Reviews

[…] spoken language will always be foreign to people who are born deaf. Ziemilski gives a voice to those who cannot be heard and are discriminated against every step of

the way.

— Piotr Morawski, “Beyond Words,” Dwutygodnik

In One Gesture a lot is said about the difficulties that the Deaf have to deal with in order to reach our world. Each pair of hands will draw a different circle to utter the word "world".

— Zosia Smolarska, teatr

Ziemilski and his actors create an aesthetically refined and dramatically coherent form in which monologues are combined with captivating staging ideas. 

— Stanisław Godlewski, Gazeta Wyborcza

About One Gesture (Jeden Gest)

One Gesture (Jeden Gest) is a show about sign languages.

It is a show about communicating with the world – with the world of the hearing and with the world of the other Deaf. How does communication work? How are knowledge, emotion and culture transmitted, produced and processed? If language is the only reality we have access to (“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” – as Wittgenstein said), what can we learn about the world from the languages of the Deaf? What is universal about their experience of communicating, and what is unique? And how come none of my friends have any Deaf friends?

Let me cite a number of truisms from the collection Truisms, by Jenny Holzer, an American neo-conceptual artist. These phrases seem the simplest thing there is. Until you look at them from the standpoint of sign language: 

Listen when your body talks.

People who don’t work with their hands are parasites. Words tend to be inadequate.Description is more important than metaphor. 

Abstraction is a type of decadence. 

You are responsible for constituting the meaning of things.

About Wojtek Ziemilski

Wojtek Ziemilski – theatre director, visual artist. His works across art forms, rooted in the diversity of performative arts. His shows explore the possibilities of documentary theatre – Small Narration (Teatr Studio in Warsaw), Prologue (Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatralne festival and Teatr Ochoty), High Noon (Teatr Dramatyczny in Wałbrzych), Rozdrażew: the Cosmic Show (Wielkopolska: Revolutions), Pygmalion (Centrum Kultury Zamek in Poznań, komuna//warszawa). He often works with non-professional actors (ex. Muranów 2014 at the Polin Museum in Warsaw). Founder of the XS Arts Center, co-creator of the Golgota Picnic Polska movement, collaborator of the BWA Warszawa gallery. Teaches new trends of theatre experiment at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and at Warsaw University. 

For One Gesture he was awarded the grand prix of the Fast Forward - Europäisches Festival für junge Regie in Dresden, a special award of the MESS Festival in Sarajevo, and the main award of the 38. International Zürcher Theater Spektakel w Switzerland.

Credits

Director: Wojtek Ziemilski

Set Design and Associate Director: Wojtek Pustoła

Lighting Design: Artur Sienicki

Music: Aleksander Żurowski

Costumes: Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz

Cast: Marta Abramczyk, Jolanta Sadłowska, Paweł Sosiński, Adam Stoyanov

Consultations: Katarzyna Głozak

Stage Manager: Marta Śmierzchalska

Assistant Director: Joanna Niemirska

Translation: Katarzyna Głozak, Agnieszka Misiewicz, Anna Borycka, 

                   Małgorzata Wasilewska

Production Manager: Maria Wilska

Production Assistant: Marta Kielar

Technical Coordination: Bartek Braun

Lights: Patryk Adamski

Video: Marek Kurpios

Sound: Wojciech Starowicz

This project was supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

About Nowy Teatr

Nowy Teatr is the place for broadening the artistic battlefield. Created by Krzysztof Warlikowski and a group of his regular collaborators, Nowy Teatr wants to exploit the spaces of dialogue with the audience, not limiting themselves solely to theatrical pursuits. It is a space that represents a new artistic situation, a free field of action for the invited artists and curators, somewhere that is being developed by people with ideas. We are among the most active institutions in representing Polish culture in the international arena.