The event is organized by the KITE Theater (Kraków Independent Theater Expats), the city’s only English-language drama company, and the Kraków Cultural Forum, in partnership with the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre, under the honorary patronage of THESPIS International Monodrama Festival in Kiel, Germany.
Festival director Monika Hess-Rashad describes monodrama as a unique theatrical genre because of its highly intimate contact between the spectator and actor.
“To be able to see artists from the other side of the world, with their entirely different kind of expression, is an extraordinarily enriching experience”, she said.
“Monodrama is the most precise form of individual expression: one body, one voice, one perspective. Meaning emerges through the coexistence of many singular voices”, according to organizers.
The dominant themes of the performances focus on identity, memory, exclusion and social relationships.
Highlights include “Let it be art”, a solo spectacle in which American actor Ronald Rand stars as Harold Clurman, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American theatre. Rand has performed the show to high acclaim in 28 countries over the past 26 years.
In addition to the US show, the programme comprises solo performances ranging from reinterpretations of literary classics to bold contemporary narratives, presented by actors from Poland, Spain, Romania, Turkey, South Korea, Palestine, Jordan, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and the UK.
The event runs until Sunday.
(mk)