EXTRAVAGANZA about religion

On the ruins of the world we have known so far, in the Basement under the Stage of the Polish Theatre, with EXTRAVAGANZA, EXTRAVAGANZA and EXTRAVAGANZA, a completely new religion will emerge.

And since EXTRAVAGANZA has become the cradle of civilization, since it has become a perfect religion, then the next step is... choosing its symbol.

EXTRAVAGANZA is an asylum in troubled times. A place where one descends to find freedom — body and mind, as well as a chance to regain the ability to fantasize unfettered about the reality around us. Here the most beautiful and sincere versions of ourselves will meet, with champagne and oysters, to the sounds of artists and the sounds of a live orchestra!

Piotr B. Dąbrowski, Jakub Papuga, Michał Sikorski and guest actors — Aleksandra Samelczak, Katarzyna Tapek, Elżbieta Wegrzyn, James Malcolm and Mateusz Wiśniewski — will be shocked, moved, moved, laughed and scared.

The music will be composed and performed by Michał Łaszewicz, and will be accompanied by Andrzej Iwanowski, Arkadiusz Kowalski and Piotr Trojanowski in the Very Male Quartet.

Director: Joanna Drozda Screenplay: Joanna Drozda, Jędrzej Burszta, Wojciech Kaniewski Music direction: Michał Łaszewicz Music: Michał Łaszewicz Costume design: Jola Łobacz Set designer: Jola Łobacz Choreography: Bartosz Dotytalski Light direction: Mateusz Matuszewski Inspector: Magdalena Matusewski Assistant director: Magdalena Matusewicz

Piotr B. Dabrowski Jakub Parrot Michał Sikorski Aleksandra Samelczak Katarzyna Tapek Elżbieta Wegrzyn James Malcolm Mateusz Wiśniewski

The stuffy Basement under the Stage was taken over for the third time by the spirit of biting satire. This time the Poznań Extravaganza touches on another issue, thus becoming the third in the trilogy show in this series. The first, more than six years ago, was Extravaganza about love. Then there was the premiere of the Extravaganza about power. Both performances entertained the Poznań, bourgeois audience with both rubbish humor and the absurdity of the world created on the stage, in which the unpleasant, disappointing or annoying is ridiculed. It is not surprising that the director of previous editions - Joanna Drozda, was tempted to take up the issue of religion broadly understood in the new play. As mentioned by the author Monika Nawrocka-Leśnik in her announcement of the latest Extravaganza: “The most important thing is to believe in something. Faith works miracles. But he can also convince us to make great sacrifices. [...] It is not always necessary to be mortified and suffer. We are looking for what is good. And we ridicule the foolish, the stupid.”

How much is going on here! Gilded with gold plating, the tiny scene changes every moment into completely different worlds, situations and aesthetic combinations. Sometimes reciting, sometimes singing, actors and actresses play pop culture characters, gods and goddesses, politicians, or stereotypical images of representatives of different religions or social classes. When it comes to preparing for the topic, you need to honestly convey to the creators that they have done their homework. The theme of religion has been exhausted and taken up from different sides. It killed not only Catholics, but also Protestants, Jews, fictional trolls, figures from myths of different faiths and cultures, church authority and (of course) politicians who rebuked them. It is difficult to pick a favorite or favorite, because the acting team did well in different tonalities and layouts. Well, maybe a little deeper bow will go to Elżbieta Węgryn, whose performances amused me the most, but that does not mean that her brilliance eclipsed the rest of the band: Piotr B. Dąbrowski, Jakub Papuga, Michał Sikorski, Aleksandra Samelczak (guest), Katarzyna Tapek (guest), James Malcolm (guest) and Mateusz Wiśniewski (guest).

All the time there was also the invaluable Very Male Quartet, composed of Andrzej Iwanowski, Arkadiusz Kowalski and Piotr Trojanowski. Musicians perform stunts with lyrics adapted to the topics discussed on stage, turn up the atmosphere, or repeat to actors and actresses at their own request. Great credit to the team, who did not lose their vigilance even for a moment to give their all for the beaten three hours.The audience enjoyed the most jokes referring to figures from the political scene. Spiced with profanity or sexual allusions, references to current events were woven into a world full of absurdity and exaggeration (...). Actors and actresses sometimes provoked with directness, as in the scene of coaching to procrastination, when words of hopeless and inadequate decisions were thrown into the faces of individuals. But that's only in jokes (...) .Extravaganza is a strange social formula. The grotesque, stage world is covered with a veil of drunkenness, to which the audience has a right in this arrangement, and therefore differently than usual during performances. Cabaret's freedom makes it easy to cross the fourth wall, which introduces an impression of familiarity (...). Penera (...) entertains with his guttural language and detachment from high-culture conventions, or the Martian, who talks about the colonization of the planet by the powerful of the earthly world. The public, however, is immune to joking. Everything is laughed at, but not the situation of being an extravagant audience. This is a very interesting creative decision (...) .In the end, the audience comes out in bubbly moods. The grotesque fan cooled her brow, wrinkled with disappointment, fear and irritation at all the obstacles we allow ourselves to throw. The creators of Extravaganza about religion are primarily stigmatized by thoughtlessness, which turns out to be the twin of naivety. Whichever comes first, both are at the top of the list of reasons for creating myths, duplicating worn stereotypes, repeating crappy nonsense, and promoting intellectual quality. Turning away from laughter, it is worth remembering this.

Adam Boniecki's puns, same-sex tango, Jesus Christ, Abraxas, Marek Suski, Beata Szydło, images of religious feelings, goddess Pener (baptized), show of synchronous swimming in the pool in the synagogue (and draining water from it), Nigerian heiress to the throne and a gnostic and erotic procession in honor of SEKSOR — this is everything, and even much more, in the new installment of Estravaganza, this time “On Religion” .The thing happens after a well-deserved apocalypse. There is nothing left: neither regrowth, nor excess weight, nor credit in francs, for there is no Switzerland... The cradle of the new ecumenism becomes the Extravaganza and its counter-values. In the forge of the new world, new gods and new religious symbols are chosen. In the soundtrack — played live by the Very Male Quartet - Abba, Republic, Pink Floyd, Rubik, Bajm, Liza Minelli, Two Plus One, Dire Straits... And also a phenomenal interpretation of the song “Ameno”, after which nothing will be the same anymore. Just like after the performance of the Episcopate, calling for help demons with faces all too familiar from the assembly halls. In the culinary corner, on the other hand, a recipe for an oyster in Polish, which - like the theater - “requires a little Maggi”. And the raw egg breaks the hardest part of the female body.The new Extravaganza is worth seeing for even the acting art itself (...). It is difficult to take your eyes off them, they are sensual, they take possession of the scene, they magnetize. And at the same time they give a concert show of all the acting talents (...) .Do not be afraid! Don't be afraid of this spectacle. Blasphemy can only be born in the heads of the public. And the only place where sex drips is at the buffet (...) .Take and eat of it all.Ameno