My Darling, My Quiet, My Pretty'

My beloved, my angelic, my bewitching,

gentle breeze, scent of the night and sounds of music,

reminiscent of us touching in sweet darkness,

o my darling, o my quiet, o my pretty.

Girl is singing, candle flickers and we listen,

then the silence gently brings us a reminder

of your skin, your silent pauses, forest's perfume

and your freshness, like a meadow's, hypnotizing.

My beloved, my angelic, my bewitching,

song is ending, light is fading, sound receding,

time to enter night of musing and reflections,

time for sin, for game of shadows, reminiscing.

Our voices, healing words return the moments

of childish quarrels, caresses and forgiveness,

words like balsam harmonizing and appeasing,

splendid hells, misguided heavens, absolutions.                    

Song lyrics by I.Iredynski. Translation by E.A.Falk

    Iredynski's first and most important relationship with a woman, his mother, ended when he was four years old. Aleksandra Iredynska left Poland in 1943 and did not come back (1). Her death was never confirmed and her adult son had been exposed to rumors indicating that she was well and living overseas. Instead of experiencing maternal love and devotion Iredynski had to deal with painful emotions of abandonment, rejection and emotional void throughout his life. It is said that the writer had acted as if he was indifferent to his mother's absence, however one of his close friends, Krzysztof Karasek, said in a 2010 radio interview that five or six years before his death Iredynski travelled to USA in hope of finding her (2).

    Although Iredynski's father returned home after the war, his presence brought neither love nor comfort. Regular beatings and military style discipline imposed by the sadistic parent added to the boy's childhood trauma and forced 14 year old Iredynski to leave the family home (1). Although their later contacts were sporadic and very difficult, according to the writer's step daughter Dorota Marczewska, the son kept sending his father money, photographs and newspaper clippings about his literary achievements. (2)

    With parental relationships based on violence and rejection, Iredynski became unable to maintain close and happy relationships with women and despite his fondness of the opposite sex, he often treated women instrumentally and at times openly expressed his misogyny. His faults however did not deprive him of female companions, on the contrary, they attracted many, including those who became his wives or long term partners. One may speculate that his complex character and addiction to a self-destructive, man about town lifestyle contributed to his two marriages and three serious relationships, including one with Jadwiga Staniszkis, his partner of three years during 1970s, ending (he passed away during his second marriage, aged 46).

    Staniszkis, a well known Polish sociologist and academic, wrote about her very difficult and tumultuous union with Iredynski in her book 'Staniszkis. Zycie umyslowe i uczuciowe', published in 2010 (3). There she writes about his drinking, jealousy, betrayals, occasional violence, his partying, entourage and fondness of playing tricks on people. At the same time she writes that being with Iredynski was interesting as he had an acute feeling for lyricism and created an illusion of passion on daily basis to escape the boredom of everyday life. In addition he was a man full of surprises and contradictions, very adaptable, and in the words of his close acquaintance, Polish writer Marek Nowakowski, 'able to change like a chameleon' depending on circumstances and company (2). Nowakowski also said that that the writer had been a loyal friend, who was able to drop his masquerades in the presence of those he trusted and liked (2). Dorota Marczewska, his step daughter, remembers happy times spent together as a family (2), indicating that the writer enjoyed and appreciated the security and warmth of a home environment he never had as a child.

     In her book Jadwiga Staniszkis writes that Iredynski needed love and was happy to receive it but was unable to give it back to her (3). The dynamics of the relationship aside, it appears that his damaged psyche and fear of intimacy may have prevented his emotions to stand still and be embraced. His constant escapism seems like a possible way out of having to face feelings which would require him to open up to reveal his true, unhappy self.

    Despite his inability to love on a deeper level, Iredynski believed love was necessary but could not last, as the romantic ideals were always meant to be crashed by reality. He believed that the initial infatuation and adoration had to end due to neglect, routine and boredom. Those sentiments are reflected in many of Iredynski's works, such as radio plays 'Window' and 'Lift', a movie script 'Anatomy of Love', and short stories volume 'Sentimental Liaisons', where male protagonists, like the author, quickly tire of love and stability or become disappointed with their beloved, not finding the ideals they were looking for.

