History of sin

A year before the 100th anniversary of Stefan Żeromski's death, the creators turn to the classics of Polish modernism for one of the most controversial novels of that period.

Working with the very convention of melodrama and deconstructing it, they look at the fate of the main character Eve, treating her in a non-singular and metaphorical way, as well as confronting on stage with the male characters of this novel. The filmmakers attempt a queero-feminist interpretation of Eve's story, trying to go beyond the male gaze recorded in Żeromski's novel and then captured in Valerian Borowczyk's film adaptation. Their focus is on the heroine's entanglement with the dependence of patriarchy and how the narrative around women has changed over the years.

They desire to look at the female body and sexuality in a subjective way, looking for a way to liberate them from convention. Does Eve banished from paradise for her first sin always have to be condemned to hell?

Cracow's staging [...] skillfully balances between melodramatic tone and parenthesis of conventionality, emphasis and intimate confession, sensuality of erotic scenes, rendered by the literal words falling from the off and the poetic dimension of Martyna Miller's projection, but also exploring the heroine's relationship with her own body.

In the triple creation of Staniec, Grąziowska and Gałkowska, Eve becomes a kind of vessel containing stereotypes related to female sin — she is therefore naive, weak, overly submissive, inclined to evil, self-interested, lustful, devoid of ethical principles, calculating. At the same time, at every stage of her history, she escapes from this cage — by distancing herself from the melodramatic gestures at the beginning of the romance (Staniec), by the actress's opposition to male demiurgists, directors and authors (Grąziowska), or by the gesture of recovering the body, bearing traces of the passage of time, of passing away (Gałkowska in a poignant monologue), but also by taking control of your own story in the finale.

Magda Piekarska, “Gazeta Wyborcza”

Sensitive topics: abortion, rape, sex work, sex appeals. Smoke is used in the show. Naked actors appear or are otherwise portrayed on stage. The co-producer of the play is Teatr Mały in Tychy.

Prizes and Trips:

2025 — Nomination for the O! Shining

2025 — 51st German Theatre Meetings — master performance

2025 — Karolina Staniec — additional prize in the “Living Classics” competition

The play took part in the 10th Competition for the Staging of Old Works of Polish and European Literature “Living Classics”.

2025 — XV Koszalin Youth Confrontations, director award for Wojtek Rodak

2024 — screening as part of the International Divine Comedy Festival, Krakow

2024 — Teatr Mały, Tychy — 25 and 26.10.2024 — Silesian premiere

2024 — XXII National Festival of Directing Arts Interpretations, Katowice

Wojtek Rodak — Laur Konrad and Journalists Award

45th Warsaw Theatre Meetings

The license to use the stage adaptation of the work, illustrative music, choreography and musical illustration was granted by the Association of Authors ZAiKS.