Filip Piotrowicz

Surprisingly a theatre comedy can be something more than just a straightforward pastime.

Kornel Mundruczo returned to TR Warszawa with a strong need of making a play about Polish women. After he found Kata Wéber's (his long-standing co-worker, playwright) note containing a scene which was about a relationship between a mother and a daughter, He encouraged Kata Werber to develop a whole family drama and thanks to their cooperation, the play „Pieces of a Woman' was created.

The starting point of Kornel Mundruczo's 'The Bat' based on 'Die Fledermaus' by Johan Strauss II, is the director's memories from the past about his grandmother. During the last ten years of her life, she began to lose her grasp on reality. On New Year's Eve, the whole family used to meet at her house to celebrate. Each year,  from after midnight till morning, the grandmother's sons (who were more than 70 years old) tried to entertain everyone. A pair of slightly drunk old men singing some silly operettas probably seems rather miserable. Nonetheless, they somehow made their mother smile (although she wasn't aware of anything). After that experience, Mundruczo decided to  create a performance about one of the most controversial topics: euthanasia.

Between 1968 and 1971, thirteen thousand Polish Jews were forced to leave Poland, their homeland. After The Six-Day War in 1967 (the creation of the State of Israel) and students' protests at Polish universities, Wladyslaw Gomulka, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, gave a speech on March 8, 1968, which started an anti-Semitic campaign in communist Poland. Now 50 years after these events, Michal Zadara along with a team of historians and lawyers are looking for an answer in the play Justice (now playing at Powszechny Theatre). Should someone be prosecuted for the exile of those people?

13 years after the incredible success of „Krum', Krzystof Warlikowski returns to Levin's work at the Nowy Teatr. This time, he chose one of Levin's most popular dramas - 'Suitcase Packers'. In 'Krum',  the title character returns from a long journey to his homeland, still having hope for fulfillment. This time, in a small Jewish community, everyone wants to leave and dreams about a change for the better. It was a tough task for actors and actresses to perform this play because there wasn't a main character, but something like a collective hero - 20 small parts. It means that every actor had to express a lot with little text. Another difficulty is embodied in the subtitle of the play 'A Comedy for Eight Funerals'. It's basically talking about death in a comedic way and therefore, it's very easy to overbalance. The subtitle also suggests that most of journeys in the play lead to the other side. Nonetheless, no one seems to be discouraged.