    In many of Iredynski's works love and fascination turn into marriage only to lead to boredom and betrayal, and after failed attempts to resurrect love, inevitably end in unhappiness, cruelty and divorce. Even some of his most romantic poems/song lyrics, mention fears or past misunderstandings and often contain references to carnal images or pleasures. Love is rarely pure and uncomplicated in his works, as was the case in his life, marriage is condemned, even divorce seems to be useless as it would only lead to another failed marriage, as stated by the male protagonist in the radio play 'Lift'.

    It is common knowledge that although Iredynski regarded love as fleeting and unstable, he was fond of physicality of relationships. Both in his life and 'on paper' love and admiration for women is often associated with sexual attraction. Such is the case in the play titled 'The Third Breast', in which George becomes infatuated with Eva because of her exciting physical anomaly, a third breast, only to lose his enthusiasm once the breast is removed. At the beginning of their romance he says to Eva “You are the most exciting woman I've ever known. Just because you're different”. She later questions “How can you like me with something so disgusting, strange and revolting wrong with me?” to which he replies “I like you only because of it”. It does not come as a surprise that after learning about Eva's surgery George's feelings change: “You were a monster. A beautiful monster. Now you're a woman with a scar on her ribs. Nothing more”.

    Jadwiga Staniszkis has indicated that the idea of a third breast came from Iredynski's belief that some men, including himself, were sexually attracted to women with physical faults or irregularities (in her case it was a sizable scar on her otherwise perfect face). In an interview conducted by Liliana Snieg-Czaplewska titled 'Unhurtable', she stated that Iredynski started to write about manipulation and wrote 'The Third Breast' following their very difficult and complex relationship kept 'alive' by manipulative behavior and psychological games (4).

    Iredynski was undoubtedly both fascinated by and disappointed with love. His relationships with women were essential to him and played a very important role in his personal and professional life. Although he is known to have regarded the opposite sex as inferior to men and often treated women as sex objects, his lyrical alter ego viewed lovers' sensual and passionate acts as being beautiful and romantic. It also appears that a physical union between sexes was the only aspect of male and female relationship Iredynski could not fault and regarded as an almost sacred act validating and glorifying the primeval male-female bond. Contrary to love, sexual act is simple, does not require verbalization and explanation, is definite in its origin and end, purpose and process, and can provide 'shelter' for lovers afraid of commitment, as can be seen in Iredynski's beautiful poem 'The two of us'.

                  The Two of Us

Here we are, You and I, caressing defenseless

words unborn hibernate in the caves of language

gagged by the passion flaming through the bodies

halos above us so heavy they're hurting

And then comes the instant vibrating yet soundless

mercurial halos turning into silver

sweat clinging to nipples not wanting to ripen

silence like fever shoots through us and shivers

Then we freeze, afraid, staring at the moment

scared of the seconds when the words appear.

Desperate to escape like two helpless cowards

we kiss, become one, and have nothing to fear.

                                 Translation by E.A.Falk

 Sources

   1. Ireneusz Iredynski. Wikipedia.pl. Web. 14 June 2013.

  <pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireneusz_Iredynski> 

2.      Ireneusz Iredynski. (Radio Interviews). Web. 14 June 2013. <www.polskieradio.pl/7/177/Artykul/213059/O-Ireneuszu-Iredynskim 25/01/2010

3.      Staniszkis w nowej ksiazce. Web. 14 June 2013 <www.wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/…/1,114873,7654180/Staniszkis_w_nowej_ksiazce 12/3/10

4. Jadwiga Staniszkis w wywiadzie z Liliana Snieg-Czaplewska. Web 14 June 2013 www.kartkazpodrozy.blog.onet.pl/2010/08/24/milosc-2/

TICKETS

  Ambassador Theater Presents

US Premiere of

The Third Breast

By Ireneusz Iredynski

Translated by Sylvia Daneel

Directed by Hanna Bondarewska

Assistant to the Director Matthew Ingraham

Set Design by Antonio Petrov

Music by Paul Oehlers

Sound by Paul Oehlers and George Gordon

Video/Visual Effects by George Gordon

Costumes by Sigrid Johannesdottir 

Lights by Joseph R. Walls

Stage Manager Rachel Silvert

Preview: July 10, 2013 at 8pm

Opening July 11, 2013 at 8pm

July 10 – August 4, 2013

Shows: Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 pm

Sundays at 2 pm

Mead Theatre Lab at FLASHPOINT

916 G Street, NW

Washington DC 20001

 Get your Tickets on Line at Instant Seats

CAST and Crew:

Hanna Bondarewska

Founder, CEO, and Artistic Director

Hanna Bondarewska is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Ambassador Theater and was recently seen in They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay! by Dario Fo as Antonia, Smartphones as Maria, Protest as Stankova, Death of Tintagiles as Ygraine and in Summer at Nohant as George Sand. “For Hanna Bondarewska, the path to world peace not only exists, she is walking it — one artistic endeavor at a time.” – The Washington Diplomat.

