The Komedia Theatre from Warsaw took a risk and won. „Revenge” by Fredro, directed by Michał Zadara, was very well received by the audience of the Divine Comedy festival. Standout performances were given by Maciej Stuhr as Papkin and Arkadiusz Brykalski as Cześnik.

The fourth day of the festival was meant to offer a bit of a breather, with only four performances - quite manageable compared to yesterday's ten. Four, but what a four! At 6 p.m., on the small stage of the National Old Theatre, we could see 'Beautiful Zośka' directed by Marcin Wierzchowski, and at the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, 'Giselle, Dance!' directed by Anna Obszańska. At 7 p.m., director Michał Zadara presented 'Revenge' on the main stage of the National Old Theatre. The day ended with the play "Ladodeja" directed by Oskar Sadowski on the small stage of the Łaźnia Nowa Theater.

Beatiful Zośka and Giselle invite you to dance

I wanted not to describe the performances in detail so as not to favor some  at the expense of others just because I won't be able to see all of them. But I will admit that I am really impressed by "Beautiful Zośka', wonderful acting and the rhythm of the spectacle. It feels as if you’re taking part in an oberek in a dark, cramped rural room, dancing at an old village wedding. There is vodka, it is loud, the dancers bump into each other, push and shove, it is stuffy, there is not enough space, there are musicians and violence emerges. Everything is in chaos - the rhythm of the narrative, the dance, the stomping - it doesn’t let you catch your breath. It’s a wedding, and therefore full of cultural references to all the weddings we know from theatre and film. Apparently the show directed by Marcin Wierzchowski has been an attendance hit for many months, more precisely since I’ts premiere in July 2023. I am not surprised by this fact. If anyone still has the chance to see 'Beautiful Zośka', I wholeheartedly recommend it. I am not suprised by this fact at all. If anyone has the opportunity to watch "Beautiful Zośka" again, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, I haven't seen "Giselle, dance!" and the play/performance "Ladodeja" yet, but I spent a very nice evening at the National Stary Theater at the screening of "Zemsta".

There is "Revenge" - there is a challenge

After the performance, director Michał Zadara talks about the background of the idea of ​​staging "Revenge".“Everything that is on stage comes from the text. At the beginning I did not know if the text was good, if we would need costumes, etc. The audience laughed during the first readings. This made us think that there was potential that previous stagings had destroyed. Because nothing is obvious in "Revenge" - said the director. "It is a world with violence, but there is no police, which means there is no state apparatus," Zadara added. "Revenge is a very sophisticated literary comedy. Maciej Stuhr said that all it takes is to free it from Polish contexts, and suddenly it becomes universal and intriguing," - the director explained. It can probably be added that "Revenge" is a play performed and coded on several levels. Do you want a school reading? You have it. If you want to have fun - there you go, you have a comedy. However, the most interesting are propably those subtle and clever winks toward the audience; pub is called Castle in French, and for a few seconds you can hear a Tom Waits song, maybe also a melody from "Pulp Fiction", gestures and choreographies like from Bond, etc. To catch all these  interesting things, you would probably have to watch the show again. Run to see 'Revenge' directed by Zadara - if it is classic native literature, then this is exactly how it should be presented.

Grzegorz Nurek

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Photo by Dawid Ścigalski