OFF: The Construction of an Empty Space

direction: Maciej Dziaczko
script: Jarosław Orzeł
Music arrangement: Tomasz Leś

cast: Hubert Bronicki, Magda Malcharek, Paulina Koniarska, Bartek Socha

Przestrzeń group: Natalia Pikuła (vocal), Tomek Leś (bass guitar), Michał Sosna (saxophone) and Michał Muszyński (drums)

PPA production: Miła Popowska

“The Construction of an Empty Space” is a performance created by three friends from the playground: Tomek Leś, leader of the ensemble Przestrzeń (The Space), Jarek Orzeł, scriptwriter, and Maciej Dziaczko, director, in which we find elements of documentary theatre and a reference to Peter Brook’s concept of “empty space”:

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.

Where, in what place, at what time and for what reason does art appear? Does the creation of music begin with the formation of the ensemble? If so, when is it formed? Is it when the musicians meet for the first time? Is it when they give their group a name? Is a musical ensemble already the beginning of the art it creates?

How do we function as a band in a modern world where image precedes content? It is not only the end result of artistic creation (e.g. the content) that is subject to evaluation but the very act of exposing oneself to evaluation. “Asking” to be noticed and accepted becomes the essence and purpose of creating content.

The axis of the performance is the moment of the formation of an ensemble, a community of people from different backgrounds united by the act of creation. Avoiding unnecessary pathos, they reach for comic, even farcical solutions, constantly sabotaging the story that emerges from their characters’ stories.

Photo: Maciej Dziaczko