Hanna Bondarewska is a native of Warsaw, Poland and was trained in the Polish and American schools of drama. She founded the Ambassador Theater because she believes in the power of theater to change the world for the better through collaboration and artistry. By bringing together theater and diplomacy she hopes to give us all a new perspective as global citizens, which will lead to deeper cultural understanding.

In June 2008, Hanna organized a life-changing trip to Poland for students from D.C. Public Schools as part of an educational program about Poland. The program was done in collaboration with Mrs. Hanna Reiter, wife of the former Ambassador of Poland to USA, the Embassy of Poland, Embassy Adoption Program, D.C. Public Schools and WPAS. She worked with over 60 students, teaching them about Poland, its history, culture, and traditions through theater designed to help them better retain learnt material, improve their reading comprehension, posture, and speaking skills, increase their imagination, and energize their drive for life.

The program developed into a performance, "Poland the Beautiful, an Imaginary ." Students performed the piece at their schools and at the Embassy of Poland, and then took it on the road for the First Lady of Poland, Mrs. Maria Kaczynska, at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw and in many other places around Poland last June.

Hanna’s acting credits are extensive and include the role of George Sand in "Summer at Nohant", Young Helena Modjeska in ""Farewell to Arden" at ATICC, and in "Helena—the Emigrant Queen"; "Sunflowers" at the Polish Theater Institute in New York; Square Minus One; A Genie Named Khatab; Snow Queen; Anouilh’s Antigone; Gogol’s The Marriage; and Goldoni’s Mirandolina and many others.

Ms. Bondarewska has recently directed The Trap, Happily Ever After, The Visitor, The Third Breast, The Madman and the Nun, Death of Tintagiles, Miracle of Saint Anthony, Summer at Nohant, Farewell to Arden, Forefathers, and Out at Sea.

Her one-woman show, Lotte Lenya, won recognition at the Kennedy Center Performing Arts Festival. Hanna performed at the Washington Shakespeare Theatre, Spectrum Theatre, Classika-Synetic Theatre, The New York Polish Theater, Hippodrome State Theatre, and Acrosstown Theater in Florida, where she also directed The Tao of Pooh, based on the book by B. Hoffman, and S. Mrożek’s Tango. Her Polish theater credits are extensive and include work in Warsaw, Bialystok, Olsztyn, Torun, Katowice, and Wroclaw with many luminaries of the Polish stage.

Hanna is teaching drama at  Ambassador Theater's Outreach Programs and has also taught special outreach programs with Classika-Synetic Theatre at Arlington schools with Lilia Slavova and drama classes at Classika. She graduated magna cum laude from the Mount Vernon College of The George Washington University and earned her Acting Diploma in Poland. For over 15 years she served as Executive Director of the Institute for Education and Membership Chairman of the ABC XXI Child Awareness Program for Poland, which supports the emotional health and rights of children and adolescents through reading programs, awareness, education, and action.

Ms. Bondarewska has received various honors, including 2015 and 2014 DC Metro Theater  Arts Best Director, Best Play Award, 2013 Helen Hayes Canadian Partnership Award, the St. Cyril and Methodius Award of excellence in promoting the Bulgarian Culture, Julia Heflin Performing Arts Award, recognition by Who's Who Among Students in American Universities, identification as a National Dean's List Scholar, and others.

