Williams College Brings Its Successful Theatre Production to Theatre Row In NYC
"Princess Ivona" opens January 15 at the Clurman Theatre for a limited run
Prof. Omar Sangare directs this little-known dark humor comedy by Witold Gombrowicz
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company members are choreographing the play
Following a successful premiere on campus earlier this year, a cast of Williams College students is bringing their production to New York. "Princess Ivona" is an absurdist, dark-humor play by a well-known 20th-century playwright Witold Gombrowicz. The play is directed by Omar Sangare, theatre professor at Williams, and founder of NYC’s United Solo Festival, who is joined by an international creative team, including a set designer from Europe, a lighting designer from Broadway, and choreographers from the world-famous Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
The play challenges the society of empty platitudes with a fresh, young, spontaneous approach. The protagonists raise questions on why one should keep doing things just because this is how we kept doing them in the past. Why is a prince allowed to marry only a princess—and what if he does not wish to do so? This grotesque comic fable by an absurdist master playwright explores what happens when genteel facades are shattered, fear and humiliation take over, and repressed human brutality gushes to the surface.
Witold Gombrowicz’s life and works were most recently reminded to New York audiences on the occasion of the Atlantic Theater Company's production of "3 Kinds of Exile" by John Guare. Originally of Polish descent, Gombrowicz spent most of his life in Argentina and died in France. He left Poland shortly before World War II and decided not to come back to the country governed by the communist regime. His plays were not published there until the mid-1980s. According to literature historians, in 1968 Gombrowicz was to be nominated for the Nobel prize in literature and lost to the winner by only one vote.
“Princess Ivona” is coming to NYC for a very limited run, with performances on January 15 and 16, 2016. Tickets are $35 plus a $1.25 theatre restoration charge and are available at Theatre Row Box Office and through Telecharge at 212.239.6200, as well as online at www.telecharge.com. This production is presented under the auspices of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., Polish Cultural Institute New York, and Williams College.
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