After I woke up, had breakfast, and cleaned up, Tamara offered us the opportunity to go on a boat ride down the section of the Odra River<\/a> that runs through Wroclaw.\u00a0 I was interested in going, so I watched some European music videos while I waited for the others to get set.<\/p>\n It was going to be Yev, Jiv, Chantelle, Ryan, Tamara, Peter, Alexi, Sonia, Una, and myself on that boat.<\/p>\n A few minutes later,\u00a0 and we were underway.<\/p>\n It was an absolutely gorgeous day – sunny, warm, and beautiful.\u00a0 Perfect for boating around Wroclaw.<\/p>\n [simage=339,288] We chugged down the Odra, and then turned around.\u00a0 It was very pleasant.<\/p>\n We also took the opportunity to ask Tamara about the racial\/cultural tension that we thought we had picked up on the night before<\/a>.\u00a0 She told us that she thought it had much to do with the racial monolithicism of Poland.\u00a0 Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Peter Brook said that the Polish audience was the most racially monolithic crowd he’d ever seen.<\/p>\n The boat trip finished.\u00a0 We docked, and the group conversation eventually sizzled out until it was just Tamara and I talking, as we all walked down the streets of Wroclaw.\u00a0 I mentioned how I have never really had the business-end of racism in my face before, and have never had the experience of being the “other”.\u00a0 Tamara responded by telling me that I was very lucky to have grown up in Canada.\u00a0 I agreed with her.<\/p>\n Deciding that we were all hungry, the group split off into smaller groups to find something to eat.\u00a0 The group I was in eventually settled down at a very nice crepe place.\u00a0 I got a crepe with chicken, cheese, spinach and corn.\u00a0 Totally hit the spot!<\/p>\n After eating, we had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we pleased.\u00a0 As had become custom, we spent our time hopping from restaurant to restaurant, sampling this and that, and watching the locals.\u00a0 Una, Sonia, Chantelle, and I eventually found ourselves at “Pomazanka”, which our guidebook promised would provide the “widest selection on ice cream, cakes and pastries on the Rynek<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Sonia had apple cake.\u00a0 Chantelle had chocolate cake.\u00a0 Una had marzipan cake. I went for strawberry gelato, and we all decided that our choices were very good.<\/p>\n [simage=362,288] Had an interesting conversation with Sonia about the gay culture in Poland<\/a>.\u00a0 When asked for her impressions, she told me that from what she saw, since Poland is highly religious, it stands to reason that the gay culture is probably carefully hidden from plain sight.\u00a0 I told her that I agreed with her – at least for Wroclaw.\u00a0 Warsaw seemed a bit more relaxed.<\/p>\n There’s a lapse in my journaling for a few hours here…from memory, I know I eventually went back to the hostel and phoned my Dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day.<\/p>\n My journal picks up again here:<\/p>\n At this point, I was in the middle of watching one of the optional films for that day – MADAME DE SADE directed by KRZYSZTOF WARLIKOWSKI (yep – the same fellow who directed CLEANSED<\/a>).\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 Granted – this was a videotape of a theatre piece, so it was weakened right off the bat.\u00a0 Anyhow, the camera was too far away, so the audience never got to see the actor’s faces, and the sound was just awful. <\/span>If theatre is a medium for communication, this video fell way short.\u00a0 I fell asleep.\u00a0 Instantly forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n It was a double feature for videos that day – the next video was a version of MEDEA by ANATOLIJ WASILJEW.\u00a0 It was a one-woman piece…the video was from a presentation that looked like it happened in an art museum. <\/span><\/p>\n How to describe this piece?<\/span><\/p>\n Two words:\u00a0 Enraged, and Naked.\u00a0 Props to the woman for the effort and the work she was putting in.\u00a0 She was clearly committed, and working hard.\u00a0 However, watching a naked woman yell at me from a chair for an hour is not how I like to spend my time.