Antonio Petrov

Antonio Petrov (Set Designer) is a contemporary artist who was born in Bulgaria in 1969. He began painting, drawing and sculpting at a very early age. He graduated from The National High School of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria and got his MA degree from the Bulgarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. Antonio has worked as a sculptor for the Bulgarian National Television and Bulgarian Film Studios, as well as for the American movie company Nu Image Bulgaria Ltd. Since 2005 Antonio has been living and working in Springfield, VA, focusing primarily on painting and interior decoration. He’s been a member of Lorton Workhouse Artists Association since 2010. For contacts: www.ArtAntonioPetrov.artistwebsites.com

Sissel Bakken

Sissel Bakken (Vankova) was recently seen in Ambassador Theater’s production of The Third Breast as Eva. She has also been seen on the DC stage in plays such as A Clockwork Orange, Mein Kampf, The Importance of Being Ernest, War of the Worlds and Sink the Belgrano. She has starred in the award-wining movie Bright Lights and Promises and the Musical Play Battle hymn of a freedman. Some of Ms. Bakken’s credits on the opera stage are The Hostess in Zytowski/Rossini’s Pinocchio; 3rd. Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute; Prince Orlofsky in Strauss's Die Fledermaus; Zita in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi; The Mistress of the Novices in Puccini's Suor Angelica. Ms. Bakken performs regularly in solo recitals and collaborative concerts in the U.S. and abroad. She also runs a well-established voice and piano studio in Arlington, VA. www.sisselbakken.com

Matthew Ingraham

Matthew Ingraham (George) is fresh out of the musical theatre program at American University. His past roles at the University include Mr. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, The Specialist in The Who's Tommy and Dawg Hamma in Orpheus Descending. Matthew has also received the Irene Ryan Scholarship nomination for his role as Nazi/Rabbi in I Never Saw Another Butterfly. This past February he had the opportunity to perform at Ford's Theatre as a part of their Evening of Thornton Wilder One Acts where he played Charles in The Long Christmas Dinner. http://www.matthewingraham.com/ 

