Tadeusz Różewicz, Mother is leaving

stage adaptation and direction: Michał Zdunik
scenography: Dorota Budacz
music: Michał Zdunik
performers:
Małgorzata Wojciechowska
Łukasz Borkowski
piano/fisharmony: Katarzyna Wesołowska 

The following works by Tadeusz Różewicz have been used in the performance:
texts from the book of poems Mother Departs and the poem Time for Me
Production: “Gardzienice” Centre for Theatre Practices
Premiere: 15.10.2015 

“Matka odchodzi” (Mother Departs) (1999) by Tadeusz Różewicz is one of the most shocking works by the author of Kartoteka. This poetic book – which consists of poems, photographs, memoirs, fragments of a diary – is an unusually intimate and moving record of his own memory of his mother, an attempt at contact with her: these are notes on the passing of the closest person in his life. Mother Departs is a painfully true, deeply human text – but also polyphonic, ambiguous, written as if by someone lost in darkness, deprived of warmth, a guide, a Mother in fact.
Our performance is an attempt to theatrically convey this disturbing state in which the protagonist has found himself. We find him in Mother’s old flat, trying to put in order the objects she left behind. The seemingly cool process of cataloguing is invaded by emotions – inexpressible longing for his mother and remorse for himself. Every single thing, even the simplest, evokes new memories, resurrects the increasingly blurred figure of Mother. Even now we can hear her beautiful singing voice and see the outlines of her face. Is it memory or truth, spirit or body? After all – as the poet writes – Mother’s eyes rest on me…