September 26, 2024 – October 6, 2024
La MaMa
The Downstairs Theather
66 East 4th Street, basement level
New York, NY 10003

Tickets
Adults: $30
Students/Seniors: $25
First 10 tickets are $10 (limit 2 per person)
Ticket prices are inclusive of all fees.

Written by Witold Gombrowicz Directed by Zishan Ugurlu

Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) was a Polish writer and playwright known for his innovative and often provocative works that explore the absurdity of human existence. Some of his most famous works include the novel Ferdydurke and the play The Marriage. The Marriage is a surreal play that explores themes of identity, power, and the nature of reality. The plot follows Henry, a young soldier who returns home from war to find his world in disarray. In a dream-like sequence, he tries to impose order by orchestrating a wedding between his fiancée and himself, but the boundaries between reality and illusion begin to blur.

“Whenever I see some mystique, be it virtue or family, faith or fatherland there I must commit some indecent act.” said Gombrowicz. Indecent acts at this point of unlimited time and space – in dreamland – reveal themselves with upside-down flags, Hoots fingers and Hooters Girls, a bloody insurrection and a declaration! How language brings things into being, how utterance makes ideas material, and who has the power to dictate reality and truth. Distorted! Destroyed! Dislocated! A nightmare! Inflated! Revolt in a scale!

Presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute NY and Jan Kochanowski Popular Theater of Radom

Witold Gombrowicz (1904 –1969) – writer and playwright. He was one of the greatest Polish writers of the 20th century and one of the Polish writers whose work is most recognised throughout the world, he is, next to Stanisław Lem, the most frequently translated, read in 34 languages.

His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavour. In 1937 he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: problems of immaturity and youth, creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture. He gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature. His diaries were published in 1969 and are, according to the Paris Review, “widely considered his masterpiece”. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966.

In his work, Gombrowicz struggled with Polish traditions and the country’s difficult history. This battle was the starting point for his stories, which were deeply rooted in this tradition and history. Gombrowicz is remembered by scholars and admirers as a writer and a man unwilling to sacrifice his imagination or his originality for any price, person, god, society, or doctrine.

Gombrowicz is exceptional in the history of literature, due for one thing to his philosophy, the way he built his texts, and the power of his language. He was tireless in arguing against polish tradition, history, yet the dispute was a starting point for tests both rooted in the very same tradition and history and universal.

„He belonged among those Central European writers who were able to take advantage of the civilisational bacwardness of his own country  to have a critical perspective on the contemporary ideas  and art. Of his time. He created works looking very far forward – he helped his readers move from a world of modernism to one of postmodernism. His influence on Polish literature was enormous, yet this theatrical inspiration proved even more fertile – without him, there would be no Tadeusz Kantor, or Jerzy Grotowski. French existentilists, structuralists, and deconstructionists were in turn sympathetic with his output. Though his texts fit the tastes of the most refined intellectuals, he remained a readable author of books attractive even at first sight thanks to sensational plots, grotesque characters, black humour, and his extraordinary flexibility of language, encompassing all registers.” /Z. Łapiński/

Zishan Ugurlu is a resident actress and director at La MaMa Theater and a member of the Great Jones Repertory Company. She has performed in numerous productions with the company, including Panorama directed by Italian company Motus as part of The Under The Radar Festival 2018. Zishan directed numerous productions including Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae written by Alexandra Chasin featuring Judith Butler presented at New York Live Arts in February 2020. She is currently teaching at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts as an Associate Professor.

Lead image: Poster by Michał Dracz