Reality

Everyday Life – Extraordinary and Unique

In a daily gesture of survival that lasted almost half a century, a Polish woman named Janina Turek that became a habit and Janina wrote down wrote in notebooks the calls she received, people she met by chance, evenings at the theatre, meals eaten, letters sent. One day in 1943, she saw her husband led off by the Gestapo. Stupefaction. Shock. To cope with the passage of time, she wrote down everything that occurred in her life. That astronomical amount of data offered the Italian artists Daria Deflorian and Antonio Tagliarini material for a wonderful inquiry into ordinary life.

748 notebooks. The inventory of a lifetime. On an almost bare stage, a search for truth appears in the guise of a portrait of this woman, a deeply moving evocation. From the anonymity of a simple, unpretentious existence emerges the voice of dignity, delicately unique and imposing. Sharing with Janina the stubborn desire to illuminate reality, Deflorian and Tagliarini entrust to the theatre this impossible archive of the self that, while part of historical events, also slips from their grasp. A modest act of bravura.

Produced by A.D. + ZTL_Pro (Rome) + Festival Inequilibrio / Armunia (Castiglioncello)
Written, directed and performed by Daria Deflorian + Antonio Tagliarini
Inspired by the documentary Reality de / by Mariusz Szczygiel translated by Marzena Borejczuk (Nottetempo, 2011)
Lighting design Gianni Staropoli
Artistic collaborator Marzena Borejczuk

Created in association with Fondazione Romaeuropa + Teatro di Roma
Creative residencies Festival Inequilibrio / Armunia (Castiglioncello) + Ruota Libera / Centrale Preneste Teatro (Rome) + Dom Kultury Podgórze (Krakow)
With the support of Istituto Polacco di Roma
With the support of Nottetempo (Rome) + Kataklisma Teatro / Uovo Critico (Rome) + Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Cracovia + Dom Kultury Podgórze  

Presented in association with Carrefour international de théâtre (Québec) + Théâtre ESPACE GO

Premiered at Festival Inequilibrio Armunia, Castiglioncello, June 30, 2012