The Books of Jacob

December 6–8, 2024
Presented by La MaMa in partnership with CultureHub and the Polish Cultural Institute New York
Press: New York Theater, Electric Link Journey

In this quantum, Kabbalistic, VR spectacle, the story of Jacob Frank comes to life simultaneously in seven locations around the world in a synchronized performance happening in New York, Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Greece. Actors performing on physical stages in each country and on a digital stage in virtual reality, capture a world on the brink of change as they animate the story of a young Jew in the 18th-century who experiences ecstatic visions travels across the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, meeting heretical condemnation one moment and messianic recognition the next.

The Books of Jacob is a live performance that audiences can experience in-person in each country or online in VRChat. Audiences at La MaMa will have the opportunity to put on a VR headset and experience the production digitally, as well as from their seat where the virtual environment will be projected and layered into the scenography.

The digital performance network activated as part of this project transforms how theater is experienced and expands the theater’s global reach. Through La MaMa, CultureHub, and Dream Adoption Society’s global outreach, teams of artists and theater groups in different parts of the world are connected in a VR environment. Real-time translation services and subtitles in the virtual environment facilitate this multilingual production.

The Books of Jacob is presented by La MaMa in partnership with CultureHub and The Polish Cultural Institute NY. The Books of Jacob was developed in La MaMa and CultureHub's Experiments in Digital Storytelling Program, which is generously funded by the NEA and Radio Drama Network. This performance has been made possible through generous support from Trust for Mutual Understanding.

The Books of Jacob was developed within CultureHub and La MaMa’s Experiments in Digital Storytelling program, which incubates story-driven artworks that push the boundaries of artistic forms and was presented in progress June 8–10, 2023.

CREATIVE TEAM
Performers – Danusia Trevino, Anna Podolak, Ola Rudnicka
Adaptation – Rébecca Pierrot
Costume Design – Monika Palikot, Sławomir Blaszewski
Music: Jan Duszyński
Avatars – Anastasiia Vorobiova
Set Design – Bettina Katja Lange, Krzysztof Garbaczewski
Set Coordinator – Piotr Gawelko
Director, VR Design – Krzysztof Garbaczewski

More about the project:
La MaMa, CultureHub, and Polish Cultural Institute New York invited Poland-based digital laboratory Dream Adoption Society and his creator Krzysztof Garbaczewski to be a part of Experiments in Digital Storytelling 2023, CultureHub’s multi-pronged program that brings artists, writers, creative technologists, and scientists together to spark new forms. Pioneers of digital storytelling, Dream Adoption Society and CultureHub share a mission to investigate and develop noncommercial platforms for artistic online experiences. After collaborating remotely throughout the season, Garbaczewski was in residence at CultureHub from April–June, 2023, culminating in a final presentation as part of CultureHub’s Experiments in Digital Storytelling 2023.

Garbaczewski’s project draws from Nobel prize-winning Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s epic historical novel The Books of Jacob. Garbaczewski was first drawn to the book while incorporating metaphysical texts into his theatre practice, especially those of Jewish messianic thinker Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank – the 18th Century man who claimed to be Sabbatai Zevi reincarnated. Tokarczuk’s novel takes on the perspectives of Jacob’s followers and others who witnessed his establishment of a transformative religious movement against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, and Greece. Despite its power in 18th Century Europe, Jacob’s movement has largely been forgotten by European history. Struck by Jacob’s ideas and their relevance to today, Garbaczewski is motivated to explore the work as a multiplayer virtual reality experience.

The source material lends itself to the project, which is dependent on collaboration across fields, aesthetic disciplines, languages, and geographic locations. The Books of Jacob provides a fascinating panorama of many cultures inhabiting and mixing through centuries. The characters transcend their traditions to collaborate on a new system of thought. The text mirrors the project’s mission to combine CultureHub and Dream Adoption Society’s resources to create new systems of making and experiencing art.

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