"Romanca"

Theatres can cross boundaries. The question is: how much and what is the role of the audience in a performance?

Many of us would like to see some limits on just how far the theatre goes . What is the purpose of the theatre?
The main purpose is that we would all understand the sentiment that actors express on the stage.
Actors should speak loudly about important things.
It is said that nowadays television and Internet is the most important aspect of our life since a long time. It is a cause of low knowledge about our cultural diversity.
Therefore, it is highly important to go to the theatre. But… is it possible to stage a play which will be a sort of Theatre of the Absurd? Or a play which will be as outstanding as Witold Gombrowicz, Sławomir Mrożek or Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s plays? We all remember Witkiewicz’s famous plays like The Beelzebub Sonata or The Madman and the Nun.
It was a sunny, January day.  Polish actors achieved a remarkable production on the board of the Polish Theatre: “Romanca”. The cast: Marcel Wiercichowski, Magdalena Walach and Paweł Okraska. All of them are popular and famous. Is it possible – in this case – to be absolutely amateurish? Or to just completely forget the lines? What happen if the actor cannot remind yourself even a word? Some of them could not. They tried listen to what the dubler said but they was absolutely distracted. And what about the audience? What the audience should do? Is it normal to dialogue with actors?

 Four o’clock. The actors appeared on the stage. The curtain goes up. When I saw them I couldn’t take my eyes off the actors. Theatrical gestures, poetic language.  The combination of epithets harmonize with the contextual environment. Sometimes it was a little bit too trivial like from romantic dramas. When one of the characters – Bianka (Magdalena Walach) – had a love, melodramatic dialogue with a man, who was fall in love with her, someone from the audience started dialogue with the actors. One of the characters said: And you will stay with me... but did not finish because of the man from the audience who said: No, you will stay with me! – with a sarcastic tone.

The actors kept their head and didn’t interrupt the theatre play. Again, the difficult MAN tried to have a dialogue with the actors. Moreover, he was commenting everything as loudly as he could. It comes as a bombshell and comments: This man must leave the theatre.

The actors ignored the man and continued their lines. Show must go on.
 When the man cross the boundaries, one of the actors interrupt his monologue saying: If you will behave like that I am not going to take a responsibility for what will happen and what I will do.
These words encouraged the escalation of impressions, from concerns to puzzlement.
The audience’s freezing and observing unexpected twist. Then, the man became even more brave. Nobody could see his face because of the dark. He just stood up and said: Dear actor. Are you an artist? You talk about nothing. And so on.  (…) Some people said: what a scandal. What the actors do and if they interrupt the play?

The actor asked this man if he can leave the theatre. After that, someone shown him the entrance. The actors decided to continue their lines. One of them was distracted by what happened. He tried to play but completely forgot his lines. M. Walach was doing everything to help him but there was no reaction. People started clapping their hands, even thought, the play was more like grotesque than a real play. One women proposed a break. The actors, however, did not give up and continued the play  When everytning was going to have a happy end, someone opened the main doors. It was this terrible man, who said: I’m sorry, but I didn’t get my money back.

It made our blood run cold. Everybody was looking at the man or the actors. What the actors will do? Then, one of them left the stage and tried to catch this terrible man. He wanted to hit him. The man was really quick, so they started running around the stage. People was waiting for the final of: „Catch me if you can”. They were on the stage or in corridors, on the stage and...  Immediately, the actor caught  the man and twisted the knife. People hold their breath: O my goodness! – said (with a huge expression) really old woman. – We should call the police – said her friend. And suddenly people noticed that it was a part of the play which increase adrenaline. Actual topics, references to classical literature, funny dialogues and brilliant actors. People were crying because of laughing and I envy myself that I could see as splendid play as it was.