CANCELLED: KRYSTIAN LUPA’s THE TRIAL
We regret to announce the cancellation of The Trial due to the withdrawal of financial support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), the international exchange program of the Polish Cultural Ministry.
In a statement written in response to the cancellation, Mr. Lupa writes: “The declaration of Minister Glinski (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland) is clear: Artists who do not sympathize with the current leadership’s cultural policy, who criticize its values, decisions and actions will be treated as enemies of Poland and will not be supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in any form.” READ HIS FULL STATEMENT | LEARN MORE IN OUR PRESS RELEASE
JOIN US FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION & MARATHON READING
MARCH 8 FROM 1PM
NYU Skirball joins with The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, PEN America, CUNY’s Segal Center and the Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Working Group at NYU to present this special all-day event – in defiance of attempts to silence these artists, and in protest of political corruption, government censorship, and social malevolence.
1PM: PANEL: “ART IN DANGER, ARTISTS AT RISK”
A panel conversation around Kafka’s The Trial, censorship, artistic freedom, and artists at risk, in relation to the continuing global rise of right-wing and populist politics.
Monika Fabijanska, Former Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York
Holly Hughes, Professor at the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art and Design
Felix Kaputu, Resident “Writer at Risk” at Fordham University
André Lepecki, NYU Performance Studies Professor and Chairperson
Krystian Lupa, Director
Julie Trébault, Director, Artists at Risk Connection, PEN America
Moderated by Catharine R. Stimpson
3PM: “THE TRIAL” MARATHON READING
The reading will be continuous from 3PM to approximately 9:30/10PM. Stop in anytime; the audience is welcome to come and go throughout the event.
Guest readers include Salman Rushdie, Kathleen Chalfant, and Kwame Anthony Appiah.
If you’re interested in reading, there will be limited spots available the day of the event!
RSVP is recommended but not required.
“Lupa’s productions have long been revered beyond his native Poland.” – The New York Times
“Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K, for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning.” This is the first sentence of Franz Kafka’s mysterious, provocative, unfinished novel, The Trial. We never get to know why the protagonist was arrested, what he has been accused of, or whether he is innocent or guilty. He has entered the labyrinthine judicial system that birthed the term “Kafkaesque,” and there are no exits. Iconic Polish director Krystian Lupa’s theatrical adaptation of this seminal work is a five-hour journey into absurdity that darkly echoes our current political realities.
Polish theater director and set designer, Krystian Lupa, is known for his “laboratory rehearsals,” an organic method of working with text and actors. Nowy Teatr was founded in Warsaw in 2008, with Krzysztof Warlikowski as its artistic leader, and a group of his long-term collaborators. It has produced six of Warlikowski’s works, as well as theater productions, lectures, concerts, and exhibitions. In April 2016 the company moved to a refurbished postindustrial hall in the heart of Warsaw. nowyteatr.org
Performed in Polish with English supertitles. Advisory: Kafka’s The Trial is appropriate for ages 18+
