Antonis Skolias

Professor Rafał Wilczur – a famous Warsaw surgeon, or a village healer – Antoni Kosiba? Colourful Warsaw of the 1920s interwar period or a poor borderland village? Two worlds. And seemingly two completely different people. The superior one. And the inferior one. But which is which? Does one have to choose? I’d rather not...

The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald – one of the most important novels of the 20th century – on the stage of the Słowacki Theatre! A tale of a great dream, great love, great disappointment and great emptiness. A tale of a world shaking off the dark times of war, throwing itself into the revelries of the Jazz Age.

Jay Gatsby's residence, the Valley of Ashes, Long Island, USA. The summer of 1924. Around 8 p.m. A string of posh limos pull into the driveway. The servants welcome the guests with broad smiles and champagne. Inside, you can hear the bustle and sounds of a jazz band tuning up. The overwhelming, dizzying scent of perfume, flowers, desire and money. And the constant questions: where is the host, how did he manage to invite the crème de la crème of New York?, and finally: who is this Great Gatsby? Suddenly there comes the music – swinging, rousing. Everyone hastily sheds their expensive coats and runs onto the dance floor. And you? What are you waiting for? Get in and party with us!

Heaven. Or rather, the gates of heaven, the antechamber, the waiting room. A priest and two nuns, who have died in an accident, arrive here in a lift. In the waiting room, they are greeted by Michael, the archangel. It turns out that, apart from them, no one else from the travelling party is allowed in. The priest and the nuns are shocked and try to resolve the misunderstanding. However, the situation is not straightforward. For in this Heaven, nothing is perfect or particularly logical. The question of who deserves punishment and who deserves a reward – and whether this dichotomy makes any sense at all – becomes the main subject of discussion here (and the central theme of this play).

‘And Today You’ll Be With Me In…’ is a new religious farce by the author and director Mateusz Pakuła, very well known to Krakow audiences. It is a seemingly ‘sweet fantasy’, in which sharp wit and musical energy are combined with a profound reflection on our religiosity.