“There are actors whose performances always draw the viewer’s attention. Then you want more scenes with that particular character,” Laura Lewandowska (ujot.fm) wrote about Michał Badeński. Back as an acting student at Krakow’s Theatre Academy, he was hired at the Nowy Theatre in Łódź, and from there he went straight to the national stage. Having been awarded at the Festival in Tbilisi and the Theatre Schools Festival, this actor will be joining the National Stary theatre ensemble for the 2025/26 season.

We will soon have a chance to see Badeński in Michał Borczuch’s “Pyramid of Animals,” which is all the more cause for excitement in that we recall the brilliant character he built under the same director’s guidance in the Theatre Academy performance of “Angels in America,” of which the critics wrote: “Meet Roy Cohn (Michał Badeński), evil incarnate – a manifestation of the seven deadly sins, an anti-Decalogue. Roy plays at being Faust, intoxicated by the notion of eternal life (…) he is governed by vanity until the very end” (Szymon Golec, “Nowa Siła Krytyczna”). And again: “The young actor from the Krakow school had a tough task before him, but he pulled it off brilliantly – as was only confirmed by the audience’s enthusiastic response during the frustrated lawyer’s series of outbursts” (Alicja Cembrowska, teatrdlawszystkich.eu). Michał Badeński’s enormous talent is also proven by his performance in Barbara Bendyk’s “The Dog” at the Tbilisi International Student Theater Festival, where he received an award in the “Best Male Role” category.

He made his debut in 2022 at the Ludowy Theatre in Krakow in “Ballads and Romances: Horror School Musical” by Ewa Rucińska, where “Other brilliant renditions came courtesy of Roksana Lewak (…) Michał Badeński (as the Investor/Debt Collector Robert Asap). (…) In their diversity, the splendidly realised characters create a fascinating human menagerie” (Mateusz Leon Rychlak, teatrdlawszystkich.eu). The actor was also praised for his role as Robert in “Rosemary” by Michał Nowicki at BARAKAH Theatre, in which “Robert’s shifting moods deepen, they are not calmed by the subtle jazz, which he himself likes; the whole trio swiftly achieves a grotesque effect, which then shades into the psychedelic” (Monika Oleksa, teatrdlawszystkich.eu). He has also shone in plays at the Nowy Theatre in Łódź – “Night of the Pins” by Piotr Pacześniak and “Worn Out” by Joanna Drozda.

Theatre Schools Festival – ZASP “The Boards” Head Council Award, for his role as Roy M. Cohn in Angels in America | Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre Academy, Krakow

Award for the best male role at the Tbilisi International Student Theater Festival in Georgia