Christopher Henley

Christopher Henley is a founding ensemble member with WSC Avant Bard (formerly Washington Shakespeare Company, founded 1990) and was artistic director from 1996 until early 2013. For WSC, he directed several plays by Shakespeare (Hamlet, Lear, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, and Richard III) as well as The Grapes of Wrath by Frank Galati (from John Steinbeck), Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, 5th of July by Lanford Wilson, Miss Julie by August Strindberg, Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, Macbett by Eugene Ionesco, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore by Tennessee Williams, Hapgood by Tom Stoppard, Caligula by Albert Camus, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Camille: a tearjerker by Charles Ludlam, Lulu by Frank Wedekind, and, for the Capital Fringe Festival, Hotel Fuck by avant garde visionary Richard Foreman (also playing Tony Turbo in that production). Other directing credits include SCENA Theatre (The Firebugs by Max Frisch), Spheres Theatre Company (Gimme Shelter by Barrie Keefe and Auto-da-Fe by Tennessee Williams), and Source Theatre Company (at which his production of The Zoo Story by Edward Albee ran successfully and received three revivals during the 1980s). In Source's first Washington Theatre Festival in 1981, he directed Good Money, the debut play by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Will Rokos (Monster's Ball). In The Washington Post, chief theatre critic Lloyd Rose grouped him with Michael Kahn, Douglas C. Wager, and Joe Banno as directors that have made DC a wonderful town for Shakespearean production (June 9, 1995). He has accepted an unprecidented three Theatre Lobby Mary Goldwater awards: on behalf of WSC for his production of Uncle Vanya in 1993; again in 1997 on behalf of WSC for his first two shows as artistic director (including Travesties, in which he played James Joyce); and in 2003 as an actor for playing Julian in WSC’s Tiny Alice. He also was Master of Ceremonies for a fourth Goldwater awards ceremony. Two WSC performances brought him Helen Hayes nominations: Horst in Bent and Eddy in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In addition, he has presented twice at the Hayes awards. For Helen Hayes (and its successor organization theatreWashington), he has served on a panel selecting Helen Hayes judges; twice served on the panel which choses DC artistic directors to participate in the Canadian-Washington Theatre Partnership; and was himself chosen earlier to participate in that program, through which he visited Canada, saw theatre there, and met with theatre professionals. For the past three years, he has served on the panel selecting artists to participate in the Source Festival. As an actor, at WSC, he has played numerous Shakespearean parts including Richard II, Falstaff, Henry IV, Lysander, Jacques, Horatio, Caska, Don John, Don Pedro, MacDuff, Son of MacDuff, Duncan, Donalbain, and two Antonios (The Tempest and The Two Gentleman of Verona). Other favorite roles at WSC include Spooner in No Man's Land, Joxer in Juno and the Paycock, the title role in Edward II, Quentin in Small Craft Warnings, The Pope in Red Noses, Franz Kafka in Kafka's Dick, Dysart in Equus, Martha in The Children’s Hour, Creon/Messenger in Medea, Didi in Waiting for Godot, LeFranc in Deathwatch, Sir Archibald Jumper in Jumpers, Shannon in The Night of the Iguana, Solange in The Maids, McCann in The Birthday Party, Wesley in Curse of the Starving Class, Polidori in Bloody Poetry, Marat in Marat/Sade, Cradeau in No Exit, Felix in The Normal Heart, Moon in The Real Inspector Hound, young Dr. Frankenstein in Playing with Fire, and He in Every Young Woman's Desire. He acted in the first Source Theatre Company production on 14th Street in 1980 (as Michael Williams in Bart Whiteman's production of Henry V) and played Michael Dara opposite Nancy Robinette in Whiteman's 10th anniversary production of In the Shadow of the Glen, the play with which Bart had begun Source in 1977. Also a founding company member with SCENA Theatre, he was in the inaugural SCENA production in 1987 (as Poet/Mr. Pigg/Wall Boy in Help Wanted) and he has appeared there frequently, including as the sole character in Wallace Shawn’s The Fever (which he played in DC in 2004, Berlin in 2003, and Maribor, Slovenia in 2002), Prince Philip in Ivona, Princess of Burgundia (in DC and at a festival in Lublin, Poland), Roderick in The Fall of the House of Usher (in DC, Berlin, and Vienna), Orestes in both Orestes (DC and Thessaloniki, Greece) and Iphigeneia in Tauris (DC), Eddy in Greek, Joseph K in The Trial, Clov in the 1999 Endgame, Nicolas in One for the Road, in two plays by Vaclav Havel (as Vanek in Audience and as Xiboy in Mistake), as Mark in Shopping and Fucking, as Master Jack in Tropical Madness,
and others. In NYC in the early '80s, he reprised two DC roles (Kid in Gimme Shelter and Karl in Michi's Blood), but the highlight of his short career there was playing the title role in The Ruffian on the Stair and receiving a rave review for it in The Village Voice. Other DC performances include Don John at Folger Theatre, Lenny in The Homecoming at Spheres Theatre, and Valmont in the hit, all-male Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Actors' Theatre of Washington; world premieres of Kathleen Akerley's adaptation of Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and her original play Something Past in Front of the Light at Longacre Lea; and DC premieres including Killer Joe (as Joe Cooper) for Cherry Red Productions, Orphans (as Philip) for Moving Target, and True West (as Austin) at Source. He studied theatre at The College of Wooster (in Wooster, Ohio), where he directed Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children and Strindberg's Creditors.

Rachel Silvert

A Chicago native, Rachel Silvert (stage manager) received her degree in Musical Theater from American University in 2012. Since then, she has been acting and working in the DMV area, and studying with the Studio Theater Acting Conservatory. Previous productions include: DC/MD area: Steel Magnolias (Annelle Dupuy), Making Love Legal (Miriam), The Music Man (Maude Dunlop); American University: Talking With...(soloist, dance captain), The Three Sisters (Anfisa). Silvert is thrilled to join Ambassador Theater, and to work once again with Hanna Bondarewska, on this production.

Paul A. Oehlers

Paul A. Oehlers is most recognized for his “extraordinarily evocative” film scores. (Variety) Films incorporating his music have screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the Indiefest Film Festival of Chicago, and the Hamptons International Film Festival, where the film Paul scored, Most High, captured the Golden Starfish, the largest independent film award in the United States. The film has gone on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta International Film Festival and the Prism Award for Outstanding DVD of the Year. Paul A. Oehlers’ compositions have been performed in the United States and abroad including performances at the Society for Electro-acoustic Music in the United States national conferences, the International Computer Music Conferences, the Gamper New Music Festival, the Seoul International Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung in Darmstadt, Germany, and the VII Annual Brazilian Electronic Music Festival, as well as a 1987 command performance for former United States President Ronald Reagan. Paul was named the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow by the MacDowell Colony for the year 2006. He is currently Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Audio Technology at American University in Washington, DC.

