Events
Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre in KrakówThe Maidens of Wilko
Agnieszka Glińska
Based onJarosława Iwaszkiewicza
Set design:Monika Nyckowska
Music:Igor Nikiforow, Jerzy Rogiewicz
Lighting director:Jacqueline Sobiszewski
Stage manager / prompter:Ewa Wrześniak
Assistant director:Paulina Puślednik
Development and adaptation:Marta Konarzewska
Costumes:Jagna Janicka
Assistant set designer:Anna Rogóż (ASP)
Assistant costume designer:Ewa Pieronkiewicz (ASP)
Choreography consultant:Weronika Pelczyńska
Video:Franciszek Przybylski
Cast:Aldona Grochal, Ewa Kaim, Paulina Puślednik, Anna Radwan, Dorota Segda, Szymon Czacki, Adam Nawojczyk, Jacek Romanowski, Natalia Kaja Chmielewska (AST), Robert Ciszewski (AST), Michał Balicki (AST), Przemysław Kowalski (AST)
Premiere1 March 2019
…he left before he found out that none of what a person decides and consciously carries out amounts to anything, and that everything important happens by accident, staying somewhere there behind, trailing after us.
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, The Maidens of Wilko
Visiting Wilko after fifteen years, Wiktor rifles through his memories and attempts to reconstruct his own self. Meeting women from his past makes him face the void and vanity of his own existence, as the wartime experience has robbed him of his capacity to feel. But in this play, the eponymous maidens – the sisters from Wilko – are not just a phantasm of femininity and a projection of the protagonist – they acquire their own voices and identities. Agnieszka Glińska and Marta Konarzewska consciously appropriate Iwaszkiewicz’s narrative and give the floor to the female characters in the story. We see Wiktor through their eyes, and we also find out how the passing of time has altered them. Where does life begin and end? When do we decide about ourselves? What are personal freedom and our life-altering decisions? Agnieszka Glińska’s performance weaves the tissue of Iwaszkiewicz’s story into the present-day context of, among others, the above questions.
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Agnieszka Glińska
Graduated from the Faculty of Acting and Directing at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. Actress and director of theatre and television performances. Director of the Studio Theatre in Warsaw (2012-2015). Directed approximately 60 theatre performances, including: Le Ronde by A. Schnitzler (Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw), Three Sisters by A. Chekhov (Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw), The Cripple of Inishmaan by M. McDonagh (Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw), Cherry Orchard by A. Chekhov (Academy of Dramatic Art, Warsaw), Seagull A. Chekhov (National Theatre in Warsaw), Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy by W. Gombrowicz (National Theatre in Warsaw), Reckless Sister W. Perzyński (National Theatre in Warsaw), Farewells by S. Dygat (National Theatre in Warsaw), and The Maidens of Wilko by J. Iwaszkiewicz (National Stary Theatre in Kraków). In addition, she directed the HBO series In Treatment.
Recipient of numerous awards. In 1999, she was awarded Polityka’s Passport (Theatre / Drama category). In 2011, she was granted the Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Award for outstanding directing achievements, with an emphasis on staging Chekhov’s plays at the Współczesny and National Theatres in Warsaw.
Holder of a Ph.D. in theatre sciences. In 2012, she began lecturing at the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków; lectured at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw (1999-2012).
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REVIEWS:
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz might have been taken off guard by this adaptation of his beautiful story at the Stary Theatre in Kraków. But this is at best mere conjecture. What we can be sure of it that The Maidens of Wilko, directed by Agnieszka Glińska, is a very interesting interpretation of his prose and an excellent play as such.
Wojciech Majcherek, onet.pl
Director Agnieszka Glińska, dramaturge Marta Konarzewska and the brilliant cast have managed to create a female collective on stage emanating energy that takes us to the other side of the footlights. But there is something else here. Everyone involved serves as a mirror held up to one another, but at the same time nobody is deluded enough to assume they will see in any reflection whatsoever any iota of truth about themselves. The performance – not unlike inter-personal (and inner-personal) relations – is spangly, vibrant, and delicate. And the moments it provides delight last quite a while.
Aneta Kyzioł, Polityka
After several years of absence, Wiktor returns to Wilko. He used to be a private tutor here, as well as a neighbour. The sisters that resided here either were infatuated with him or were too young to know what was at stake then. What did Wiktor feel at that time? He was involved with all of them in a complicated and unfulfilled game of emotions. Now, with many years gone by, Wiktor has returned. Still handsome but weary and scarred by war. One of the sisters is already dead, while others are married with children… Once again Wiktor and the women of Wilko return to their mutual inter-personal game. Is it any more mature? Is it more ravenous or more cynical? Unquestionably different. Unquestionably more self-aware, more self-centred, more self-analytical.
Tadeusz Kornaś, teatralny.pl