Grzegorz Jarzyna - man of few words

Tom Hunt, THE DOMINION POST 

Director Grzegorz Jarzyna saunters across the foyer of Wellington's Quality Inn. Among the business suits there is no mistaking that this epitome of art-cool in tailored jeans, red cowboy shirt and goatee is the man here to discuss international arts festival show T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. He orders a short espresso and pauses for thought before embarking on an explanation of what this show is all about and how he came to create it.

Jarzyna was born in 1968, the same year Italian film-maker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini released his cult film Teorema; the tale of a strange visitor to a wealthy family who seduces each member of the family before departing and leaving the family in turmoil. Jarzyna remembers seeing Teorema as a young student, but rediscovering it through a friend about three years ago. "I was completely astonished because, for the first 20 minutes, I did not know what was going on. I couldn't make out the story. It was so fresh. It was so unpredictable."

The entire movie comprised just 923 words and T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. has taken that further, with almost no dialogue. The few words spoken are in Polish.
The discovery of Teorema led to Jarzyna's growing fascination with Pasolini, extending to his poems and novels. "I found him a real artist that doesn't exist any longer. They are dinosaurs among the artists. "We [modern artists] all participate in the system. We all make a profit out of this ... whatever he touched he was passion, passion, passion."

Inspired by Teorema and his studies into Pasolini, Jarzyna has created this theatrical adaptation. For him the driving idea behind the movie and performance is to reflect society through a single family. "I found it very interesting, this idea," he says. At the root of it is the growing concept of consumerism in the past 20 or so years and how that affects the less tangible idea of family. "It's not a performance to laugh or cry, it's a performance to contemplate," he says. "Our team want to create deep pictures". "There's not so much movement, not so much words, not so much violent change.
"It gives people a chance to contemplate."

That contemplative look at consumerism's impact on family played well when T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. was performed recently in Los Angeles – a place where people can buy a lot but the idea of family is dissolving, he says.

For Jarzyna it is a source of amazement that Pasolini, murdered in 1975, was able to foresee the shaping of society with almost prophet-like accuracy.
"Somehow he's looking into the future and describing what's happening."

Festival artistic director Lissa Twomey has high expectations of the show, tipping it to be the "most talked-about production" of the programme.
"Exquisitely staged and hauntingly beautiful, it will linger in one's memory long after the festival closes."