\u00a0 I just wanted it to stop.\u00a0 If it wasn’t so loud, I’m sure I would have fallen asleep there too.<\/p>\n Video recordings of theatre pieces always fall flat for me – even if they’ve been edited well, and recorded with video in mind.\u00a0 There really are some things that only live theatre can do.<\/p>\n Why didn’t I leave?\u00a0 True – there was nothing keeping me in the theatre.\u00a0 However, I hate leaving bad shows halfway through – I always have this little bit of hope that maybe they’ll save themselves towards the end.\u00a0 Still, I’m usually let down.<\/p>\n Anyhow, we shook off the two videos, and walked back to the hostel to pick up our tickets for that nights live show:\u00a0 AJAX, THE MADNESS by THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS.<\/p>\n Here are some dark and blurry photos of the whole gang getting ready to see AJAX:<\/p>\n [simage=366,288] AJAX was a heavily ritualized Greek performance\/meditation on the Ajax myth<\/a>.\u00a0 The show promised murder, guilt, madness, and war satire.<\/p>\n Like I said: heavily ritualized performance\/meditation.\u00a0 It was like a 20 minute mantra that was repeated 3 times.\u00a0 There were 3 actors, each taking turns leading the mantra, and each putting their own spin on it.<\/p>\n The first guy was my favourite.\u00a0 Total commitment the entire way.\u00a0 The mantra involved lots of repeated physical actions, and this guy put his whole body into it.\u00a0 I knew he was working hard.\u00a0 How did I know?\u00a0 Because he was sweating buckets.\u00a0 And he never swallowed – saliva just gushed out of his mouth for his entire 20 minutes.\u00a0 The man must have lost 2 litres of body fluid over the course of the show.\u00a0 It was unbelievable.\u00a0 I was blown away by the energy and commitment of that guy.<\/p>\n It went downhill for me from there.\u00a0 The second guy had this highly reflective knife that he kept shining into the audience, and it was really annoying.\u00a0 By the time the third guy went up, I think I had the mantra under my belt.\u00a0 It was nice to see the little differences that each iteration had on the last, but it didn’t really grab me.<\/p>\n And the war satire was kind of weak – at least for me.\u00a0 It almost seemed tagged on, like an afterthought – jetfighter fly-over soundcues, and this image of a processional of coffins.\u00a0 I think I heard a Roger Waters tune tucked in there too.<\/p>\n Anyhow, it was OK.\u00a0 Not great, not terrible.\u00a0 It was awkward for the curtain call though.\u00a0 The audience gave the cast some real good applause, and they were bowing, and that was fine.\u00a0 But then they wouldn’t leave.\u00a0 And because they wouldn’t leave the stage, the audience felt compelled to clap more.\u00a0 So they stayed.\u00a0 And then the director came out, and we clapped for him too.\u00a0 And I could feel the applause dying down, but then they’d come up to centre stage and bow again, and people would keep clapping in an attempt to avoid awkwardness.\u00a0 It was almost like they were drawing applause out of us, as opposed to letting us give it to them.<\/p>\n Somehow, the vicious cycle eventually ended.\u00a0 We left.<\/p>\n Saw some interesting sculptures on the street on the way out:<\/p>\n [simage=369,288] Not sure what time it was, but from the photos, it looked like it was starting to get dark out.<\/p>\n On our way home, some of us decided to get some midnight snacks at the grocery store.\u00a0 I got some orange juice (a respectable kind, with an expiry date that I felt good about<\/a>), and some waffle cracker things.\u00a0 Our shopping finished, we walked back to the hotel to eat what we bought.<\/p>\n While eating, we watched David After the Dentist:<\/p>\n11:30AM<\/h2>\n
\n[simage=341,288]
\n[simage=344,288]
\n[simage=346,288]
\n[simage=353,288]
\n[simage=355,288]<\/p>\n1:43PM<\/h2>\n
\n[simage=363,288]
\n[simage=364,288]
\n[simage=365,288]<\/p>\n1:51PM<\/h2>\n
4:20PM<\/h2>\n
5:26PM<\/span><\/h2>\n
AJAX, THE MADESS by THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS<\/h2>\n
\n[simage=367,288]
\n[simage=368,288]<\/p>\n
\n[simage=370,288]
\n[simage=375,288]<\/p>\n