The seagull

Not only is perceiving the world a biological process but also an active conditioned intellectual process. For every person the world appears to be different. On the other hand the nature seems to direct our way of perception. When we look at a natural landscape of a valley our sight will scan the horizon till it meets an oddness- a tree. Focusing our sight on this part of space, we put it in our eyeshot and our perception becomes sharper. This is the way the nature works distinguishing certain elements of the surroundings. For a flower to be pollinated, it needs to stand out. Therefore, a flower has a strong color and scent. I have been always fascinated by the act of a performance perception. The fact that a trivial accident of choosing a place influences radically the way the artwork is perceived. Two persons watching a play the same evening may perceived it completely different.
When working on the Seagull I have decided to change the spatial layout of the stage. The auditorium was divided into four segments. It made it impossible for the actors to play for the four audiences at the same time. Each scene is happening in a particular part of the room and it is directly visible only for one of the audience segments. The rest of the audience may perceive additionally the subtle subplots so called micro-situations. The actual scenography consists of movable transparent screen. There are 24 screens which are grouped in threes into modules. They move on trajectories. Moving along the lines marked by the tracks they create a certain number of spatial systems.
Japanese house architecture was an inspiration for the screens. A Japanese house is an example of a space perfectly transformable. The same space is adjusted to different life needs. This is an example of making the happenings and needs in human life visible by means of the mutual marking of the architecture and the nature. The screens in the performance work as a rhythmic and dynamic background for the performance action. This scenography does not have a defined form. In principle the rhythmic movement is the only form. Moreover, its visual aspect is minimal. It can be said that those 24 screens comprise one and the same continuous picture. Analogously, the impression that we have when looking out through the window and observing the landscape during a train trip. Our eye is able to animate fluently constantly changing pictures. The forest line changes smoothly into a field line, the line into clouds etc. Although the view from the window is constantly changing, our eye perceives fluency and the continuity of the picture.

Actors:
Karolina Adamczyk
Julia Wyszyńska
Ola Bożek
Maria Robaszkiewicz
Jacek Beler
Mateusz Łasowski
Grzegorz Artman
Oskar Stróżyński

Theatre company: Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw
Month & year of production: 8th of April 2017
Set designer: Agata Skwarczyńska
Costume designer: Agata Skwarczyńska
Light designer: Agata Skwarczyńska

Other Designers:
Author: Anton Chekhov
Director: Wojciech Faruga
Assistant : Damian Kwiatkowski

Photo: Magda Hueckel