Theatre of the Eighth Day's WORMWOOD Makes NYC Premiere, 11/11

The legendary Theatre of the Eighth Day from Poland will premiere Wormwood in New York City in a one week special performance event on November 11 and November 15 at the Abrons Arts Center . The play was famously banned in 1985 for its frank depiction of life in Poland under Martial Law. Founded in 1964, Theatre of the Eighth Day was one of the most uncompromising theater groups in Communist Poland and remains so today. It made its US debut to critical acclaim at the MADE IN POLAND Festival in New York City in November 2008, where it presented its 2007 avant-garde docudrama, The Files, based on actual secret police reports between 1975 and 1983 on the Theatre's actors. Wormwood will also play Yale Rep November 5 - November 7.

Wormwood comes to New York in November as one of the opening selections in the first-ever "Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe," a five-month festival in New York (November 2009-March 2010) marking the fall of communism in that part of the world.

WORMWOOD is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute and the Abrons Arts Center as part of "Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe," presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with key New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, November 2009-March 2010.

Created collaboratively by members of the Theatre of the Eighth Day's ensemble -- story, texts and design -- Wormwood is directed by Lech Raczak and features music by Arnold Dabrowski. The performers are Ewa Wojciak, Adam Borowski, Tadeusz Janiszewski and Marcin Keszycki.

Wormwood was the famous dissident group's last production in Communist Poland, and its history is almost a parable for the absurd fate of culture under totalitarian regimes. The Polish Communist Party shut down the production, and the would-be audience was met by a police cordon at the scheduled premiere at the Adam Mickiewicz University theatre in Poznan. Despite confrontations with the police, Theatre of the Eighth Day outwitted officials by scheduling a secret premiere of the production the following day in the very theatre from which the play had been banned. The very titles of the scenes may suggest why the production was banned at that time: Death; Meeting on a train; Sanctify the suffering, Procession and church fair; Our lonely apartments; Conspiracy - an attempted revenge; Dreaming about Home; Great voyage on a sailing ship; And death once again; Poland, Poland; Trial; Leaving.

After performances in churches and clubs of the independent culture circuit in many Polish cities, the production was to be presented at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, but the authorities granted passports to only half the group's members. Instead, a new production,Auto Da Fe, was quickly devised. Based on Tadeusz Konwicki's A Minor Apocalypse, a biting (and banned) satire on life in Poland at the end of the 1970s, this production won the Festival's Fringe First Prize. Polish authorities denounced the award, claiming that Theatre of the Eighth Day "did not exist". Later, those ensemble members who were allowed to leave Poland toured the production in Western Europe, while those left behind mounted a different version under the novel's original title. The whole group reunited only in June 1988 in Italy, at which point Theatre of the Eighth Day became a theatre-in-exile, performing WORMWOOD in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Scotland, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Estonia.

Over the course of the week, Wormwood will be performed also on November 11, 12, 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. and November 15 at 3 p.m. at the Abrons Art Center at the Polish cultural institute.  For more information, visit www.performingrevolution.org.

The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United States and Poland, both through American exposure to Poland's cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts. The Institute initiates, organizes, promotes, and produces a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as Lincoln Center Festival (Kalkwerk in 2009); BAM (Krum by TR Warszawa in BAM's 2007 Next Wave Festival, which received a Village Voice Obie Award); Art at St. Ann's (TR Warszawa's Macbeth, 2008); Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center; La MaMa E.T.C.; Film Society of Lincoln Center; The Museum of Modern Art; Jewish Museum; PEN World Voices Festival; Poetry Society of America; Yale University; and many more.