Jolanta Janiczak

No one will believe me anyway

No one will believe me anyway

 

The performance “No one will believe me anyway” is inspired by the fate of Barbara Zdunk – the last woman in Europe burned at the stake. Her story shows how the credibility of women is being undermined both in witchcraft trials and also today in cases of rape and other sexual abuse. As a consequence, the women ceases to believe in their story.

Scraps of information about Barbara Zdunk make up a cruel image of her short life as a series of abuses and rapes for which the punishment was not imposed on the perpetrators, but their victim. For the four years before the execution, the guards pitted Barbara to all willing citizens of the city. In prison, a woman gave birth to two children, one of whom died, it is not known whether for natural reasons or at the hands of a powerless accused. The more harm she suffered, the more the heroine adapted to the expected image of a witch, a woman – arsonist, seducing other husbands, and finally a child-killer who should be spectacularly rid of. The real reason behind Barbara’s execution is her gaze, which, like Medusa’s, is terrifying. It causes remorse or other uncontrollable reflexes. Since the beginning of history, people have created monsters, dragons and witches for themselves to be murdered in the name of the rule of law and justice. Because of such mechanisms, justice always belongs to the stronger who decide what images to sell to society, especially in situations of permanent threats and crises.

 

“A show-palimpsest about a timeless and structural misogyny, about the ways women use to defend themselves against it and reduction to the role of victims. Painfully drilling in the stomach. ” Aneta Kyzioł, Polityka

 

“In Jolanta Janiczak’s great drama, the blood-curdling punishment for perhaps not your fault acquires a poetic dimension. The creators ask about the position of a woman – not one, but all. About the price that is paid for not fulfilling socio-cultural roles. A story that, passed from mouth to mouth, is appropriated, distorted and finally canceled. The shocking spectacle of the Gniezno theater, with the great role of Karolina Staniec as “Europe’s last witch”, Barbara Zdunk, is a gloomy image of unfairly bygone times. It tells not only about the fate of women formed according to men’s preferences, but also about the silence – the mute torturer.” Dawid Dudko, Onet Kultura

 

 

text, dramaturgy:
Jolanta Janiczak

direction:
Wiktor Rubin

scenography:
Łukasz Surowiec

costumes:
Hanna Maciąg

music:
Krzysztof Kaliski

light director:
Jacqueline Sobiszewski

assistant director and set designer:
Monika Winiarska

stage manager:
Ewa Malicka

cast :
Kamila Banasiak, Martyna Rozwadowska, Karolina Staniec (guest appearance), Joanna Żurawska, Paweł Dobek, Michał Karczewski, Roland Nowak and Sławomir Grajek, Maciej Sadowski, Bogdan Stachowiak, Marcin Wojciak
world premiere on 19,20,21 June 2020

PERFORMANCE FOR ADULTS ONLY