Rodzanice

Written and directed by Ewa Ignaczak

The story is sprinkled with traditional songs performed by the singers of Akademia Głosów Tradycji. The singers remain themselves, although they live in the alternate universe, full of Slavic beliefs, ancient creatures and atavistic instincts. There is pain and intimacy, there are smells, tastes, burden, will, strength, rebellion and relief. There is singing. And finally, there is also a WOMAN…. and her life filled with her duties, the conviction - imprinted for many generations - about what she should do in her life, what she is destined to be and what she is not. The role she has to play in the society brings her pain, suffering and often loneliness. What needs to happen in the woman’s life to make her consider changes? If the main character meets the Primordial Mother and looks into the River’s eyes, will it change the lives of the future generations of women? Will they break with the eternal tradition of “pickling cucumbers”?

Akademia Głosów Tradycji is a group of nine women, singing folk songs a capella, in dialects of specific regions of Poland. They sing songs from everywhere, as in the past their ancestors came to Tri-City from all over Poland. Through traditional singing, they reach our roots. They learn songs, basing on their original versions. For many years, they have visited elderly village singers to absorb the archaic sounds of Polish traditional music. For them, singing is organic, community and addictive, and songs are like living fossils, with the simplest universal truths hidden within. However, sometimes during their concerts, their public can’t recognize the context of the songs. That is why Akademia decided to enrich and expand the formula of their performances with text.  It allowed them to tell the stories carried by women for generations in an understandable way.

The songs used in this performance are obtained from, among others, phonographic documents of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, archival records of Polish Radio, Śpiewnik Pelpliński (songbook) and word of mouth - directly from folk singers from villages located all over Poland.

Cast - singers of Akademia Głosów Tradycji:

Aleksandra Bakiera

Anna Bochnak-Fryc

Joanna Gostkowska

Olga Krasoń

Magdalena Lesiecka

Agnieszka Rusakiewicz

Magdalena Śmierzchalska

Katarzyna Zajączkowska

Voiceover: Małgorzata Polakowska