Performance “Ubu The King” | Poland | ŁÓDŹ PREMIERE
Creators: Coincidentia Group, CHOREA Theatre
Text: Alfred Jarry
Direction, stage design: Konrad Dworakowski
Music: Piotr Klimek
Costumes, stage design: Marika Wojciechowska
Lighting and sound design: Bogdan Kasperuk
Cast: Siarhei Artsiomenka, Janusz Adam Biedrzycki, Joanna Chmielecka, Paweł Chomczyk, Konrad Dworakowski, Dagmara Sowa
Production: Coincidentia Group, CHOREA Theatre
Producers: Dagmara Sowa (Coincidentia Group), Ola Shaya (CHOREA Theatre)
Partner: Solniki 44 Culture Habitat
Premiere: August 8, 2025, Solniki 44 Culture Habitat / August 9, 2025, 8th International Theatre Festival in the Forest “Las Fest”
Date: August 21, 2025 | Thursday
Date: August 22, 2025 | Friday
Time: 7 pm
Place: Stage, Art Factory in Łódź, 3 Tymienieckiego Street
Tickets: 40 PLN - early bird / 70 PLN - reduced / 90 PLN - regular
Ticket sales: kicket.com portal / online payment
Early bird tickets: on sale until July 13, 2025
Regular and reduced tickets: on sale from July 14, 2025
Duration: 100 minutes
Age Restrictions: 15+
Language: Polish
Content Warning: vulgar language, scenes of violence, scenes of a sexual nature, scenes related to human physiological functions, causing disgust, appear in the performance
After the performance, on August 22, 2025, around 8:30 pm, we invite the viewers to a meeting and discussion with the artists.
The discussion will take place in the Foyer of the Art Factory in Lodz.
The discussion will be led by Tomasz Domagała.
The discussion will be held in Polish.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
The political situation and the historical context of the world have become particularly sensitive and vibrant. The TODAY seems to be dangerous and unpredictable. Again, usurpers and tyrants have run rampant. And although those we know are now quite grown-up individuals playing in their sandboxes, new ones await in the hatcheries....
We are used to it... Wait, what does it mean by "we are used to it…"? Why do we like it so much and allow ourselves to be deluded by tyrants, by political stunts, by psychopaths. In the name of natural historical selection?
Our performance is created in a language that aspires to reinvent itself using the genotype given to it by the two theatres that co-created the project, Coincidentia Group and CHOREA Theatre. Our linguistic DNA will therefore include the chromosomes of theatre of form, puppet theatre and radical punk rock theatre, prone to literalism and caricature, as well as movement theatre with its metaphors and poetics, able to narrate between words using the body and music. Live music is also part of this language, extending the theatre formula with a concert component.
Our intention is to make a radical gesture through theatre of form - juicy and driven by experimentation. Bold and committed. Alfred Jarry - the author and adopted father of the idea (adopted without explicit consent, as he died young in 1907), who caused unrest in his time with his work - is our inspiration and matchless model.
Content Warning...? Vulgar language, truth, filth, hideous politics, protagonists' social insensitivity, perverse means of expression, lack of seriousness, absolute ignorance of aesthetics, fondness for excrement, pornographic attitude to the world, handling stolen goods, pimping, set-ups, crimes, murders, punching each other, drinking each other away, drinking away sorrows, and such...
