Euripides’ ELEKTRA
Cheironomy (Gestures) / Theatrical Essay
Direction, text adaptation, dramaturgy of music and gesture: Włodzimierz Staniewski
Cooperation: Mariusz Gołaj
Translation: Jerzy Łanowski
Adaptation of the ancient Greek music fragments: Enkymasin, Tripoda Mantheion, Promoleth Helicona, Hode Galatan, Archan auxet Ageratoi, Asklepion Aeisomen – Maciej Rychły
Adaptation of Autophonoi – Anna-Helena McLean
Animation: Daniel Tumanowicz, Rafał Tumanowicz
Current cast (2020): Mariusz Gołaj, Joanna Holcgreber, Marcin Mrowca, Anna Dąbrowska, Paweł Kieszko, Dorota Kołodziej, Kacper Lech, Tetiana Oreshko – Muca, Magdalena Pamuła, Jan Żórawski, Anna Nguyen
Musicians: Gabriela Żmigrodzka/Karolina Rudaś, Rafał Granat, Filip Pysz, Kamil Gosek, Szymon Kałużny
Premiere cast: Mariusz Gołaj, Joanna Holcgreber, Marcin Mrowca, Grzegorz Podbiegłowski, Anna Dąbrowska, Anna-Helena McLean, Elżbieta Rojek, Agnieszka Mendel, graduates of the 3rd Academy for Theatre Practices.
Subsequent casts included: Julia Bui-Ngoc, Karolina Cicha, Bartosz Nowakowski, Esztella Levko Benedict Hitchins, Justyna Jary, Aleksandra Gronowska, Barbara Songin, Alicja Żmigrodzka, Marek Kościółek, Maniucha Bikont, Emilia Śniegoska, Emilia Raiter, Marie Paskova, Alina Jurczyszyn, Ivor Houlker, Artem Manuilov, Martin Quintela, Lia Ikkos Serrano, Maciej Gorczyński, Aleksandra Zawłocka, James Brennan
Elektra premiered at the Polski Ekspres Festival organized by Der Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin in January 2004. Previews of “Scenes from Elektra” took place in Gardzienice in autumn 2002.
Mariusz Gołaj
Joanna Holcgreber
Marcin Mrowca
Anna Maria Dąbrowska
Paweł Kieszko
Dorota Kołodziej
Kacper Lech
Tetiana Oreshko – Muca
Magdalena Pamuła
Maciej Gorczyński
Aleksandra Zawłocka
Anna Nguyen
absolwenci Akademii Praktyk Teatralnych.
Włodzimierz Staniewski’s Director’s note, 2002
Euripides’ Electra — A Tragedy of Feelings
According to scholars, Euripides’ Elektra is a melodrama which genre-wise could be placed somewhere between tragedy and satyr play with some heroicomical effects. Its structure is far from homogenous. We can trace intrusions (some inserted after Euripides’ death), compilations, broken fragments, which results in doubts whether this or that line should be spoken by this or that character.
In the world of Greek theatre, myths were continuously rewritten and reinterpreted. The playwrights would experiment and stage “variations” with audacity unseen in any other epoch. Very few components of the mythical stories were canonically fixed. The storyline — as Oliver Taplin wrote — wasn’t that important; what was important, however, was the way the poet translated it into drama. The limitations were scarce, and the space for artistry — enormous (may Taplin be the witness). Euripides and others would not only supply the text, but also fill the post of the composer, choreographer, and director. They would conduct rehearsals — a potentially irritating process, full of tensions, swift changes, searching for solutions, sudden bursts of euphoria, doubts, invention and rejection, alternating pace, moody dynamics and insane ideas.
Michael Billington for The Guardian, London
What impresses is the company’s mixture of discipline and energy. Above all, they remind us that Greek tragedy was intended as an all-out, total theatre experience rather than a restrained poetic event. And, while one grasps only a part of the meaning, the result is like watching Euripides by flashes of lighting.
Irena Alpatova for Kultura no 1, Moscow
Staniewski shifts the text, splits it, shuffles the scenes, combines past and future events, weaves musical and visual displays into the action. The text has moved far from the original. Moreover, it is uttered in several different languages: Polish, English, ancient Greek, and Russian. Such mixture is not always understandable to the audience, yet it does not at all hinder the visual and emotional impact of the play. (…) The creation of the gesture technique called Cheironomia is another example of Staniewski’s successful enterprise. These gestures, however, are not simply invented, but, in fact, ironically and loosely copied from the original ancient art. (…) Interestingly, the audience is also gently drawn into the acting process. And this sort of unity is perhaps the most commendable of all.
New York Theatre Experience, Inc NY, New York
This production continues artistic director Wlodzimierz Staniewski’s exploration of Ancient Greek music and iconography, and deals with themes such as the misery of exile, the craving of revenge, the taboo of incest, and the endless struggle for freedom. Staniewski transforms performance narrative into physicality, gestures, action, and movement, breaking the texts into their essences, creating a fully visceral world where the story is told through non-linear performance language.
Alexis Soloski for The Village Voice, New York
Elektra by the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices may (…) rank as the liveliest lecture on semiotics ever produced. Though based on Euripides’ play, Staniewski (with assistance from performer Mariusz Golaj) creates a nonlinear rendition. (…) Yet this lack of plot never results in a performance that’s dull or difficult to follow; rather, it’s absorbing. If Staniewski declines to reThe physicality and gesturing throughout are (…) moving stained glass images pulsating with life. (…) Lead actor and co-creator Mariusz Golaj is like an avant-garde, Polish Jack Nicholson, who begins and ends our journey with an utterly compelling presence. His performance is at times heartbreaking, funny, insane and deeply personal, as Euripides, and even when he fades to the background and Electra takes over, we are always with him on his strange, nightmarish journey.resent an Electra complex, he nevertheless provides a most complex Elektra.
Phoebe Hoban for the New York Times, Nowy Jork
This carefully orchestrated experimental technique (…) combines ancient texts and oral histories.
Sarah Hemming for the Financial Times, London, UK
The second half of the evening, based on Euripides’ Electra, is more accessible. The director gives us a short talk, explaining how important gesture and sound were to the Greek dramatists. The company then performs a glossary of gestures – fascinating, like watching ancient Greek vase paintings on the modern stage – and applies this work to a distilled version of the tragedy. The result is astonishing: Greek drama becomes vivid, pliant and graphic, the extremes of emotion expressed in a tempestuous blend of song, sound, word and gesture. It is, again, rather relentless and highly strung.
But the performers – disciplined, intense and tireless – take the stage by storm.
![]()
