In her Fantasia, Anna Karasińska tackles the theme of imagination and theatre as the space in which fiction is born. How does the covenant between the audience and the creative team (authors, performers) behind the performance come into being? What is necessary for us to suspend our disbelief and embrace the on-stage reality? Is there a limit to imagination? Are there things, phenomena, individuals that cannot be imagined in theatre?

The title of the performance alludes to fantasy / fantasia, a musical composition typified by a loose, often improvised form, which combines a number of genres. Anna Karasińska made her debut at TR Warszawa with her critically acclaimed Ewelina’s Crying (Ewelina płacze) that the Lublin viewers saw during the 2016 Theatre Confrontations Festival.

A simple yet refined, madly funny, and at times touching play (…) Fantasia is the final part of the cycle, which one could term “tetralogy about looking and empathising.” In her debut Ewelina’s Crying TR Warszawa actors and actresses played interns substituting them and imagining what being a TR Warszawa thespian felt like. In The Other Show (Drugi spektakl) staged at the Polski Theatre in Poznań, the performers enacted a wide range of imaginary audiences’ reactions and expectations. Finally, in Birthday (Urodziny) produced by Komuna Warszawa, Karasińska herself was standing motionless on the stage while audiences were treated to her pre-recorded off-stage monologue about her own fear of public performance and body image anxiety, which segued into the description of the title festivity. A play of form and imagination, static actors and a voice. “Always the same?” Or perhaps to assert that Karasińska’s creative output is similar is like stating that all the plays of classic drama theatre are similar to one another, as there is always some play, characters, and some set design?
Witold Mrozek, „Gazeta Wyborcza”

DIRECTED BY
Anna Karasińska

SET DESIGN
Paula Grocholska

CHOREOGRAPHY
Magda Ptasznik

DRAMATURGY
Magdalena Rydzewska, Jacek Telenga

LIGHTING DESIGNER
Szymon Kluz

PRODUCTION MANAGER
Katarzyna Białach

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Malwina Szumacher

CAST
Agata Buzek, Dobromir Dymecki, Rafał Maćkowiak, Maria Maj, Zofia Wichłacz, Adam Woronowicz

PREMIERE

9 April 2017