American premiere of FESTEN rules New York
On the 20th of April Grzegorz Jarzyna's production Festen premiered in America. Shows in prestigous St. Ann's Warehouse in New York (20-29 April) have been met with enthusiastic reception by both - the audience and critics.
In TR Warszawa’s viscerally charged production of FESTEN [The Celebration]…you may expect both many unhappy returns and some smashing coups de théâtre (...) FESTEN...will be the last international production at the Water Street location that St. Ann's has occupied since 2001. And it’s hard to imagine a work that makes more thorough and effective use of that theater’s cavernous space. (...) [Mr. Jarzyna's] production...is dysfunctional-family drama as big-canvas Grand Guignol...an exorcism that takes its characters — and its audience — through inky, phantom-filled darkness before releasing them into daylight. (...) ...a fluid shadow land between tragedy and farce...And a robust physicality, equally pregnant with possibilities for pratfalls and homicide. (...) Like Hamlet and Macbeth, this production compellingly insists that we're not wrong to believe in ghosts.
Ben Brantley, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Stunning....Brilliantly staged...superbly acted.
Frank Scheck, NEW YORK POST
TR Warszawa has a knack for staging productions that sear themselves into your mind...utilitarian at heart but possess an unmistakable visual flair.
Chris Kompanek, THEATERMANIA
photo Pavel Antonov
