Gdyby można umówić się na wino ze swoim Aniołem Stróżem,
gdyby można zagrać partię szachów z Diabłem odpowiedzialnym
za nasze pokuszenie,gdyby można było zajrzeć, powiedzmy
w jakiś jesienny wieczór, do Bibliotekarza,
który posiada egzemplarz naszego losu,
to czy wszystko odbyłoby się tak jak się odbywa?
A jeżeli dodać do tego spełnienie wróżby,
czy też chybiona przepowiednię,
szklana kulę albo złotą rybkę?
A kartki z pamiętnika, gdzie pisaliśmy przyszłość,
a sztuczki dzięki którym zyskujemy to, czego zyskać nie możemy?
Gdyby to wszystko było, czy byłoby inaczej?
A jeśli los jest sprawiedliwy, choć wiadomo, że nie jest?
A jeśli kalejdoskop zdarzeń przeglądamy nie mając na względzie
jakiegoś drobnego błędu, przeoczenia, uprzedzenia lub czegoś jeszcze?
I gdy leżymy na łożu, wiadomo jakim,
czyż Ona nie mogłaby być piękna?
I mówić do nas z półotwartymi oczami,
że jest tak i tak,
a tak i tak nie jest?
Czy mogłaby nie być bolesna i przykrą?
I w końcu, którego przecież nie ma:
On.
Czy mógłby być taki,
jakiego w niego wierzymy
albo nie wierzymy.
Ale zawsze taki i i jednak być?
Bardziej pogodny i niefrasobliwy niż jest lub nie jest?
I tak poukładamy sprawy,
gdy gwiazdy wróżyły nam przyszłość nie mającą sobie równej przyszłości.
Bo to my jesteśmy Lampartami
i z naszych oczu przeziera dzikość,
którą nazywamy wolnością.
Images that emerge from total darkness, sketched only by a small shaft of light are a speciallity of Katowice's Teatr Cogitatur. They surprise the viewer suddenly appearing just next to their face and enchant the audience by the picturesque form of successive scenes. Accordingly, their performances can be perceived on two planes. the first is the subjective pleasure of pictures which appear in front of us from darkness and chaos. The second is the message of these original author's performances.
This applies to the performance "Tribute to Expressionists" written and directed by Witold Izdebski. Its heroes are "artistic souls" living in one tenement. They live abundantly, but, in accordance with their beliefs, when they reach the border beyond which there is only emptiness, they finish their lives without any regrets.
That's their way of denying sense in existence. They create art that breaks with the existing standards, struggling - at the beginning of the XXth century - with all the baggage of the previous one.
Thanks to the interesting staging we almost enter the experiences of the heroes of this play. We watch four rooms, inhabited by people who have been broken by life, we watch their journies. We start to understand their decisions and problems, shown in a touching way. Katarzyna Mrozinska-Izdebska, Maciej Dziaczko, Marek Radwan and Piotr Wegrzynski act in really interesting way, with a kind of extraordinary internal power (expressed especially by Katarzyna Mrozinska-Izdebska). the atmosphere of "Tribute to Expressionists" is created also by the music written by Tomasz Kalwak.
When the heroes finish their lives, the audience, stunned and at the same time fascinated by the decadence watch the stage in silence. not until they shake themselves free from the meditation there is a storm of applause, for this great performance.
"Trybuna Slaska - Dzien"
(...)
The newest performance of Teatr Cogitatur of Katowice is not the continuation of "Four Dreams of Hoelderin", but it could be the fifth dream of this character...
The performance's title may suggest relation to the particular style in the art. But, although this kind of association can be find in the performance (it is mostly about the artists), the play evokes many other assassinations as well. Like a stone thrown into water it causes more and more distant and wider circles. This is the story about all the people who, in spite of the circumstances, wanted, want and probably will wont to touch every side, every aspect of life, not only the joyful one but also this one that involves alcohol, tragic love, drugs, and also the torment of creation., generated by the contact with art nirvana and finally - the death. There is sensuality and the emotional tension in the author's vision of Witold Izdebski (script and direction). The pictures of four little rooms, somewhere in one of the artists' and poor people' district of Paris, appear and vanish, absorbing the heroes. Sometimes there are pictures without words, when only props and music inform about different temporal planes. But, at the same time, the train to Skarzysko appears, train full of drunk losers, who measure the beauty of life with the glass of cheap wine. And sometimes panic escape from something, somebody, oneself. Or "the pure situation", like a fragment of unpleasant reminiscence, unpleasant but authentic. The music composed by Tomasz Kalwak join these forms and scenes in one in great way, being illustrative and absolutely universal.
"Dziennik Zachodni"
(...)
The last premiere staged in Teatr Cogitatur leaves the audience alone with the questions about the sense of life. The author's performance was built of the great emotions - emotions generated be the actors and emotions arising among the audience as well. "Tribute to Expressionists" impresses with carefully planned staging. The tenement where the characters live, the scenes with the barge, dwarf, the giant woman with the human beings who vanish at the gate are really magical moments when the audience is in the power of theatrical magic. The atmosphere is created also by the music written by Tomasz Kalwak, by the excellent way of using light and the dramatical effect of darkness. The tribute in the performance's tittle is suppose to focus the attention on people who are able to live strongly and unable to pretend anything.
"Zielona Gazeta"