“Quartet” Ronald Harwood

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Ronald Harwood

QUARTET

Premiere | 19th February 2021

Basen Artystyczny Stage, Maria Konopnicka Street 6

English subtitles

CAST:

Jean Horton | Olga Bończyk
Cecily Robson | Alicja Węgorzewska
Reginald Paget | Ryszard Minkiewicz
Wilfred Bond | Maciej Miecznikowski

Piano | Aleksander Teliga Jr.

Realization:

Director | Grzegorz Chrapkiewicz
Set designer | Wojciech Stefaniak
Costumes | Natasha Pavluchenko
Directing of Light | Bogumił Palewicz
Archives | Jerzy Snakowski

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The Quartet is an absolute blockbuster of theatrical stages, masterfully written by Ronald Horowitz (that is the real name of Ronald Harwood), a playwright born in Cape Town, a Londoner by choice, a graduate of the famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and a winner of the Academy Award (2003) for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film by Roman Polański – The Pianist.

Harwood, a brilliant observer of reality, collected material for the play, working as an operating theatre technician and a dresser, which, years later, resulted in the creation of The Quartet – an in-depth psychological and social analysis that became one of the greatest hits on stages around the world.

The Quartet refers to the famous fragment of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto, yet above all it is a study of four retired singers, true veterans of the opera stage – a performance in which the inevitable passing time is confronted with the characters’ still alive desire for adventure, and one can even say the hunger for life and its charms. “It’s a story of surviving. Surviving with dignity” – says the author of The Quartet.

Owing to him, we will move to Beecham House, a luxurious retirement home for musicians. It’s a place where its residents each year prepare a gala concert on the occasion of Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday. This time it is a special evening, because due to financial problems, the centre is facing liquidation, so the residents decide to help and save the institution. The singers invite Jean to take part in the concert – a great opera diva, an eccentric artist with an extremely difficult character. As if that weren’t enough, she was once married to one of the residents, which causes additional complications. Hilarious scenes smoothly intertwine with reflection on the passing time and vanishing into a shadow line.

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