God and Dust – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

God and Dust is a series of experimental shows at the intersection of performance art, music, and visual arts, based on an original theatre play by Tomasz Man. They are rendered in the form of audio theatre – a sound-based show: an attempt to translate the traditional format of radio drama into the live stage.

Sound is produced on stage by the actors and musicians using various instruments, not only musical ones, as well as amplified everyday items. The use of special techniques (such as piezoelectric converters or contact microphones) allows, on the one hand, for hearing ordinary objects, and on the other, for using them in the process of musical composition or improvisation.

In the series of performances, the dramaturge undertakes to reinterpret familiar motifs from the Old Testament. God and Dust is the story of man who, having been expelled from paradise, seeks to reach an understanding with his creator. The play raises questions about the origins of religions, the circumstances, and conditions in which monotheistic religion developed, the way in which the dogmas of the faith were established.

The second part of the project God and Dust concerns blood. Having been expulsed from Paradise, man tries to “make friends” with his Maker. Abraham obeys God blindly. We will listen to his thoughts and doubts, witness his ruthlessness. Abraham wants to “perform an act of love for God” by killing his own son Isaac. Isaac will seek to find out from his father why he wanted to sacrifice him in the name of religion. Does God want man’s blood to accept us, trust us more, love us more? Or is He content with animal blood… Sodom and Gomorrah are a bloody story about “wicked and licentious” townspeople on whom God “rained sulphur and fire.” Only old Lot and his daughters survived – but how to “fill” the earth in this situation? The story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, is one of a bloody vengeance inflicted by two brothers after their sister has been raped by a man from a neighbouring tribe. Does God need such bloody acts? Do people seal it with blood when they want to make friends with their Maker?