Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass (review)

Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass. By Gardzienice, according to Lucius Apuleius. La Mama ETC, New York, New York. 24 January 2001.

Gardzienice is both the name of an isolated, rural village in Eastern Poland and of a theatre organization that has chosen to work there for the last twenty-some years. W lzodzimierz Staniewski, the founder of Gardzienice Center for Theatre Practices, has produced and directed four productions in the last two decades, the latest of which, Metamorphoses, was performed at La Mama Experimental Theatre in January 2001. Gardzienice has established a reputation as an important avant-garde company and over the years has provoked extravagant praise from eminent theatre scholars and practitioners such as Richard Schechner, Andre Gregory and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The company had not performed in New York since 1988 and houses were sold out to both the curious and the convinced.

The evening was divided into two parts: the performance of Metamorphoses and, after a short break, an essay or "gathering" led by Staniewski with the actors demonstrating techniques and processes the company developed to recover and revitalize ancient musical sources of Greek theatre. The two events were integral to the evening and a brief description of both will hopefully serve to indicate their interpenetration.

Gardzienice performs at extreme levels of concentration and energy. Metamorphoses seemed to rush over the spectator with intense pace and torque. Images crafted from Apuleius' tale provided a structure through which the actors performed sixteen songs and hymns based on ancient Greek music from the fifth to the second century B.C.E. The performers, with a kind of muscular devotion that apparently accessed the music's sacred origins, brought the songs and hymns into being. Although they modified the melodies and tonalities in terms of tempo, rhythm, and dynamics, the actors brought a focus and energy to the work that earned the performance an authenticity.

At La Mama, the piece was staged horizontally in front of and behind a long narrow table that the actors used as a framing device and as a platform for speeches and songs. The eight actors assembled, broke apart, and reconvened with athletic precision, occasionally arranging images of one or two figures. The two older, male actors spoke much of the text supported and energized by the vibrant singing of the younger, mostly female chorus. In one stunning section, Marjana Sadowska seemed to spend or sacrifice a considerable portion of her energy and talent in an evocation of Psyche's hysteria. The hypnotic chanting of Gardzienice's remarkable singers fueled the duration and frenzy of a whirling repetitive dance. The singing is, according to Staniewski, the beginning and essence of Gardzienice's work and the actor's technique and power were clear and evident, the result of literally years of rehearsal and commitment. The performance was brief and ended with two powerful incantations: a song in praise of Dionysus and a hymn to Apollo.

After the performance, Staniewski lead a twenty or thirty minute "essay" or "gathering." During this lecture and demonstration, Staniewski exhibited a charming yet forceful pedagogic posture. The company has done rigorous musicological [Begin Page 659] research in collaboration with Maciej Rychly to adapt the fragments of ancient Greek songs to their aesthetic. Slides of papyrus fragments, stone stellae, and Greek vases were projected onto the back curtain while the actors inhabited the poses and sang the phrases being displayed. The spectators were shown how movement sequences were generated out of the static stances painted on the pottery or carved into the stone reliefs. The company demonstrated how irregular rhythms were used to energize the dynamics of certain songs. The audience began to recognize motifs and gestural emblems that were part of the structure of Metamorphoses. Staniewski explained the relationship between the performance and "the gathering" as akin to admiring a beautiful vase from several angles and then smashing it to the floor and examining the fragments to see how it was put together.

Both parts of...