Marcin Wierzchowski won the Boska Komedia / Divine Comedy Festival with The Secret Life of the Friedmans with Kraków’s Ludowy Theatre several years ago. This time he embarks on the subject of the difficult Polish–Jewish relations, marked with the returning demons of the blood shed in the shared past. For generations, two families – the Kuszes and Dobrowolskis – have stayed in the same house. As a member of one of them is having a birthday party, all we need is to wait for the spectres to sit down by the common table and see the forgotten skeletons finally falling out from the cupboards. The play, produced in close cooperation with Michael Rubenfeld (playing one of the characters), speaks of the most painful matters in the convention of the mainstream theatre – noble, and yet mainstream. At times, it downright verges on a soap opera to burst out into a series of unexpected combinations later. The fortes are powerful, sometimes accusatory roles of (mostly young) actors of the Nowy. Some moments follow the convention of Wojtek Smarzowski’s uncompromising films, yet the whole is understandable not only for the Polish audiences.
Production
Teatr Nowy im. Tadeusza Łomnickiego w Poznaniu
Creative
reżyseria / Director: Marcin Wierzchowski
scenariusz / Writer: Michael Rubenfeld, Marcin Wierzchowski
scenografia i kostiumy / Sets and costumes: Magdalena Mucha
muzyka / Music: Marta Zalewska
dramaturgia ruchu / Movement director: Aneta Jankowska
wideo / Video projections Mateusz Czuchnowski
reżyseria światła / Lights director: Szymon Kluz