There are people out there! - "Szalone nożyczki" in Cracow, Bagatela
Polska wersja tekstu tutaj.
„Szalone nożyczki” is a Polish adaptation of the play Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie written by Paul Pörtner. In the USA, the play is called “Shear Madness” and, according to Wikipedia, is a huge success there. In Poland it’s been played in various theatres with various cast and apparently people love it here, too. I’ve been to The Bagatela Theatre in Cracow on Friday, 29th April to see it.
The Bagatela Theatre, Cracow
Warning: I believe this play works best if you don't exactly know what to expect. If it's played in your country and you want to watch it, have that in mind. Although some reviews mention everything I'm going to talk about so maybe I'm just oversensitve about spoilers.
When I was in high school, I had a chance to see it but I missed it. The only thing I remembered since then was that it was brilliant and viewers were involved in it somehow. When I bought the tickets nearly three months ago, I refused to read anything about the play and just see what will happen. And I was thrilled.
The first forty or fifty minutes are just an ordinary play - we are in a hair salon, watching two employees and some clients, working and chatting. There are some gags but nothing really unusual is going on. Then we hear a scream: a body is found in an apartment upstairs; the police come and start to investigate. There are four suspects in the salon. Fortunately, there’s a large group if witnesses. This is when the fun begins - it’s us.
The police officer addresses the viewers directly (with a hilarious “Oh no, there are people there!” from one of the characters) and asks for help. We have to recall what’s happened in that forty minutes: who went where and when, what everyone was doing and saying; all details can be important. If a suspect lies and hides anything, we are supposed to react. Later, we can ask questions (and the suspects come up with immediate and often snarky answers) and there’s a voting for who we think is a murderer. The play’s end depends on the result of the voting. It’s not a case written with a clockwork precision - some leads occur to be not important, some questions don’t have an answer - but I realised it’s not about the case (and it's more like it's in life this way, isn't it?) but about our perception.
Nothing bad has happened yet...
No one has told us to be focused and try to remember everything (well, unless someone’s seen the play before, or read about it more than I did), there was always something going on on stage and we had to split our attention. It’s interesting to see what we notice and what not, what we remember and what not. I missed a lot of details and I had problem with establishing the timeline - I remember things but didn’t know when they happened. After someone said something or asked a question, some facts came back to me. People on the audience reacted differently: some knew much more than me but someone remembered a laptop that was never on stage...The longer we were thinking and deliberating, more and more elements seemed odd. Conclusion? Being a detective who has to say which facts are important and which aren’t is a really hard job. Also - you should never trust witnesses for one hundred percent. They may want to help but memory isn't perfect.
“Szalone nożyczki” can’t be a success without actors with improvisation skills and an audience willing to participate. I wonder what the actors and the director can say about the audience’s perception after many performances. Can anything surprise them now? I had a really good time: sheer fun and an interesting experiment, what more can I wish for? Well, I hoped one of the policemen was the killer (always think outside the box!). But at least Tonio, a hairdresser I absolutely adored, was innocent :)
„Szalone nożyczki” is a Polish adaptation of the play Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie written by Paul Pörtner. In the USA, the play is called “Shear Madness” and, according to Wikipedia, is a huge success there. In Poland it’s been played in various theatres with various cast and apparently people love it here, too. I’ve been to The Bagatela Theatre in Cracow on Friday, 29th April to see it.
The Bagatela Theatre, Cracow
Warning: I believe this play works best if you don't exactly know what to expect. If it's played in your country and you want to watch it, have that in mind. Although some reviews mention everything I'm going to talk about so maybe I'm just oversensitve about spoilers.
When I was in high school, I had a chance to see it but I missed it. The only thing I remembered since then was that it was brilliant and viewers were involved in it somehow. When I bought the tickets nearly three months ago, I refused to read anything about the play and just see what will happen. And I was thrilled.
The first forty or fifty minutes are just an ordinary play - we are in a hair salon, watching two employees and some clients, working and chatting. There are some gags but nothing really unusual is going on. Then we hear a scream: a body is found in an apartment upstairs; the police come and start to investigate. There are four suspects in the salon. Fortunately, there’s a large group if witnesses. This is when the fun begins - it’s us.
The police officer addresses the viewers directly (with a hilarious “Oh no, there are people there!” from one of the characters) and asks for help. We have to recall what’s happened in that forty minutes: who went where and when, what everyone was doing and saying; all details can be important. If a suspect lies and hides anything, we are supposed to react. Later, we can ask questions (and the suspects come up with immediate and often snarky answers) and there’s a voting for who we think is a murderer. The play’s end depends on the result of the voting. It’s not a case written with a clockwork precision - some leads occur to be not important, some questions don’t have an answer - but I realised it’s not about the case (and it's more like it's in life this way, isn't it?) but about our perception.
Nothing bad has happened yet...
No one has told us to be focused and try to remember everything (well, unless someone’s seen the play before, or read about it more than I did), there was always something going on on stage and we had to split our attention. It’s interesting to see what we notice and what not, what we remember and what not. I missed a lot of details and I had problem with establishing the timeline - I remember things but didn’t know when they happened. After someone said something or asked a question, some facts came back to me. People on the audience reacted differently: some knew much more than me but someone remembered a laptop that was never on stage...The longer we were thinking and deliberating, more and more elements seemed odd. Conclusion? Being a detective who has to say which facts are important and which aren’t is a really hard job. Also - you should never trust witnesses for one hundred percent. They may want to help but memory isn't perfect.
“Szalone nożyczki” can’t be a success without actors with improvisation skills and an audience willing to participate. I wonder what the actors and the director can say about the audience’s perception after many performances. Can anything surprise them now? I had a really good time: sheer fun and an interesting experiment, what more can I wish for? Well, I hoped one of the policemen was the killer (always think outside the box!). But at least Tonio, a hairdresser I absolutely adored, was innocent :)