Repertoire

Dumanowski Side A and Side B

Dumanowski Side A and Side B

Wit Szostak
Dir. Wit Szostak
Duża Scena
ul. Jagiellońska 1

Premiere
date

27.04
2013

When we play

  • 27.04
    2013
  • 28.04
    2013
  • 30.04
    2013
  • 01.05
    2013
  • 04.05
    2013
  • 01.06
    2013
  • 02.06
    2013
  • 04.06
    2013
  • 02.07
    2013
  • 03.07
    2013
  • 29.10
    2013
  • 30.10
    2013
  • 31.10
    2013

Duration

2 h 40 min
1 intermission

Wit Szostak’s Dumanowski is an apocryphal novel about a fictional national hero whose eventful life spanned the 123 years of partitioned Poland. Józafat Dumanowski meets famous people like Adam Mickiewicz or Juliusz Słowacki, whose lives are portrayed as completely different from what we know about them from history books. Set almost exclusively in Krakow, the book provides a fascinating insight into the city, whose genius loci has always captivated, absorbed and influenced people. Vivid, evocative and funny, Dumanowski is an intriguing alternate history of Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries – and a great source of inspiration for those interested in the processes through which the national mythology emerges. Szostak points out that they are rather hard to grasp and can be deliberate or purely coincidental.

The performance shown on our Big Stage is comprised of two different artistic approaches to the biography of Józafat Dumanowski, namely, Side A and Side B.

 

Dworakowski makes his part of the story a missing link between Jan Klata’s “Trilogy” and Mikołaj Grabowski’s “Pan Tadeusz”. Employing a style that is similar to theirs, he gives us a choir of seven mature Water Nymphs and four madmen, who think they are Dumanowski. Krakow is seen here as a museum and is symbolised by a black balloon. A pompous, sepulchral nonentity. Sebastian Krysiak, on the other hand, turns Wit Szostak’s novel into science fiction. Krakow becomes decimated by a strange disease, the sanitary epidemiological services have a hard time coping with the increased mortality – and the ghost of Dumanowski is summoned to save the city. Clouds of smoke enshroud the stage wrapped in black foil and the music is edgy in this dynamic, atmospheric performance.
Łukasz Drewniak, www.dziennikpolski24.pl

 

The production was partially funded by the Lesser Poland Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013, as part of the 4th “Revisions” Festival in Lesser Poland.

 

Cast

Creators