Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 3:30PM ET
Tickets at United Solo Theatre Festival 2022
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
New York City
Based on true events Norwid’s Return is a minimalistic contemporary dialogue between the actor and the pianist, a rich tapestry between words and music in which Norwid pulsates with emotion and provokes with every thought.
The stage is set to a contained space of a mere paper square-the representation of Norwid’s spiritual and material reality, the homeless world of an emigrant, a reflection of the inner world of an outcast. In this realm of tension, rebellion and passionate intellectual polemics, the paper stage is gradually ripped, defaced, and ultimately torn to shreds. Past and present intertwine making painful settelments with a rejected love, society and criticism, which ridiculed his work as “complex” and “brilliantly suicidal”, and the Russian Tsarist regime, which condemned him as an exile and prohibited his return to the homeland.
The dialogue between the actor and the pianist is a dynamic collision of words and sounds, a web of inner contemplation and resonance which reverberates deep within the heart of human emotion, confronting traditions, and enchanting with radical truth and the raw genius of a poet ahead of his time. By melding and cleaving a stage play and musical performance, it illuminates the Norwidean darkness, solitude and complexity of his mind.
The rejected visionary, a homeless emigrant returns to us today, more then 200 years after his birth, as one of the greatest world poets, a contemporary innovator who delights, cheers, moves, and shocks with aesthetic radicalism.
Director: Marek Probosz
Written based on the works of Cyprian Norwid: Kazimierz Braun
Musical Arragement: Anna von Urbans
Produced by: Marek Probosz
Running Time: 90 min.
Presented in Polish with English subtitles.
About United Solo Theatre Festival
Now in its second decade, United Solo Theatre Festival, the world’s largest solo theatre festival, continues to amaze and delight audiences with its annual offering of exceptional solo plays from across the country & around the world. Our artists this season delve into a variety of topics from personal family stories to allegories for the issues facing our world today. Using drama, comedy, music, poetry, movement and spoken word, our shows open the door to new worlds and new ways of thinking about life and theatre.
“This annual festival has, over more than 10 years, brought hundreds of solo productions to New York stages from around the world. Theater, dance, improv and other forms will be presented live onstage but the festival will also include additional offerings through a virtual platform, United Solo Screen”
–Steven McElroy, The New York Times
“Whether it’s comedy, drama, new work, or new adaptations you’re looking for, United Solo performances are fascinating to take in and inexpensive to attend”
–Jack Smart, Backstage
“The event, as well as bringing theatre-makers together, invites theatres and producers to discover original scripts and performers”
–Olivia Clement, Playbill
