Bicycle Thieves

We invited actresses, designers, cartoonists, musicians, cycling enthusiasts and enthusiasts in general to create the performance. All those who were willing to take part in theatre, music, set design, poster and visual workshops – in international groups. And after three months, they got on their bikes to steal some time and space from the city.

The Bike thieves carried out an invasion. An urban invasion. In public places. In squares, plazas, streets. An invasion in the very centre by those who live every day on the periphery. A great theatrical and bicycle festival in which everyone could participate, regardless of whether they had a bicycle, theatre or migration experience. It was a performance about refugees and with refugees. About the poor and the rich, with the poor and the rich. And about fathers and sons, with the participation of fathers and sons. About work, the lack of it and the search for it, about the necessity and disagreement of adapting to the general rules and about the sense of responsibility and alienation. We made a lot of noise, we occupied a lot of space, we plastered the city, we created places to celebrate together, to crowd together, to discover, to tell stories, to move, to watch, to talk. Three months of workshops and co-creation culminated in a performance that engaged actors and audience in a ride through Warsaw together for several hours.

Bicycles became a pretext for a story, means of transport, actors, instruments and elements of stage design. Transformed and disassembled, they played, told stories, served as a source of film and sound projections. A few hundred people crossing the city with artistic interventions in urban space was an opportunity for a common creative celebration, a common journey during which we discovered successive theatrical chapters.

The film Bicycle Thieves was the starting point for the theatrical, musical, scenographic and film workshops – the story, images, scenes and motifs were used as inspiration to create choreography, monologues, texts, stories, stage and performance actions, videos and sounds. In the dramaturgy of the final performance of the workshop, De Sika’s story was intertwined with the stories and materials collected during the workshop, thus with the biographies of the participants themselves and with the stories of refugees. The workshop was a reflection on the city and its openness to strangers, those just arriving and those who have been trying to make a life for some time. The dramaturgy of the performance based on De Sika’s story made it possible to compare the protagonist of Bicycle Thieves and the migrant situation. De Sika’s protagonist observes the life of the city, but does not participate in it; he watches places, meetings and events as if through a glass pane, he does not identify with the laws that govern it. The institutions to which he turns do not fulfil their function, and the unwritten social rules are alien to him. What happens to him is incomprehensible and at times surreal, and all attempts to explain what is happening fail. At all times, he is accompanied by the eyes of his son, gazing at him with great hope for change. We followed the story of De Sika’s protagonist and the collected refugee stories through analogies of situations, problems, challenges. Our protagonist was a father travelling with his son, responsible for getting a job, supporting his family, sent on a mission and fearing failure and the disappointed gaze of his son.

Workshop leaders and presenters: Alicja Borkowska, Tomasz Gromadka, Katarzyna Krapacz, Grzegorz Ryczywolski, Kinga Nowicka, Wiktor Korzeniewski, Wowik Zygmunt, Ray Dickaty, Katarzyna Muranty-Sawicka, Maria Porzyc

Organised by: Strefa WolnoSłowa
Partners: UNHCR Poland, Plan B Association, NextBike, Plac Zabawności, Bar Studio, Plac Defilad, Dwa Osiem, Studio Teatralne “Koło”, Zmiana Organizacji Ruchu, Teatr Powszechny, Fundacja “Ocalenie”, Zespół Kancelaria Adwokackich Plac Zbawiciela 2, Veturilo
Media patrons: TVP Kultura, Kontynent Warszawa, Radio dla Ciebie