Katie’s Tales is the story of a woman and her lover who, after a terrible event, left her with the promise to come back, one day. It's the story of a garden, with an orchard of cherry trees.
Katie, together with a couple of foreign servants, lives protected in her garden, under the shade of her cherry trees, silent witnesses of her life and of History. Every day Katie receives visitors, every moment could bring the return of the one who left, and Katie keeps herself ready. With her stories and her silences, Katie tells us of desire, and of waiting, and of all that is never unsaid. She who waits is on a journey herself, on the road of her life sculpted in vivid frames, under the shade of the cherry trees thick with memories – a woman standing in front of History, face to her own lights and her own shadows, at the crossroad of past and future. The desire that Katie embodies invites us to question ourselves about where we belong, to ask ourselves questions about the role of our consciousness, in the deafening flow of events and in the confused whirlwind of desires.
Prof. Dariusz Kosiński, Jagiellonian University, Kraków:
“Katie's Tales is a complex and multi-layered meeting with Katie – a girl whose life’s experiences and fate are encapsulated in the songs. But Katie (in Polish: Kasia) is also the name of a crowd. It is traditionally used in Polish folk songs, poetry and tales, as a name of a female hero. Therefore, the encounter with Katie is a meeting with thousands of women whose experiences were excluded from and silenced by the heroic histories written and retold by men. Meeting them through and in the song means giving them back their voices, allowing us to hear them. In her work, Agnieszka Kazimierska transforms her solo performance into a fascinating dialogue with her Foremothers and – at the same time – her kinswomen.”
With Agnieszka Kazimierska (Poland) // Directed by Mario Biagini (Italy) // With traditional Polish songs // Duration: 55’ // Performance is in English, with subtitles // Production: Fondazione Teatro della Toscana / Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
VIDEO REGISTRATIONS
Short fragment of the performance: https://vimeo.com/537743567 password: KTfragment KATIE's TALES - Full video registration: https://vimeo.com/505216179 password: please contact us at agakazimierska@gmail.com
REVIEWS – ONLINE DOCUMENTATION
“...She passes over the stage like a light bird that jumps from branch to branch and sings: she touches objects, she touches her own past, assuming that there is a past, and not, instead her eternal ecstatic present…” --- Franco Acquaviva
“...One woman alone. Who masters the sense of "History" in relation to her personal history, and makes it filled with things unspoken, with songs, and with an almost "clandestine" embodied physicality, almost inviting the public (in a full room of attentive and silent spectators) to fall in love, as she does, with her lover. The stage space is as a fifth, not a fourth, wall of the theater: it allows us all to belong to each other, so as not to separate the audience from the stage with the artist…” --- Cristina T. Chiochia
“…But another suspicion also arises: that the beloved that Katie is waiting for is not exactly the man who left one day, but the superhuman echo of an invoked presence, in anticipation of which Katie spends her days. Thus, the packet of letters seems at a certain point to assume the value of a sacred writing that awaits completion; and the girl's words of love become words thrown into the void in anticipation of something which will fill with divinity the prosaic everyday in which she lives immersed. Because, in the end, that which leaps to one’s eyes, beyond everything, is the joy that permeates and at times erupts from the actress's slender body. How can such a pure feeling emerge from an actor's body, from its interior, in such a spring-like way?” --- Franco Acquaviva
Theater as examples of life and community. Italian examples. By Cristina T. Chiochia http://www.ticinolive.ch/2020/02/18/appartenersi-il-teatro-come-esperienza-di-vita-e-comunita-esempi-italiani/
KATIE'S TALES (le storie di Katie) - regia Mario Biagini. By Franco Acquaviva https://www.sipario.it/recensioniprosah/item/13050-katie-s-tales-le-storie-di-katie-regia-mario-biagini.html?fbclid=IwAR3SaS_FwdMugAiWhRQBIK5MboGfCLhugnOErkkKnbeXB1_9W99s_qA82iQ
CONTACT: Agnieszka Kazimierska, agakazimierska@gmail.com
LOGISTICS: Travel and accommodation for two people, 1 personal luggage, 1 or 2 pieces of technical luggage
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW: Space: classical proscenium stage with the performing space on one side and the audience on tiered risers on the other side, a room with good acoustic quality. Space dimensions: minimum 5,5 m deep, 5,5 m wide and 4m distance from the first raw of the audience. Capacity: approx. 150 people, depending on the space. Subtitles: a screen and equipment for the screening of the subtitles. Amplification: In case amplification is needed - a remote microphone of the type MKE 2 Gold sub-miniature omni-directional lavalier, of a bright color microphone will be needed, all the necessary sound amplification equipment and help of the technician. Additionally, a detailed performance technical sheet is available.
PHOTOS: Nikita Chuntomov and Renato Esposito
Credits:
Photo by Nikita Chuntomov.