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Coincidentia Group - a freelance theatre, founded in 2009 by Dagmara Sowa and Paweł Chomczyk, both graduates of the Białystok Puppet Art Department of the Theatre Academy. Coincidentia has produced over a dozen performances in collaboration with artists such as: Michael Vogel, Łukasz Kos, Christiane Zanger, Paweł Aigner, Michał Walczak, Robert Jarosz, Christoph Bochdansky, Paweł Passini, Robert Drobniuch, Konrad Dworakowski. Coincidentia's shows have been presented at numerous festivals in Europe, Asia and North America and have been honored with many awards, including: The Bank of Scotland Herald Angel, Total Theatre Award Edinburgh, Grand Prix of the Konteksty Festival in Poznań, the Grand Prix of the MFTL in Toruń. The focus of Coincidentia's interest is the contemporary theatre of many means of expression, with particular emphasis on puppet theatre. Coincidentia collaborates on a permanent basis with the German independent Lindenfels Westfluegel scene in Leipzig and the Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel. The performances of Grupa Coincidentia were hosted at over one hundred festivals and dozens of guest stages in Poland and abroad. Coincidentia twice took first place in the annual summaries of the Theatre Institute in Warsaw as the Polish theatre most often touring abroad. The Group's performances have been honored with over forty awards, distinctions and nominations. In the annual summaries “The best of the season” by “Theatre” magazine, the Group's performances have been mentioned several times. Coincidentia's performances have qualified four times in the finals of the “Teatr Polska” programme of the Theatre Institute in Warsaw. In 2016 Coincidentia established Siedlisko Kultury Solniki 44 - an independent cultural centre located in the forest of the Podlasie Region. The activities of Solniki 44 so far have resulted in dozens of theatre performances, including several world premieres, artistic and educational workshops, works in progress, concerts, and panel discussions. Solniki 44 has been visited by crowds of viewers. The centre initiated LasFest - International Theatre Festival in the Forest and LasKids - a festival for child audiences. Both festivals include the most interesting offerings of independent theatres, laboratory works, concerts, student shows, meetings with artists, film screenings and unconventional events combining art with nature.
CHOREA Theatre - a thriving, uncountable and unpredictable group of artists, performers, musicians, dancers, actors, practitioners, theatre and drama theorists. They create interdisciplinary artistic, educational and social projects: concerts, workshops and performances. They employ innovative, original work methods, going beyond the cultural mainstream. They direct their work, projects, actions and activities to: adults, youth and children, those who are regular theatre-goers, those with limited access to art, and those looking for alternative cultural initiatives. They put emphasis on team-building, joint cooperation, partnership, group dynamics, interrelations, the awareness of body, voice and musicality in their work.
The group has developed its own training technique, which involves working with the body, voice, and rhythm, as well as working with a partner and in a group. A key aspect of CHOREA’s method is teamwork - the ability to collaborate in a laboratory-like setting - while ensuring that the group's interest does not overshadow an individual's uniqueness. The aim of the method is to explore the substance of movement, sound, and word, combined into an integral whole, by breaking away from traditional ways of illustrating their mutual relationships. Awakening the entire body and intense training creates a stage presence that reconnects all these elements. CHOREA collaborates with many groups and artists from Poland and around the world. The theatre has produced dozens of performances and concerts. CHOREA works with many individual, experienced and renowned artists, as well as with amateurs, students, volunteers, people full of curiosity about the world, seekers, and active individuals. Under the theatre's umbrella operates: the Intergenerational Theatre Group, and the Youth and Children's Theatre Groups. The group regularly conducts a series of theatre and music workshops in Poland and around the world. Since 2010, CHOREA has been organising the International Theatre Festival “Retroperspektywy” (“Retrospectives”). In 2015, the theatre released the album “Lulabajki” (“Lullabies”) with music for both children and adults. In 2016, in collaboration with the Filmschool in Łódź and the National Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw, CHOREA created the handbook “Actors' physical training. From individual to group actions”. In 2020, CHOREA Theatre held the online premiere of the album “Gilgamesz”, featuring music by Tomasz Krzyżanowski. In 2023, CHOREA recorded the album “Livet” (“Life”), a contemporary suite for the Earth, composed and arranged by Piotr Klimek, inspired by traditional songs from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, and Norway.
Project co-produced by Coincidentia Group and CHOREA Theatre.
Project financed from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, from the Culture Promotion Fund - a state special-purpose fund.
Project financed from the funds of the City of Białystok.
Project financed from the funds of the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
Project financed from the funds of the City of Łódź.
Project realized in cooperation with the Solniki 44 Cultural Habitat.
