Phantom, Light, Fragment. Bruno Schulz in a Shadow Theater

Abstract

Cinnamon Shops (2014), directed by Robert Drobniuch, is a performance based on the technique of shadow theater. The stage is dark and empty – the actor playing Joseph lights his face with a powerful flashlight. In the back, one can see a paper curtain with moving phantom figures summoned by Joseph from his memory. His story is accompanied by live music (clarinet). The paper world created by Joseph consists of long past histories. The script, including passages from Schulz’s fiction and letters, focuses on two motifs: fascination with the Father and mythologization of childhood. The performance is not a complete, finished vision of Schulz’s universe, but a patchwork of fragments, glimpses, and images.