Performative reading: THE COMPANY OF COMPLETE DEFEAT (Urszula Gołdowska)

Recommended reading for viewers and viewers from the age of 12.

Gray after a hard day at school goes to bed and ends up in an unfamiliar place. Here he meets the Big Sad, who explains that they are Selfish. He got here as a child, when he hid from his peers, now he is already an adult. The Handkerchief Pack, the receptionist, says in turn that it is a space to relive your failures. Everyone is assigned their own angle and an unlimited amount of wipes. When Sharova asks the way out, she does not get a clear answer. However, she does not want to give in to sadness and urges the Big Sad to look around the Self-Fears together. (Source: nowesztuki.pl)

Self-anxiety is a place where one can no longer look away from one's own shame, fear and sense of inadequacy. It is there that failure ceases to isolate, and becomes the beginning of the encounter with the other person. Darkness does not mean danger — it is only in it that the protagonists really hear themselves. Modernity constantly encourages to show only successes, and here each of the characters in their own way experiences their own failure and only when they stop fighting with it can they move on. Despite the fact that the play touches on the themes of loneliness, shame and depression among young people, the relationships between the characters are full of tenderness, absurdity and comedic situations. Thanks to this, the weight of the story does not overwhelm, but leaves room for identification and emotion. (Source: Director's Explanation)

17.10 | 12:00pm New Stage of the Żeromski Theatre Directed by: Jakub Drewnicki

Urszula Gołdowska's drama “The Company of the Complete Disaster” received the 1st prize in the 36th Competition for Theatre Arts for Children and Youth organized by the Children's Art Center in Poznań (2025).