Artur Żmijewski, Igor Stokfiszewski – The Mass

Venue: Gong – Dvorana
Time: 20:30
Length: 70 min
Admission: 200 CZK / 100 CZK (students)

Conception and direction: Artur Żmijewski, Igor Stokfiszewski
Cast: Jan Peszek, Bogdan Brzyski

We Poles are split and we are full of internal conflicts. We consider one other with hatred and contempt. We are divided by the walls of politics and religion, by the walls of art and everyday life. We cannot find a language that would fill in the gap between us, we cannot sit down at a table to share a meal without a seed of discord sown in our field.

Some find solace in religion, others in theatre – in the temple of art. Some regard priests as their guides, others have artists – the priests without cassocks. Some criticise theatre, see art as a source of moral evil, others avoid churches – and see them as shrines of hate. We are deaf to words of Jean Paul II who said: “We cannot face the Christ, the Lord of History when being divided in such a way.”

There exists a ritual common to all who grew up in the same country, culture and religion. It is the Mass – the most widespread event that can join all people. Who does not know it? Who has not taken part in it?

The mass combines religion and theatre, it is the art of two phenomena shaping the Poles – Catholic and secular life. Could the mass performed by the artists in theatre bring people together? Could the ritual paying homage to the Catholic society and performed on the spot designated for the secular society make a miracle and bridge the gap? Could such a ritual make the walls fall in? Could we sit down to dinner together and nourish each other with the crumbs of love?

We ask if the One who lives and reigns for ever and ever is able to hear our supplication during the mass: “Look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church, and out of your own volition give us peace and lead us to unity”?