Amid resounding applause, the premiere of the play SEX, MONEY, AND HUNGER: A Family Chronicle Based on Émile Zola directed by Luk Perceval came to an end. The performance was based on a script by Luk Perceval, translated by Sława Lisiecka, titled KARMA – ZOLA.

Cast: Anna Dymna, Roman Gancarczyk, Magda Grąziowska, Ewa Kaim, Aleksandra Nowosadko, Małgorzata Zawadzka, Krzysztof Zawadzki oraz Justyna Skoczek (live music).

Creators:

• Luk Perceval – Director, Script
• Annette Kurz – Stage designer
• Annelies Vanlaere – Costumes
• Mark Van Denesse – Light
• Ted Stoffer – Choreography
• Justyna Skoczek – Music and live music performance
• Sława Lisiecka – Translation
• Maja Wisła-Szopińska – Director’s assistant, dramaturgy, translation
• Renée Feveere – Scenography Assistant
• Julia Ulman – Costume, Light and Set Designer’s Assistant
• Magdalena Litwa – Director’s Assistant (AST National Academy of Theatre Arts)
• Katarzyna Gaweł – Stage manager

Luk Perceval, the director of 3STRS and Once Upon a Long Day, returns to the Stary Theatre in Kraków with his adaptation of Les Rougon‑Macquart, a monumental cycle of novels by Émile Zola, one of the best-known French writers. Over the course of 20 novels, the author described the fates of the fictional Rougon‑Macquart family, whose members include businessmen, saleswomen, revolutionaries, sex workers, miners and doctors. Each member of the family faces the legacies passed down by previous generations: poverty, alcoholism, madness, ambition, artistic talent. Yet at the same time, they are also influenced by the reality in which they find themselves. Zola’s novels depict profound social and economic transformations of the 19th century, offering touching stories of greed, desire, the pursuit of happiness and a better life. In his production based on Zola’s famous saga, Luk Perceval revisits the questions asked by the writer: what drives human development? Where do we come from? How did we become the people we are today? Can humanity become ‘better’?

Warmest congratulations to the creators and the outstanding cast of the production! Our deepest thanks go to everyone involved in bringing this remarkable performance to life.

Photo: Magda Hueckel