“Exquisite … full magic.” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times

In A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, the Wooster Group takes on one of the greatest figures in the 20th-century avant-garde theater: the iconic Polish stage director Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990). The title comes from one of Kantor’s manifestos. It describes a theater that gives the simplest, everyday objects – chairs – hallucinatory power to summon up forgotten history and memory. Tadeusz Kantor was a stage director, creator of happenings, painter, set designer, writer, art theoretician, actor in his own productions and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Born in 1915 in Wielopole Skrzynskie, in the province of Tarnów; died in 1990 in Kraków.

The Wooster Group, an internationally acclaimed ensemble of artists who make original work for the theater, is widely known for experimentation and the synthesis of multiple art forms. Founded in 1975, the Group has continually created new landmarks in experimental theater. The ensemble is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and has launched the careers of many actors, including founding member Willem Dafoe.A PINK CHAIR features performances by the Group’s ensemble, including Zbigniew Bzymek, Enver Chakartash, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Gareth Hobbs, Dorota Krakowska, Andrew Maillet, Erin Mullin, Suzzy Roche, Danusia Trevino, and Kate Valk.

A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) was commissioned by the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it premiered at the Bard SummerScape Festival in 2017. The production was co-commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland, as part of a program celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tadeusz Kantor.


MORE ABOUT TADEUSZ KANTOR
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This presentation is made possible in part with support from the Polish Cultural Institute.