Charlie Kaufman, and the Coen Brothers’ Theater of the New Ear; The Royal Court Theatre’s4:48 Psychosis; The Wooster Group’s Hamlet, The Emperor Jones, House/Lights, To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre); The Globe Theatre’s Measure for Measure; Gate Theatre London’s Woyzeck; Antony’s Turning; Mabou Mines' Dollhouse; Lou Reed’s Berlin; Cynthia Hopkins’ Accidental Trilogy; Les Freres Corbusier’s Hell House; Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce, The New Electric Ballroom, and Penelope (Druid Theatre) and Misterman with Cillian Murphy; TR Warszawa's Macbeth, Risk Everything, and FESTEN (The Celebration); The National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch and Beautiful Burnout; Kneehigh Theatre’s Brief Encounter and The Wild Bride; Young@Heart/No Theater’s End of the Road; the American debut of Daniel Kitson: The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church and It’s Always Right Now Until It’s Later; Yael Farber's Mies Julie (Baxter Theatre); Dmitry Krymov's Opus No. 7; and Donmar Warehouse's all-female Julius Caesar. www.stannswarehouse.org

The ADAM MICKIEWICZ INSTITUTE (Instytut Adama Mickiewicza) is a government-sponsored organization funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. Named for Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz, its goal is to promote the Polish language and Polish culture abroad. The Institute operates a bilingual Polish-English portal called "Culture.pl" created in 2001. www.culture.pl