Poster advertising Strada Crocodililor, The Street of Crocodiles, a co-production of the Royal National Theatre and Theatre de Complicite, National Theatre of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, 12-14 May 1994.

Poster printed in black and green featuring a black photographic image of cast members of The Street of Crocodiles looking up into the sky, their names printed around their heads. Lettering, above, gives the title of the production 'Strada Crocodililor' in green; the name of the theatre, the company, the production team and the date of presentation. The poster has the logos of the National Theatre of Bucharest, and The British Council, top centre.

Given by Theatre de Complicite

Poster produced to advertise the The Street of Crocodiles, National Theatre of Bucharest, Bucharest (Rumania), 14-20 May 1994, a Royal National Theatre and Théatre de Complicité co-production based on stories by Bruno Schulz, devised by the Company from an adaptation by Simon McBurney with Mark Wheatley. Directed by Simon McBurney; designed by Rae Smith; lighting by Paule Constable; movement by Marcello Magni and music by Gerard McBurney. The Company comprised Annabel Arden, Lilo Baur, Hayley Carmichael, Antonio Gil Martinez, Joyce Henderson, Eric Mallett, Clive Mendus, Stefan Metz, Cesar Sarachu and Matthew Scurfield.

Historical significance: The Street of Crocodiles was a production originally created by Théatre de Complicité with the National Theatre's Studio and shown to an invited audience in April 1991. After a process of devising, adapting, writing and rehearsal, the production opened at the RNT's Cottesloe Theatre on 13 August 1992. It is based on the stories of the Polish writer and artist Bruno Schulz who was born in Drohobycz in 1892 and who became an art teacher there in 1924. He exhibited his paintings but by the 1930s he concentrated on writing, setting all his stories in Drohobycz. His vision was an immensely theatrical one in which human beings, objects and spaces take on temporary unstable shapes and forms before metomorphosing into new ones. Bruno Schulz was regarded as one of the three great talents of Polish literature between the wars. He was killed by the Gestapo in 1942.

S.742-2000