Dream Adoption Society and NOWY TEATR

Białoszewski/Ginsberg VR

Aug 31 – Sept 2, Fri & Sat @ 6:00 pm & 8:00 pm • Sun @ 2:00 pm & 4:00 pm

What happened when Miron Białoszewski, one of the most singular poets of the 20th century — though little known in the U.S. partly because of the impossibility of translating his work — received a visit from America’s favorite guru-activist-poet, Allen Ginsberg?

Ginsberg was popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain, but since Poland was under Soviet occupation and hermetically sealed off from the world, Białoszewski was only known to a select few in the West. Both poets were gay and trying to critique the social environments in which they lived: while much of Bialoszewski’s work indulged the insular space of the individual, Ginsberg’s aimed at a communal ideal. In some sense they had opposing dream worlds, converse desires. What did these poets have to say to one another? Could they get along? What did and did not happen that night in the spring of 1965 in Warsaw? Did the fact that Białoszewski was tripping on codeine — and Ginsberg on LSD — impede or enhance their connection?

Białoszewski/Ginsberg explores possible stories, counterfactual narratives and alternative realities through the use of performance art, VR technology, and mockumentary film.

The project is produced by Warsaw’s Nowy Teatr with Dream Adoption Society and directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski, about whom Witold Mrozek wrote in Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, “No other Polish director has as impressive a visual imagination as Garbaczewski.” Collaborators include Zbigniew “Z” Bzymek, the extemporaneous film-maker of The Wooster Group’s video journal, Jim Fletcher, a long-time Wooster Group collaborator, and Jacek Poniedziałek, one of Poland’s most celebrated queer actors, among others.

World premiere. Admission is free. Reserve tickets »
WARNING: pulsating lights/strobe effects are used during this performance.

Białoszewski/Ginsberg VR is final event in Dream Adoption Society and NOWY TEATR’s August 2018 virtual and augmented reality residency at The Performing Garage. Learn more here.

Artistic Team
Krzysztof Garbaczewski – Director and Visual Artist (Dream Adoption Society)
Zbigniew Bzymek – Dramaturg and Performer (Dream Adoption Society)
Marta Nawrot – VR Artist (Dream Adoption Society)
Jagoda Wójtowicz – VR Artist (Dream Adoption Society)
Maciej Gniady – VR Artist (Dream Adoption Society)
Nowy Niewolnik – Costume Designer
Jan Duszyński – Music (Dream Adoption Society)
Andrew Maillet – Sound Designer
Jacek Poniedziałek – Performer (NOWY TEATR)
Paweł Smagała – Performer (Dream Adoption Society)
Stacey Karen Robinson – Performer
Danusia Trevino – Performer
Jim Fletcher – Performer
Olga Drygas – Producer (NOWY TEATR)
Wojtek Markowski – VR Producer (Dream Adoption Society)

A production of NOWY TEATR

in collaboration with

Financed from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of The Republic of Poland, within the scope of the Multiannual Program INDEPENDENT 2017-2021, as part of the “Cultural bridges” subsidy program of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.