Performance without English subtitles.

Five hundred thousand viewers tuned in to watch Mianujom mie Hanka / My Name Is Hanka on Teatr Telewizji in Polish TV. Grażyna Bułka – an actress of the Silesian Theatre in Katowice, also appearing at Divine Comedy / Boska Komedia in Maja Kleczewska’s competition production Tkocze / The Weavers – delivers an unforgettable performance portraying a woman and a Silesian, as strong as she is scarred by history and life. Tickets for Bułka’s monodrama sell out months in advance, and audiences from across Poland come to hear this remarkable actress speak in Silesian about what is painful and beautiful, exceptional and universal.

The performance is based on Alojzy Lysko’s book Opowieść górnośląska / An Upper Silesian Tale, for which the author received the Grand Prix of the Krystyna Bochenek National Journalism Competition. As Bułka explained in an interview: “I am one of those Silesians who believe it’s us who should open the door to our world for others. To show what we are like, and to explain where it all comes from.” And that is, quite precisely, what My Name Is Hanka is all about: Silesian identity, the difficult history of the region, families carrying the weight of conflict, and social hierarchies. Nonetheless, the play does not shy away from humour, and Bułka moves masterfully between different keys and emotions, holding the audience’s attention in thrall from the first to the very last moment of her extraordinary monodrama.

---

Photo by Jeremi Astaszow