Stream

A performance about digital e-generation, for whom virtual space becomes more important than life. Inspired by Greek myths and real events. Kore, a contemporary e-girl, runs away from her chronically sick mother – Demeter, into the world of Internet posts and streams. Together with Narcissus, whom she’s met online, they dream of death. When the teenager’s virtual fantasies manifest in real life, the Greek gods get involved. Will the water from Lete – the river of unmindfulness, cure their pain?

STREAM is a story about loss, understood as a tragedy, but also as a change. Passing away, vanishing, veneration and keeping the dead in our memories are the universal human experiences. What forms do they take in the digital era? How does the contemporary man/woman go through the rite of goodbye? How does he/she cope with the emptiness and oblivion?

The play draws dramatic material form the story of a mythological goddess Demeter, whose daughter – Kore is abducted by Hades, when the girl bends down to pick a narcissus flower in Enna. It also refers to contemporary acts of violence – e.g. an incident that took place in 2019 in Utica (New York), where a twenty-year-old Brandon Clark murdered Bianca Devins, an eighteen-year-old e-girl, and posted photo evidence on Discord. Mythical themes are reflected here in the virtual spaced and the opposite – Facebook and Instagram phenomena fit perfectly in the stream of the ancient universe.

fot. Maciej Jaźwiecki

Special thanks for cooperation to: Adrian Bush, Ewelina Cnota, Andrzej Dąbrowski, Pani Danuta, Tomek Haładaj, Kuba Hampel, Aneta Jankowska, Adam Kubisz, Jakub Ligęza, Bogna Świątkowska, Kasia Wardyńska, Gosia Wrzosek, Rafał Ziemiński

Production of the performance is co-financed by the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw.

Support from the COVID-19 Counteract Fund.

The new talents line / TR debut

The performance was produced within the frame of TR DEBUT Award, established in November 2015 in TR Warszawa. The award is announced annually at the Young Directors Forum in Cracow held by the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow. The award programme is intended to support artistic development of young theatre creators. Directors awarded the prize are invited to stage a performance in TR Warszawa in the following theatre season.

So far, within the TR DEBUT programme the following performances have been produced:  “Puppenhaus. Treatment” based on Magda Fertacz’s text, directed by Jędrzej Piaskowski (2017), “The Chinese” inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s movie scripts and Dostoyevsky’s “Demons”, directed by Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak (2018), “Woyzeck” by Georg Büchner, directed by Grzegorz Jaremko (2019), “Stream” text by Katarzyna Minkowska and Tomasz Walesiak, directed by Katarzyna Minkowska (2020).

TR Debut is one of the elements of the New Talents Line programme. TR Warszawa for many years now has been promoting new artistic talents through such projects as:  Warsaw Area [orig.: Teren Warszawa], TR/PL, Field TR [orig.: Teren TR], Young TR [orig.: Młody TR], TR Debut [orig.: Debiut TR], artistic residencies, guest showings of diploma works and performances, repertoire showings of performances co-created by new artists and production of selected projects in cooperation with foreign partners. TR Warszawa provides artistic shelter, where artists may experiment and implement their ideas for theatre. Within the New Talents Line in the past artistic seasons, the following directors presented their productions: Wojciech Blecharz (“Soundwork”), Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak (“The Chinese”), Grzegorz Jaremko (“Woyzeck”), Katarzyna Kalwat (“Holzwege”, “Rechnitz. Opera – The Exterminating Angel”, “Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies”, “Staff Only” – coproduced by Biennale Warszawa and TR Warszawa), Anna Karasińska (“Ewelina’s Crying” and “Fantasia”), Katarzyna Minkowska (“Stream”), Jędrzej Piaskowski (“Puppenhaus. Treatment”, “David Is Going To Israel”), Piotr Trojan (“Grind/r”), Magda Szpecht (“The Possibility of an Island”, “Always Coming Home”), and Małgorzata Wdowik (“The Footballers” and „Fear”).