Forefathers' Eve
- Author: Adam Mickiewicz
- Direction: Maja Kleczewska
- Dramaturgy: Łukasz Chotkowski
- : Łukasz Chotkowski, Maja Kleczewska
- Stage design: Katarzyna Borkowska
- : Konrad Parol
- Music: Cezary Duchnowski
- : Halina Jarczyk
- Choreography: Kaya Kołodziejczyk
- : Tomasz Dziedzic
- : Tadeusz Pyrczak
- Stage manager: Anna Wójcicka
- Producer: Bartosz Jelonek
- The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow - The Grand Stage
- Premiere: 19.11.2021
Nearest dates
A premiere on the 120th anniversary of the first performance of ‘Forefathers' Eve’ as staged by Stanisław Wyspiański.
‘Forefathers' Eve’ Anno Domini 2021 is a play about Poland. After 120 years, the Romantic drama returns to the Słowacki Theatre. Remembering the productions directed by Wyspiański, Dejmek, Swinarski, Grzegorzewski, we know that this arch-Polish drama is about our subconscious retrotopia, about the ‘undead’ past and its ‘undead’ demons.
A community of a bloody ritual and the conformist salon are the two faces of Poland, encountered by Wyspiański along with the spectres at the same wedding.
Today these two types of Poland are our everyday reality – two nations fighting against each other. The Poets stand between the warring sides in this fratricidal battle. They are lonely. No Poets are needed by either side. Like in a nightmare, we keep dreaming the same story, which makes us lose as People.
Conservative Poland wants to own the Poets. To shut their mouths. To bind their bodies, to kill their Love. To appropriate national history, to rewrite it. To write idyllic, heroic and innocent history. One can suffocate from this innocence. The 'salon' Poland, with its conformism, with no ideas for the future, desires only prosperity and peace.
This repetitive drama seems to have no ending. Today it is clearly visible. We are blinded by it and see no solution.
The Poet's voice will resonate distinctly and tragically in this world. With God or at least despite God.
Promotional Session
fot. Bartek Barczyk
