Komuna Warszawa’s “CEZARY GOES TO WAR”

The play “Cezary Goes to War”, conceived and directed by Cezary Tomaszewski, deconstructs military ethos and pride to make the audience aware of their toxic dimensions and oppressiveness. The play draws on the author’s personal experience of having to appear before an army conscription committee. This memory serves as the vehicle for a funny, witty, and well-aimedcritique of nationalist war discourse, which resonates with particular force in modern-day Poland. Using elements of music by Moniuszko and Schostakovich, as well as Nijinsky’s ballet Afternoon of a Faun, the director engages the audience in a series of subversive identity games that not only undermine gender norms but also turn the military ethos on its head.

Cezary Tomaszewski, born in Warsaw in 1976, choreographer, director, and performer , studied theater at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and choreography at Bruckner ConservatoryLinz in Austria. He directed Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow in 2009 in Vienna, which earned critics’ picks in the magazines „Theater Heute” and „Falter” for Best Young Director and the Best Off Production in 2009 in Vienna. Two of his early projects, The Last Temptation of Saint Bernardette and Dance Tetralogy, were presented at theatres in Austria and Switzerland.
He directed musical productions by Capella Cracoviensis: the stage production of Monteverdi’s madrigals Baroque feast in a milk bar in Kraków, and operas, including Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula and Moniuszko’s Halka. In Polish dramatical theatres he directed Wedding Based on a Wedding, after Stanislaw Wyspianski. In 2017 Tomaszewski directed It Pina Hadn’t Smoked She’d Be Alive at the Jerzy Szaniawski Drama Theatre in Walbrzych and Cezary Goes to War at Komuna Warszawa.

Komuna Warszawa explores key issues of the contemporary world, ceaselessly seeking new forms and means of expression. Since 2007, Komuna has been an important venue for theatre performances, as well as performance art pieces, lectures, film and video-art screenings, concerts and discussions. Komuna Warszawa has taken part in some of the most prestigious festivals in Poland and the world, performing at such venues as La MaMa in New York City, HAU in Berlin or 104Centquatre in Paris.

The Rehearsal for Truth theater festival, in honor of Vaclav Havel, provides a platform for artists from the Central Europe to perform in New York City. The Rehearsal for Truth is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and BBLA, in partnership with the Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak cultural institutes, along with performing arts institutions to highlight Havel’s legacy as a playwright through live performances, panel discussions, exhibitions, and an award ceremony.

Conceived and directed by: Cezary Tomaszewski,
Playwright: Justyna Wasik
Music by: Claude Debussy, Georg Friedrich Handel, Stanislaw Moniuszko, Dimitry Schostakovich
Cast: Michael Dembinski, Oskar Malinowski, Szymon Dobosik, Lukasz Stawarczyk, Weronika Krowka (pianist)

From the Polish Cultural Institute.