Rotten Wood is a radio drama based on a novel by Wacław Berent, a Polish modernist author. The author of the script, Iwona Rusek, focused on problems connected with being and becoming an actor. We are listening to a confession: Borowski, a young actor, describes his relationship with his deceased father, who was an actor as well. While working on this radio piece, I tried to ask about the source and nature of art.
I also tried to understand the complicated relationship between two generations of a family working in the same profession, looking into how much understanding and respect but also competition and jealousy there was. I cast two actors from artistic families, Marian Opania and Grzegorz Małecki, hoping that they would be able understand and express all the shades of this experience.
Another important issue for me was the border between art and life and immersing oneself in artistic creativity to such an extent that one no longer remembers who one is.
I asked my composer Grzegorz Łapiński to combine music inspired by trip hop with tracks stylized for classical jazz. In this way we obtained a rich musicscape, suggestive of an artistic cafe from the beginning of twentieth century and helping the audience relate to characters’ emotions and feelings.
