Dominik Więcek/Sticky Fingers Club (Poland)
Studio of the Slovak National Theatre
Price: 13,20 – 22 €
GLORY GAME A chilling exploration of sport as a theatre of pain
GLORY GAME examines the limits of the human body under constant camera surveillance. This captivating physical performance reveals how the media transforms athletes into both objects of fascination and victims of their own performance.
Set in a sandy square—an arena, a battlefield, and a refuge all at once—the choreography unfolds in hypnotically slow motion. Through absurdist humour and striking visual imagery, GLORY GAME delves into the price of glory, the endurance of pain, and the sacrifices athletes make for the entertainment of others.
Praktické informácie
Tickets: 22 € full price / 13,20 € students and senior
Venue: Bratislava – Studio of the Slovak National Theatre
Lenght: 60 minutes
In addition to an intense artistic experience, the audience can also expect full nudity and strobe lighting effects. Suitable for audiences aged 18 and over.
Performance:
ABOUT THE PIECE
A chilling exploration of sport as a theatre of pain, GLORY GAME examines the limits of the human body under constant camera surveillance.
The first modern Olympic Games coincide with the invention of the cinematograph, which completely transformed the way sports are participated in and received. The storytelling in the media starts influencing how sport competitions are set up. Rules and regulations of the Olympic fields are being changed under the gaze of the camera and the tele-participation of the spectator. Movements are being edited: slowed down and sped up, replayed in close-ups or expanded by multiple viewpoints. For the spectator, this distorted perception of the games becomes an immersive experience with elements of melodrama. At the center of it all is the body, from which the rules of the game constantly demand more and more. Modern sports impose extreme loads on athletes that exceed the biological capacity of the body. Citus – altius – fortius (faster – higher – stronger).
“You say you want to win in Olympia. However, think through what this entails. You must be obedient, follow your diet, deny yourself cookies, exercise at set times, whether it’s hot or cold. You are not allowed to drink cold water or wine when you want. You should put yourself in the hands of a trainer as if you were entrusting yourself to a doctor. And later, during the competition, it’s your opponent who will try to blind you, and it’s you who will dislocate your arm, and it’s you who will twist your ankle, and it’s you who will ingest sand and be flogged. And after all this, it may happen that you lose.” (Epictetus. Discourses III.15.2-4)
Dramaturgy: Konrad Kurowski
Music: Przemek Degórski
Scenography: Mateusz Mioduszewski
Costumes: Weronika Wood
Light design: Piotr Pieczyński
Production: Teatr Komuna Warszawa
Artist management: Mark Christoph Klee
Performed by: Sticky Fingers Club, Magdalena Niedzielska, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Więcek, Monika Witkowska, Natalia Dinges, Michał Przybyła
Special thanks for inspiring contributions to the creative process: Paweł Wysocki, Johnny Blade, Biesiad Strong.
Residency made possible by: Lublin Dance Theater and the Cultural Center in Lublin
DOMINIK WIĘCEK
Dominik Więcek’s works are filled with humour, playfulness and a sense of lightness, deconstructing dance history, theatre rules and tradition. Taking autobiographical topics, he makes them resonate with the audiences’ lived experiences.
Więcek believes in confessional performances in which honesty can be situated somewhere between privacy and theatrical formality. He flirts with many theatrical genres, explores demanding physical states through extensive movement research, experiments with his own image and challenges societal norms by being an unapologetically queer artist creating in Poland. Trusting his intuition and driven by curiosity he allows himself: not to know, to make mistakes, to take roads to nowhere, as well as getting excited about the smallest of discoveries.
Since 2020 together with Dominika Wiak, Daniela Komędera and Monika Witkowska, he has co-created durational performances and stage works as the Sticky Fingers Club. Więcek’s solo „Café Müller“ and „Glory Game“ were selected to be part of Aerowaves Spring Forward Festival (2023 and 2025).
