BLUE EXPRESS

Interwar songs in a new version

The Blue Express rushes through the world of temporality. It takes its passengers into a state of suspense, at the crack of two eras and two versions of itself. This is the moment to make a profit and loss account and confront the fairy tale of love heard in childhood.

The theatrical and musical collage based on the songs of the interwar cabaret becomes not so much a nostalgic journey into the past as a fantasy about the rhythm of life of those years - its pulse, anxiety and fleeting intensity, immersed in the spirit of the avant-garde. It's an encounter with the present.

In a fast-moving world marked by a sense of uncertainty and growing danger, there are similar desires, questions and anxieties to those that accompanied people a hundred years ago—living in a short breath between one catastrophe of humanity and another.

Witkacowski's catastrophism collides with the energy of pre-war melodies, creating space for stories about the search for one's own identity, sensitivity and courage to live in harmony with oneself — despite the pressure of a world that expects unambiguous definitions.

The project was created in the spirit of upcycling — in the musical and visual layer. Songs by, among others, Hanka Ordonówna, Andrzej Włast, Marian Hemar and Julian Tuwim received new arrangements by Marcin Nenko, combining electronic, club sounds with live music. The costumes for the Blue Express were made exclusively from materials from the second circulation, in cooperation with the Jan and Jędrzej Śniadecki University of Technology in Bydgoszcz and the company Wtórpol.

The show is addressed to both young people 16+ and older viewers, promoting intergenerational dialogue.

The performance was realized as part of the Stage of the Acting Initiatives of the Chamber Theater in Bydgoszcz. The author of the project is actor Filip Łach. Partners of the show are Bohema Boutique Hotel & SPA and Restauracja i Kawiarnia Weranda in Bydgoszcz.

The play uses excerpts from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's novel Farewell to Autumn and the poem Black Spring by Antoni Slonimski.

Attention! During the performance, bubbers are used.

photo: Radosław Drygas Promotional session at the Bohema Hotel and the Veranda restaurant in Bydgoszcz: Julia Rzepecka Production of the teasers of the performance: Patryk Chenc