Jarosław Murawski

One of the most controversial figures in Polish politics in recent decades, people's tribune, founder of 'Samoobrona' [Self-Defence] party. His turbulent political activity – from organiser of farmers' blockades and strikes, to the position of deputy prime minister and deputy speaker of the Sejm, through to his mysterious suicide in 2011 – prompts us to take a closer look at his personal story, but also at the situation of the entire social sector he represented, heavily affected by the transformation of the 1990s.

And what if Poland plays the leading role in a horror story? Cast according to conditions. And not in just one episode, but in multiple seasons spanning centuries? What if the action takes place mainly in a cemetery, where behind every tombstone lurks a starving ghost – the soul of a national (anti)hero, crying out for penance and absolution? What if going down to the basement gives you goosebumps, because you never know what you'll come across, what – carefully hidden – will come to the surface and ruin the whole house? What if a few digs with a shovel can summon ghosts of the past that we will never be able to get rid of? That will stay with us, imposing their narrative and their aesthetics? What if this prevents us from noticing what is really important? Even if it lands right in front of our eyes. What if everything is just theatre?

‘Polish Horror Story’ is a nostalgic and liberating theatre piece written in the convention of the horror genre. A grotesque journey through the landscape of the Vistula River, where ‘you stumble upon a grave at every step’, where laughter and tears, absurdity and pompous solemnity merge into a unique elixir that we recognise at the first note. It is a story about a country engaged in a constant struggle between essence and costume.