A Deed Without A Name, written by the late Polish avant-garde artist and writer Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, receives a rare outing at London’s Theatro Technis for a limited season of nine performances only from 21 February to 2 March 2020. Time to get booking!
Offie-nominated Giorgio Galassi directs an international cast of 12 in A Deed Without A Name, presented by the recently founded Wayward Theatre Productions, a company dedicated to staging productions of European drama little-known to British audiences. For this season, Wayward has decided to stage Witkiewicz’s most political play.
In an unknown country, in a bid to win absolute power, Baron de Buffadero and Colonel Giers are reviving the faith of an ancient prophet, creating a new cult programmed to control the masses.
However, the revolution is going to punish its leaders and overthrow all order. On the day of the planned coup d’etat, a new unexpected leader pushes the upheaval to its most extreme consequences. The play is a political thriller as well as an absurdist comedy, full of humour and unexpected turns. The title A Deed Without A Name is taken from Macbeth, and like Shakespeare’s tragedy, it is about the inevitable collapse of tyranny.
Within the social pandemonium, princes meddle with gravediggers, a poet becomes revolutionary, a composer falls in love with a tyrant, and artists become witches and criminals in the pursuit of their individuality. As Witkiewicz once said: “Only once the old values have gone, an individual discovers his true self.”
The cast for A Deed Without A Name are Gary Cain, Sarah Warren, Peter Revel-Walsh, Reed Stokes, Jonathan Brandt, Dan de la Motte, Gerry Skeens, Panos Savvides, Aurelie Freoua, Mario B Bob, Giorgio Galassi, Julia Fresco and Dorota Krimmel. Set and costumes are designed by Aurelia Freoua. Dorota Krimmel produces for Wayward.
About “Witkacy”
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, commonly known as Witkacy (1885-1939), was born in Warsaw when it was still part of the Russian Empire. He was a writer, painter, philosopher, theorist, playwright, novelist, and photographer who, during the interwar period, became an important commentator on the moral and social turmoil of the times. He was awarded the 1935 Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature for his novels. These included Farewell to Autumn (1927) and, considered by many his major work, Insatiability (1930), which dealt with geopolitics and psychoactive drugs.
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Witkiewicz escaped to a rural town where, on 17 September 1939, after hearing news of the Soviet invasion of his homeland, he committed suicide. After the Second World War, his international reputation grew and, theatrically, he became seen as an important precursor to the European post-war “Theatre of the Absurd”.
