On February 14th and 15th, there will be premiere performances of the play “The Haunted Manor” directed by Anna Obszańska, held in the Modrzejewska Hall of the National Stary Theatre.

The very first patriotic horror, hair-raising opera, national spirit seance, where we take fragments of Stanisław Moniuszko’s libretto and music and change everything around. The Polish afterlife, a dark museum of martyrdom, and family portraits that come to life to scare us lurk in the shadows of “The Haunted Manor.”

Zbigniew returns home after a war for the glory of Poland. Waiting for him is his elder brother, Stefan – a veteran of all the wars and a Polish teacher. Apart from him, there is also Cześnikowa, Miecznik and his daughter, who is a girl of marriageable age. There is also a hunter and an old maid. Pictures of old ancestors hang in golden frames, family memorabilia sits in showcases, and a heavy gate keeps the enemy from getting in. Everything is like in a real Polish manor. The difference is that everyone here is dead.

Apart from Moniuszko’s arias and ensemble pieces, the actors speak not a word on stage, ushering the audience into a beautiful museum of Polish martyrdom. Using the patriotic-emancipatory context of one of Stanisław Moniuszko’s most famous operas, the play addresses the theme of the body – expressive, dismembered, crippled, distressing and dispelling, and perhaps carrying unconscious, deeply-rooted traumas.

What haunts us today in “The Haunted Manor”? Is a society with the experience of war written in its genes capable of producing the defence mechanisms needed to face today’s dangers?

What are we so afraid of?