PHOBIA

The fruit of the collaboration of two radicals, the Swedish director Markus Öhrn and the Polish conceptual artist Karol Radziszewski is a challenging piece in terms of aesthetics and meaning, that repels and attracts at the same time. Radziszewski incorporated into the concept of the production his distinctive portraits of iconic figures of Polish history and his invention – the duo Fag Fighters. This fictitious homosexual guerilla unit has been fighting mainstream society in various performative actions in public space since 2007. On stage, the duo in pink balaclavas reaches another dimension: Phobia talks about the phenomenon of the pinkwashing, when joining the fight for the rights of sexual minorities becomes a fashion trend, yet what stands behind is indifference.
What does it actually mean when a heterosexual, middle-class family hangs a rainbow flag on their balcony? Or when the well-earning boss of a fashion clothing chain talks about an inclusive brand whose campaign features two waist-high naked men and rainbow flags? Or when the Swedish director criticises the heteronormative interpretation of Polish history in his production? When these chosen individuals, as pars pro toto of mainstream society, fail to answer quiz questions about Polish history posed by the masked duo, they are severely punished. This “brutal history lesson”, which is a theatre, exhibition, activism and lecture – all in one, places considerable demands on the spectators. At the same time, however, in perfect exaggeration, caricature and mockery (even self-mockery), it offers a chance for a new take on identity and identification in the broadest sense of the word.

concept and script: Markus Öhrn, Karol Radziszewski
direction: Markus Öhrn
set design and costumes: Markus Öhrn, Karol Radziszewski
Collaborative Set and Costume Design: Saskia Hellmann
images: Karol Radziszewski
music: Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik
masks: Makode Linde
makeup: Monika Kaleta
assistant directors: Anna Lewandowska, Angelika Mizińska
producers: Anna Skała, Angelika Mizińska
poster design: Karol Radziszewski
program design: Renata Motyka
translation of poems and songs into English: Marek Kaźmierski
English text editing: Dominika Gajewska
subtitles: Zofia Szymanowska
cast: Wojciech Kalarus, Ewelina Pankowska, Piotr Polak, Magdalena Popławska, Jan Sobolewski

The following works of art and music are used in the performance:

Obrazy z serii Poczet Karola Radziszewskiego prezentowane dzięki uprzejmości Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie.
Biografie bohaterów Pocztu Karola Radziszewskiego autorstwa Wojciecha Szymańskiego
Rota słowa: Maria Konopnicka, muzyka: Filip Nowowiejski
Hu, hu, ha, nasza zima zła Maria Konopnicka
Tęcza Maria Konopnicka
Anton Dvořák „Humoreska op. 101 nr 7”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Posiłek”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Joga”
Gloria Gaynor „I will survive”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Quiz. Król 1”
Karol Szymanowski „Pieśń Roksany” z opery „Król Roger”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Tęcza”
„Rota” słowa: Maria Konopnicka, muzyka: Filip Nowowiejski
Karol Szymanowski „A chtóz tam puka”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Korporacja”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Król 2”
Claude Debussy „Popołudnie Fauna”
„Puszek okruszek” muzyka: Jarosław Kukulski, słowa: Jerzy Dąbrowski
Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska „Modlitwa Dziewicy”
Johannes Brahms „Kwartet fortepianowy c-moll op. 63″ część 1
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Pobicie”
Michał Pepol, Bartek Wąsik „Fobia. Techno Kościół”
„The winner takes it all” słowa: Björn Ulvaeus, muzyka: Benny Anderson
Gabriel Faure „In paradisum”

Markus Öhrn is a Swedish visual artist and stage director. He lives and works in Stocksbo, Sweden. In 2008, he graduated in visual arts at the Stockholm Konstfack University. Öhrn works with performance, video and sound installations. He is also a popular mentor of the younger generation of artists and teaches at various universities in Europe. Markus’ trilogy: Contes d’amour (2010), We Love Africa and Africa Loves Us (2012) and Bis zum Tod (2014) featured at major festivals such as Theatretreffen, Wiener Festwochen, Festival d’Avignon and in theatres such as Volksbühne-am Rosa-Luxemburg- Platz, Museum of Modern Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and at the Dramaten theatre in Stockholm, where he also made the 12-part production The Unknown in 2022. He won the Nestroy Prize for the production of 3 Episodes of Life. His performances stimulate polemics and passionate discussions about the limtis of contemporary theatre.

Karol Radziszewski works with film, photography, painting, installations and creates interdisciplinary projects. His method is based on archival research; he always works with various cultural, historical, religious, social, and gender references. Since 2005, he has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine DIK Fagazine and, in 2015, he founded the Queer Archives Institute.
His works have been exhibited or are part of the collections of major galleries and museums in Poland (e.g. Museum of Modern Art, Zacheta National Art Gallery, Wrocław Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum Sztuki in Łódź) and abroad (e.g. London’s Whitechapel Gallery, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, New York-based New Museum, VideoBrasil and Sao Paulo, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Ljubljana Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana). He participated in several international biennials and international film festivals. In 2021, The Power of Secrets dedicated to Radziszewski’s archival work was published by Sternberg Press.

[…] the punishment for pink marketing is aimed at the liberal and well-to-do bourgeoisie, who may have rainbow flags buried at the bottom of a drawer. Yet, they participate in rallies for equality, perhaps in order to make themselves feel better, thereby legitimising systemic violence. [In the next scene] It’s Markus Öhrn’s turn. In the Reytan Hotel room he is dreaming about the queer play Phobia that he is working on at Nowy Teatr. He isn’t even subjected to a test on Polish queer history. What for anyway? They keep methodically dismembering his bloody remains, mutilating his limbs, executing the punishment for cultural appropriation. Double: for queerness and Polishness. At every cracking sound I cry and shut my eyes; yet, I also laugh as Öhrn can be comical. […] for his reckoning with himself is obviously a theatre mockery. We are involved and caught up in pinkwashing. Me too, although I am writing this text as one who has never been systemically oppressed. I love reading about queer utopias that can redefine relationships and change the world, if only in the immediate vicinity; about unusual bodies, about other possibilities, other ways of knowing the world made possible by non-normativity. I fantasise about the end of patriarchy and capitalism. But what does that even mean to me?

Piotr Morawski: W kolorze rózowym [In pink]. In Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna, no. 179, 2024.

We are watching a wonderfully twisted piece, in every sense of the word. It is about phobia as is in the title of the play, more precisely – homophobia, which is not at all exclusively hate speech as it might seem, and which takes many forms. For instance, in business the form of pinkwashing (quite – erm – a strong scene from a moral, or rather sociological point of view, ass corporations are welcome in the theatre!) or – in culture – as is correctly suggested – capitalising on the catchy theme of LGBTQ+.

I was pushed deeper into the seat about three times. Once I had to take a deep breath. Because it is REALLY quite something. Yet the performance is simply brilliant, incredibly funny at times (and by that I mean very sad, of course), wonderfully acted, logical, consistent and – corny as it sounds – instructive. Some say it is outrageously vulgar. Well, one doesn’t go to theatre with impunity, right?

Rafał Turowski: Fobia [Phobia]. In e-teat.pl, 11/13/2023