Teatr Porywacze Ciał
Company
photo Marcin Oliva Soto
Teatr Porywacze Ciał (Body Snatchers Theatre) was founded in 1992 by Katarzyna Pawłowska and Maciej Adamczyk. From the outset, the artists have sought to understand and interpret the modern world, producing work that is unique, original, and eschews familiar territory. The Body Snatchers employ the poetics of alternative theatre, but do not stress the company’s alternative theatre origin. They are professional actors who have chosen to work in a non-institutional setting, becoming their own writers, set designers, directors and performers. They are contemporary mannerists who are no strangers to irony, provocation and eccentricity. The artists road-test diverse theatre forms and conventions, use elements of vaudeville, cabaret, happening and performance art as well as striking a balance between the directness of psychodrama and the distance of metaphor. They throw light on the ‘daily mythologies’ created by consumer society. The people they portray are made up of corrupted myths and instincts, trapped in old familiar patterns of behaviour, plagued by identity issues. The company’s invention is fuelled by the ideological legacy of pop art. The only difference is that they use an updated collection of fetishes-symbols, which they incorporate in their performances subjecting them to pop art’s strategy of discrediting through irony and the grotesque, but never losing a humane touch.
