Past Productions
Adam Mickiewicz Dziady II
Translated from Polish by Charles S. Kraszewski
Adapted and directed by Pat Zajac Cast: Lukasz Leszkiewicz, Pat Zajac, Daniele Silvan, Lynsey Walker, Alistair Wales, Amandine Le Marchand, Roland Rajzer Choir/VO: Ewa Chalupa, Beata Furgalska, Roland Rajzer, Katarzyna Stepniak, Malgorzata Wronska, Lukasz Moskalik Music & Costumes: Pat Zajac
About the show:
FOREFATHER’S EVE II EXCERPTS – DZIADY II FRAGMENTY
Title of the drama refers to Dziady, an ancient Slavic ritual which beginning stretch back to pagan times known as the “goat’s feast”. On the Halloween Night a group of peasants with their leader Guslarz are secretly summoning ghosts suffering in purgatory to ensure them the access to heaven. They celebrate the customary feast commemorating the dead, believing their meals, drinks and rituals can bring relief to the summoned souls of the departed. When the deceased come back with the requests and warnings the micro – world of the performance starts to be a striking vision of eerie dialogue between living and the dead which once took place in a night time chapel…
The pagan ceremony of banqueting the dead, intermixed with Christians notions, with its folk morality becomes a specific philosophy of life and death and happens to be a universal story about time and eternity.
Premiere: 18th of May 2019, Polish Heritage Days 2019, Assembly Roxy theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland
* The Polish – English performance
*Based on Dziady część II by Adam Mickiewicz
Gallery and Music from the show
Photos: Barbara Eva Photography Music: Pat Zajac
