The Last

(ORIGINAL TITLE: Ostatni)

Performance created in Nowy Teatr in Warsaw in the performative cycle THEATRE 2118.

ABOUT THE THEATRE 2118 CYCLE:

How do you imagine theatre will function 100 years from now? Within the THEATRE 2118 cycle framework, this question will be tackled by artists emerging from Polish theatre’s new wave: Anna Karasińska, Ania Nowak, Wojtek Ziemilski and Romuald Krężel. Their shows are projects of the far future – theatrical, but also para-theatrical. Therefore by definition, those involved are faced with the necessity to not only design a theatre for the 22nd century, but also the civil surroundings this theatre will function within. The artists’ imagination is limited by one proviso: within the terms of this cycle, they are not allowed to use the word utopia. THEATRE 2118 is meant to allow us to imagine that which is possible, not that which is utopian. At the start of the 20th century, visionary members of the first wave of the avant- garde took on a similar challenge: they imagined something which did not yet exist. The time has come to repeat their feat. THEATRE 2118 is also the chance to reflect upon our memory, the mechanisms which govern the way in which it works, along with hidden motivations. What, in 100 years’ time, will be remembered of our contemporaneity? Will we be remembered? Tomasz Plata – curator of the project.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:

Let’s stop imagining what theatre will be like in 100 years. Let us try to answer the question as to why our imaginations do not reach that far into the future.

Why with fear on our minds we weave predictions of what will happen in about a quarter of a century, why we become paralyzed when thinking about the day after tomorrow? And why does art have a problem dealing with the most urgent change that is happening right in front of our eyes – that is about climate change?

We are able to think of polar bears drifting on melting ice floes, but find it hard to imagine a world without coal-free industries. We are capable of visualizing seas drowning in plastic but do not see a future without crude oil. In our culture there is a pressing need for new stories through which we can explain the world: stories which, unlike those told thus far, will not pit us against each other or against the Earth – so said Naomi Klein upon receiving the Sydney Peace Prize on the 11th of November 2016. Time has come for theatre to take on the responsible task of creating such narratives.