Joseph R. Walls

Joseph R. Walls (Lighting Designer) Recent designs include Aida for the National Theatre of Panama, Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue NYMF production, Teatro En Circulo in Panama City, Panama, WSC Avant Bard, South Carolina Governors' School, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Footworks Percussive Dance Company, The High Performance Rodeo at Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary, Canada, The InSeries Impossible Theater Company, Ballet Spartanburg, Public Displays of Motion, American University, and Factory 449 where he is a company member. He designed Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame (NYMF), which was voted one of the top 15 shows of 2011 by The Huffington Post. He received his BFA with a specialization in Lighting Design from the University of Michigan. www.jwallsdesign.com.

Sylvia Daneel

Sylvia Daneel was born in Warsaw Poland. She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. Later she received a scholarship to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio obtaining a BA in two years and then at Iowa State University where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree. Ms. Daneel became an American citizen by a special act of Congress. She first appeared on Broadway in ‘The Girl on Via Flaminia“, directed by Jose Quintero. Ms Daneel received the Daniel Blum Award as one of the most promising personalities on Broadway for her part in “The Tunnel of Love” with Tom Ewell, having been selected from over 200 actresses. She directed and starred in “The Fourposter” at the Charles Street Playhouse in Boston. Another hit play followed on Broadway “Romanoff and Juliet” with Peter Ustinov. She then had a starring role on Broadway in a new play by Pearl S. Buck “A Desert Incident.” She toured from coast to coast with Claudette Colbert in “A Community of Two” by Jerome Chodorov, including a two week engagement at the National Theater in Washington DC. Ms. Daneel has appeared in numerous TV shows and films. While living in Rome, Italy she appeared in Italian films and TV. She became the Theatre Guild Representative in Italy and led many Theatre Guild tours to festivals of theater and art in Europe. Ms. Daneel worked as a speaker, translator and editor in the Polish Service of the Voice of America in Washington, DC. In 1966 she produced at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall a program ”Polish Flowers” that combined the music of Frederick Chopin with poetry of Julian Tuwim. In May 1998 she produced at the George Washington University Marvin Theatre a concert ”With a Song Around the World” with the famous Polish singer and international recording star Irena Jarocka and pianist-composer Vanddi. In 1999 she produced and directed a Polish play by Marian Hemar “Square of Minus One” at the Spectrum Theatre in Rosslyn, Arlington. She created the New Polish Theatre and in 2000 produced and directed the world premier of Slawomir Mrozek’s play “A Beautiful View” also presented at the Rosslyn Spectrum . In 2001 co-produced and co-chaired a fund- raising concert ”Franz Liszt: A Celebration” at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium with Polish virtuoso pianist Jerzy Stryjniak and world famous biographer of Liszt professor Allan Walker. She has translated a number of plays and books from Polish into English. Her last translation of a play by Ireneusz Iredynski “The Third Breast” was produced and directed by Hanna Bondarewska at her Ambassador Theater in Washington, DC.

George Gordon

George Gordon (Sound & Video/Visual) is an audio professional hailing from Red Bank, NJ. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Audio Production with a focus on Music Production from American University. He specializes in live sound engineering and sound design for Theater, as well as audio/video recording and editing.

Sigríður Jóhannesdóttir (Costume Designer)

Sigríður or Sigrid as she is called here in the United States is a native of Iceland. 
She came to the United States 1988 to pursue her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Design after having taught Icelandic and History at Fjölbrautaskóli Suðurnesja, (college) in Keflavik, Iceland for several years.
One year after her graduation 1992, she started her own decorative arts company; Scene Studios, Inc., www.scenestudios.com as well as Dedua, www.dedua.com, a business focusing on fashion accessories. She still runs both companies in Alexandria, Virginia. 
Through the years she has designed costumes for various theatrical productions in Washington D.C. as well as worked for the Washington Opera. She is the resident costume designer for The Washington Stage Guild and The Ambassador Theatre in DC. She has taught theatrical design at American University in Washington DC, and in Morgantown, West Virginia. Presently she is in her fourth year of serving as a costume design professor at George Washington University.

