News

photo: Barbican Centre
30.03.2023

Theatre performance based on Olga Tokarczuk's book in London

On Tuesday evening, a special performance aimed specifically at the Polish community in the UK by theatre group Complicité, entitled “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”, based on Olga Tokarczuk's book, took place at London's Barbican Centre.

Founded in London in 1983, the international touring theatre company Complicité has been staging the play based on the novel Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”) by the Polish Nobel Prize winner on various UK stages since December 2022. But thanks to the support of the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the four performances on this tour are additionally subtitled in Polish in order to reach the widest possible Polish audience.

The first of these four performances aimed at Polish audiences took place in early March in Oxford, the second show is at the Barbican Centre, with further performances scheduled for 19 April at The Belgrade theatre in Coventry and 29 April at The Lowry centre in Salford. In addition, prior to the performance, the Barbican Centre hosted an audiovisual lecture by Professor Tomasz Wisniewski and Dr Angelika Varakis-Martin on Polish influences and inspirations in Complicité's work.

The director of the play “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” is Simon McBurney, one of the founders and artistic director of Complicité.

After the performances in the UK, the Complicité group will be touring in Recklinghausen, Germany, as well as Luxembourg, Budapest, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Paris.

source: Polish Press Agency