Boa is the first choreographic play in the history of the National Stary Theatre in Kraków. Its main theme and explored space of movement is desire, how it is demonstrated, embodied, and performed. In Boa, choreographer Paweł Sakowicz wonders about paths by which desire circulates in the body; how it is created through a spatial orientation of bodies; how it can be intermediated through popular culture, discourses, and technologies, and what its embodied consequences are.

Delving into the trajectories of desire, Boa mainly focuses on two parts of the body: the hips and the eyes, which do not need the sense of touch in order to touch. Sakowicz draws from cinematic tools that build relationships, organize images, and internalize the outside gaze, though there are no cameras on stage. The bodies here bear traces of stolen choreographies and scraps of fiery soap-opera plots. The actors practice culturally stereotyped dances of the South, and they seduce a non-existent camera, the existing audience, and one another.

Boa (Poland). Choreography by: Paweł Sakowicz. Presented in Polish with English subtitles.

This event is part of the 2024 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Dark Dreams. For more information, visit rehearsalfortruth.org.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration is required.

Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

The 2024 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Dark Dreams is organized by BBLA and the Vaclav Havel Center. The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival is an annual showcase of contemporary Central and Eastern European theater, established in 2017. The festival is a shared endeavor of the Vaclav Havel Center and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with numerous other cultural and performing arts organizations. The festival honors the artistic and political legacy of the Czech playwright/dissident/president Vaclav Havel. We support exchanges between American and European theater professionals and celebrate the power of the theater to transform our lives.