700,000 viewers, 111 premieres, over 40 festivals organized  and more than 100 awards won. With this edition of the Divine Comedy Festival, Teatr Łaźnia Nowa, founded by Bartosz and Małgorzata Szydłowski, celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The festival is gaining momentum with each passing day. On the third day, we had the opportunity to participate in a debate about masculinity and femininity, the premiere of the Theatrical Notebook dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Łaźnia Nowa, and we could choose from as many as ten (sic!) performances.

The forenoon belonged to the young. At the Academy of Theatre Arts, on the experimental stage, the Forum of Young Directing began at 11 am., featuring performances of „Helena” directed by Magdalena Dąbrowska, „The Songs of Polish Bakers” directed by Klaudia Gębska, „I Want to Learn to Kill People Too, Please Help Me, or Violence Is Okay Too” directed by Max Nowotarski, and „Bad Blood” directed by Eugenia Balakireva."

At noon, Aga Kozak led a debate at the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery "Who is better: women or men?" with the participation of Nina Gabryś and Wojciech Śmieja. A pretext for discussion was the publication of Wojciech Śmieja's book „Po męstwie”. The author stated: „Today in Poland, we are witnessing an incredibly strong female voice that is critical towards the current hierarchy and narrative. The empowerment of women is striking. Men in positions of power perceive it as a threat, while the excluded boys are becoming radicalized." Nina Gabryś responded: "As soon as we women gained a bit of space in the public sphere and secured voting rights, a discussion about men quickly emerged. We're expected to focus on the problem of the masculinity crisis. (...). Women are already at universities, they do very well. They also do well in companies. The boys feel aggrieved. They don't know what to do with it. It was supposed to be different." The audience was amused by an anecdote about the applause of local politicians for the installation of changing table for children in all men's public restrooms in Krakow. Participants in this fascinating discussion emphasized the importance of Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak's book „Chłopki. Opowieść o naszych babkach”, noting It is nationwide reading phenomenon. The publication of „Chłopki” was seen as a release of energy and a reclaiming of a previously untold herstory.

Cheers Łaźnia Nowa!

At 3:30 pm. at the Utopia House in Nowa Huta, the premiere of the „Notatnik Teatralny” published to mark the 20th anniversary of Łaźnia Nowa, took place. The event featured Małgorzata Szydłowska, Bartosz Szydłowski, and Mateusz Pakuła. The discussion was moderated by Marzena Sadocha and Krzysztof Mieszkowski. In a brief introduction to the conversation, Marzena Sadocha said:

„This is a place that sets entirely new standards for thinking about establishing a theater in Poland. Małgorzata and Bartosz Szydłowski succeeded. The fruit of this miracle is that we meet during the most important theater festival in Poland, and we meet at Łaźnia Nowa, whose premieres have always been significant. And it all began with Małgorzata's scenography studio, which one day welcomed a young student named Bartek.” „I had already graduated in scenography at the time, and I was kind of pulling Bartek into theater; we talked a lot about theater” - Małgorzata Szydłowska recalled about the early days of their friendship. Krzysztof Mieszkowski shared an anecdote about how, in the early days of Łaźnia’s activity in Nowa Huta, people would call the theater asking how much a bath cost.

„We didn’t use the word “theater” at first. This stemmed from a deep conviction that in Poland, there’s a lingering stereotype of cultural spaces being seen as alien places, designated for the educated, who treat theater as something ceremonial. Not everyone has the courage or desire to engage in that kind of setting. That’s why we wanted to create a place without that context. A place for meetings and dialogue, from which theater would gradually emerge," recalled Bartosz Szydłowski, the founder of Łaźnia Nowa. Małgorzata Szydłowska added: "In the beginning, it was actually hard to call it a theater. It was a building of abandoned workshops, with barred windows. It was a place that was terrifying at first glance. It didn’t seem like a cultural space. It was a completely degraded place, and at first, we weren’t even alone there; we had many roommates— a chinchilla breeder, carpenters, pigeon keepers. Only after a long, very long process of transformation could we call this place a theater."

Director, writer, and playwright Mateusz Pakuła spoke about his many years of collaboration with Teatr Łaźnia Nowa and the most notable performances he worked on there. Among the attendees of the meeting were actors from the theater, residents of Nowa Huta, and the audience of the Divine Comedy Festival. Among the many anecdotes, which you can also find in the „Notatnik teatralny”, there was one that could become the motto of Teatr Łaźnia Nowa: It might not work..  Let's do it! This was the case with the proposal to cast Krzysztof Globisz in the leading role, who was recovering from a stroke (in the play Wieloryb The Globe). Not only did it succeed, but the performance was an extraordinary success. It was also the case with the „controversial” title or theme of the play „How I Didn't Kill My Father and How Much I Regret It” by Mateusz Pakuła. And so it was with many, many other theoretically risky or seemingly impossible projects. It might not work... So let's do it!

Jurors in front of really difficult choice

At 5 pm., play „Czy ja muszę to pamiętać. Hamlet”, directed by Dariusz Starczewski, was performed on the stage at Starowiślna 55/6. At the same time, the performance „ Szczęśliwy Syzyf”, directed by Tadeusz Pyrczak  was shown at Łaźnia Nowa. In the evening, on the stage of the National Old Theatre, we could see „Beautiful Zośka”, directed by Marcin Wierzchowski, in the TVP S-3 Studio in Łęg, the performance „Quanta”, directed by Łukasz Twarkowski, was shown for the second time. At Teatr Barakah, „Requiem dla snów”, directed by Michał Nowicki, was presented  and at Cricoteka, „Books of Jakob”, directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski, was performed.

The jurors of the Divine Comedy Festival will not have an easy choice. Attendance at all performances is record-breaking and each performance is a hit. It seems that there are no weak performances this year. Paraphrasing a line from Wyspiański's „The Wedding”: Polish theater is holding strong!

Grzegorz Nurek

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Photo by Artur Rakowski