The new production of Bartosz Szydłowski was inspired by Federico Fellini’s 8½, and Jakub Roszkowski’s article “Strach i nędza IV RP”, in turn inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s classical drama, as well as the personal experiences of the creatives. For the spiritual patron, Szydłowski took Rebecca Solnit, an essayist and sociologist. The title, taken from her “Hope in the dark” is a perfect rendering of the play’s message. Strach i nędza 2022 / Fear and Misery 2022 portrays a world drowned in crisis, and consumed with internal inertia and people who have lost any compasses. It examines an artist faced with values shifting, tired of repeating the same tricks, and looking for a new path forward. The Szydłowski’s intimate play, the most personal in his oeuvre, lunges at various directing tricks bearing trademarks of assorted theatre gurus, and is thoroughly ironic yet also surprisingly radical and warm. It does smuggle in faith in the existence of the human community above the divides, which is more than extraordinary in the contemporary world.