History’s first patriotic horror, opera of terror, a national séance, a museum of Polish martyrdom, in which the family portraits and keepsakes come to life to scare you. After one of many wars to protect the homeland, Zbigniew returns home. Waiting for him is his elder brother, Stefan – a veteran and Polish teacher. Apart from him, there is Swordbearer, his daughter – a marriageable young woman, Poacher, Cześnikowa and an old servant. A heavy gate prevents the enemy from encroaching, everything is just like in a real Polish manor. The only difference is, everyone here is dead.

Apart from Moniuszko’s arias and ensembles, the actors do not speak a single word, guiding the viewers through a beautifully macabre museum of Polish sufferings. What scares us today in the “Haunted Manor”? Are society and the experience of war encoded in its genes capable of producing defence mechanisms against the perils of today? What are we so afraid of?

It’s been a long time since Poland has had a play that so stridently and intelligently dismantles the national myths. The classical opera becomes a true horror, in which our local phantoms and spectres march across the stage, and the military jingoism, brainless heroism, one-upmanship over suffering, are ruthlessly exposed, and sometimes mocked to the point of the grotesque. Behind the parade of phantoms is reworked music by Moniuszko, the scenography is a cemetery of very Polish artifacts, and the cast bravely crosses the line between acting and performance.

GOULDA POLECA

Sensory stimuli and sensitive content
Loud music and the intensity of sounds such as shouting, high-pitched noises, flashing lights.