Sissel Bakken as Eva

Christopher Henley as Thomas 

Matthew Ingraham as George

Is there a place on earth where our problems can disappear? A place where money is of no value? A place where we can truly be ourselves?  These questions are asked by the characters of "The Third Breast", who attempt to escape from everyday life in search of true identity. The play explores such themes as addiction to power; fear of the Other; the search for an absolute; love and erotic fascination; the consequences of blind faith.  Join the Commune on its spiritual journey to achieve perfection.  Is it even possible? 

   The biography of Ireneusz Iredynski, one of Poland's 'angry young men', reads like an adventure novel. He was born in 1939 at the onset of the WWII, which took most of his family, robbed him of childhood and forced him into premature adulthood. His frustration and rebellious nature manifested early, when in 1953 at the age of 14 he left his relatives' care and moved to Cracow to seek a life as a writer. Two years later he made his literary debut and joined the young writers section of Poland's Literary Association. In 1958 he moved to Warsaw, continued writing, and soon embarked on a successful and productive literary career earning himself a well deserved recognition and acclaim both in Poland and overseas. His extensive body of works includes stage and radio plays, short stories, novels, film scripts, poems and song lyrics (1).
   The writer's reputation as a talented and fertile author was not the only factor contributing to his fame. Iredynski's rebellious, non-conformist streak and his anti-communist views soon found their way into his writing, attracting the attention of the authorities. It later transpired that he had been under observation since 1958 when one of his poems appeared in   "Culture", a Paris magazine blacklisted in Poland. Unable to "pin him down" for any explicit anti-communist expressions, the authorities took advantage of his 'bon vivant' lifestyle and love of female company to charge him with rape and send him to prison (2). Three years spent in a penitentiary left a life-changing impression on 27 year old Iredynski and further reinforced his trademark nihilistic and cynical outlook as well as dominant themes of his works. He once said that prison changed him forever, that everything inside him "got rearranged, broken up"(3).
   Justly compared to Dostoyevsky, Iredynski was not only preoccupied with pathological and irrational aspects of human nature but also able to cleverly analyze and justify deviant behavior. His literary 'microscope' examined complex human relations in the context of universal themes of good and evil, freedom and coercion, love and sex, power, violence, obsession, manipulation and deceit. He had said of his writing: "I write about an individual and violence", "My protagonists personify anxiety", "I am interested in extremes"(4). How right he was in saying that his literary characters were a projection of his imagination, dreams, anxieties, knowledge, viewpoint and subconscious. Himself a flawed human, alienated and disappointed, he kept finding himself in constant struggles with his own demons, addictions and obsessions, finding solace in a fast paced and self-destructive lifestyle, which led to his untimely death at the age of 46.
   Third Breast is a classic example of one of Iredynski's favorite scenarios in which human weaknesses, insecurities and obsessions paired up with power, lead to manipulation, cruelty and violence. The play invites us into a closed, almost cult like community of nature lovers, whose charismatic spiritual leader, Ewa, unexpectedly grows a third breast and unable to have it removed, becomes depressed and unsure of her future leadership ability. After failed suicide attempt she manipulates her closest allies, a commune founder Thomas and her new lover George, into killing two community members who know her secret and as such pose a threat to her leadership status. George gains Ewa's total trust by playing a key role in the “accidental” killings, and as her favorite and only lover, begins to feel his growing power. What follows makes the plot even more unexpected and shocking…

US Premiere of

The Third Breast

Translated by Sylvia Daneel

Directed by Hanna Bondarewska

Preview July 10, 2013 at 8pm

Opening July 11, 2013 at 8 pm

Run: Th-Sundays until August 4, 2013

Mead Theater Lab at FLASHPOINT

916 G Street, NW, Washington DC,2 0001

Sources
   1. Szkolnictwo.pl. Ireneusz Iredynski. Web. 19 March 2013
     <www.szkolnictwo.pl/szukaj,Ireneusz_Iredynski>
2.    Siedlecka, Joanna. Iredynski Zbaletowany. Rzeczpospolita 19
Mar 2005. Web. 19 Mar 2013.  
     <http://teatry.art.pl/portrety/iredynski/zbaletowany.htm>
3.    Poland in the Classroom. Ireneusz Iredynski. Polish Academic Information Centre. University of Buffalo. Web 19 March 2013.
     <info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/arts_culture/…/literature/
     drama/iredynski/link.shtml>   
   4. Ireneusz Iredynski. Wikipedia.pl. Web. 19 March 2013.
  <pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireneusz_Iredynski>