Teatr Biuro Podróży win prestigious
Herald Archangel Award
In recognition of their sustained and valued connection with the Edinburgh Fringe, Teatr Biuro
Podróży have today been awarded the Herald Archangel Award. After first performing at the
Fringe in 1995 with Carmen Funebre, it is especially fitting that the award comes to the company
this year as they return with the piece to the Pleasance at EICC alongside its new partner piece
Silence.
Teatr Biuro Podróży have a sterling reputation for breath-taking and haunting large-scale
productions. Using pyrotechnics, stilt-walking and stunning physicality, they have created
extraordinary images of refugees caught up in a spiral of violence and their dreams of escape.
Teatr Biuro Podróży are at the Pleasance this summer with their spectacular outdoor double bill
which considers the refugee experience and the impact of war on civilian populations. The
multi-award-winning show Carmen Funebre will be staged for only four performances to
accompany the new sequel Silence which runs for the full festival.
In her five star review of Silence for The Herald, Mary Brennan comments, It’s twenty-three years since the Polish company, Teatr Biuro Podróży, unleashed the hectic fire, ear-splitting cacophony and Armageddon-on-stilts of Carmen Funebre on an awestruck Fringe. […] They provide a spectacular framework for a collage of evocative images that reach back into history – but are at their most harrowing when echoing our own conflicted times. […] Callous violence, valiant beauty and plaintive humanity over-lap and collide as history repeats in a fiercely physical Silence that asks troubling questions. A viscerally memorable experience for those who stand and watch.
Artistic Director Pawel Szkotak says, we are delighted to receive this award at this Festival, Edinburgh has always been special for us, it was here that we first performed in 1995, in the rain, to a tiny audience in a school playground and ended up winning a Fringe First and the Critics’ Award. Since then we have toured all over North America, India and Europe but we keep coming back here. Our Company is thirty years old this year and this is the most wonderful birthday present. We want to thank the Herald newspaper and especially its performance critic Mary Brennan, who’s seen our work from the beginning and is one of the most perceptive, intelligent and enlightened writers in the world. We also want to thank our first host Richard Demarco, our longstanding friend, and our manager for many years Jane Frere, and our friend and supporter Tomek Borkowy of Universal Arts. Thank you.
Director of Pleasance, Anthony Alderson adds, We’re so thrilled that Teatr Biuro Podróży have been awarded a Herald Archangel Award in recognition of their amazing work at the Fringe over the years. It’s fantastic having them as part of the Pleasance programme this year – not just with Silence but also reviving the inspirational Carmen Funebre. What a perfect tribute to an wonderfully bold company.
Since their inception in 1996, The Herald Angel Awards have been an integral part of the Edinburgh Festival scene, celebrating and rewarding the diverse range of talent from the various festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Jazz & Blues Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Teatr Biuro Podróży performs Silence and Carmen Funebre at the Fringe in 2018, presented by Universal Arts in conjunction with Pleasance Theatre Trust and Assembly Festival. Silence runs until 26th August (not 16th – 19th) at Pleasance at EICC at 21:30; Carmen Funebre runs 16th – 19th August at Pleasance at EICC at 21:30.