A couple final Radoslaw Rychcik reviews

Radoslaw Rychcik and company have just rounded out their North American tour with a final stop at the excellent PuSh Festival in Vancouver BC (check out what they have going on for the remainder of the festival). Since their departure a couple more reviews have been published:

"Perhaps no artist visiting Seattle’s On the Boards has taken on the subject of this peculiar audience/performer relationship as directly as Polish director Radosław Rychcik, whose unorthodox interpretation of playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’ In the Solitude of Cotton Fields took the theater’s main stage by storm January 13-16." - ArtDish

"In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, an adaptation of a play by Bernard-Marie Koltès, produced by the Polish theater company, Stefan Zeromski Theatre and directed by 29 year old rising theatrical legend Radosław Rychcik has, at times, that same power and charisma and charm and sense of real artistry. It also has moments of banality and unoriginality and borders on a parody of European Performance Art, Former Soviet Bloc Country Division." - Seattle Gay Scene

Check them out!

From Noah/WET: rawe, punk and awe

[Washington Ensemble Theatre's Noah Benezra sent us a blog AND posted a blog conversation with another ensemble member on the WET blog. Read that conversation here!]

There's a lot of rhetoric amongst young theater artists about making "daring" "edgy" theater that "pushes boundaries." This kind of talking mostly leads to confusing plays that look like a rip off of off off Broadway in the 1960's. But cotton fields succeeds where most "brave" artists fail. One thing differentiates it from the slew of arbitrary noise that passes as experimental theater - immediacy. cotton fields looks forward instead of backward and isn't ashamed to be prescient. They present a brand of POP futurism that would feel right at home next to anything in the cultural landscape of today.

that being said, It had all the basic prerequisites for a night of experimental theater. Screaming at the audience, check, nudity, check, wierd gestural dancing, check, non-linear text, check, lot's of fog machine, check and check. But it would be totally trite to break this show down into the various poses and signifiers that it exploits. What comes through more clearly than anything else is the guts of the piece.    

Radoslaw Rychcik's show really did all the things that so many just blab about. It was fierce but also an extremely entertaing night and I think it's entertainment value was a huge part of its success. Being Experimental and attempting new gestures and styles is great but doesn't amount to a hill of beans if there's no reason for it, In the end there needs to be cohesion and communication. 

In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields Might be the most sincere least neurotic piece of experimental theatre I've ever seen. It also might be the best thing I've seen in seattle. 

I walked away from the show last night excited to be working on new projects with my crew at Washington Ensemble Theater. Maybe, we can bring some of that energy and inventiveness to our work, or maybe just maybe, we can all start wearing black suits and skinny ties.

More from the inbox about Cotton Fields

Here's a sampling of the comments I received in my inbox today:

"Thank you guys for making this happen! It was a fantastic performance and I'm going to see it again. I love everything, music, band actors, such an emotionally charged experience...and I danced while watching them and wanted them to keep playing all night long so I can dance all night long. I think dancing with these guys is the best way to see them :)

Thank you again for bringing them to Seattle!

Unforgettable experience!"

"Really really really fabulous and incredible."

"My partner and I thought the show was awesome. Both performers were absolutely mesmerizing and fascinating to watch - particularly Mr. Niemczyk. It was tough to take my eyes off of them long enough to read the subtitles and half the time i didn't bother. The music was incredible as well. The only downside was the video segment - totally gratuitous, unpleasant, and completely unnecessary - as if the director was saying "in case you didn't get the point, let me beat you over the head with it." I was glad there was a bit more live performance after the video to get that nasty taste out of my mouth and bring me back around to loving it. Thank you OTB for bringing this to Seattle!"

"There were moments in "...Cotton Fields" that were of that specific affirmation, the one that says, "Nothing can replace this... this immediate exchange of human to human experience.  Here is someone before me experiencing something so real, and I am right there with them".   This is the stuff that good live theater is for.  Raw, sweat, meat, and heart.  And the band is effin amazing!"

"Constant with surprises and purposeful with their silences, the production team of "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" brought thrills to my evening with this original and thought provoking piece.  I was blown away by my first experience at On The Boards and I can't wait to see their next endeavor."