Pupa

Ballet in one act
Music: Stanisław Syrewicz
Libretto: Klara Syrewicz based on the novel Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
World premiere: 14 February 2015, Polish National Ballet

He liked to amaze himself. He liked to call pain the binary of delight. Here he is: Gombrowicz! And along with him, his famous tushie (in Polish: pupa). Tushie as the beginning. Tushie as the foundation. Tushie as a key to reality. This time it appears in the title role. Inspired by Ferdydurke, Stanisław Syrewicz set it to music. A world-renowned songwriter for such celebrities as Marianne Faithfull, Diane Keaton and Yves Montand and the author of film music for such directors as Ken Russell, Andrzej Żuławski or Jerzy Skolimowski, he invited a young choreographer, Anna Hop, to work on the show. The artist, who in her stage experiments with the body moves within a broadly defined space of dance theatre, created eight surprising scenes: Form, Fragmentation, Calf, Nudity, Maturity, Słowacki, Fatherland and I. Those take place in a minimalist space designed by Małgorzata Szabłowska, complemented by Katarzyna Rott’s imaginative costumes. The body – intensely present in Ferdydurke – intrigues, surprises and delights here in the role of the protagonist, moving to the forefront of man.

Polish National Ballet
Music from a recording (electronic music, additional arrangements: Dariusz Kaliński; mastering: Marcin Bociński; the sections Form, Maturity and Słowacki feature recordings of music orchestrated and conducted by Krzesimir Dębski)