Polish Theatre Reading Club in Wroclaw

Justyna Sobolewska and Michał Zadara talk about contemporary Polish literature and its possible translation into the language of the stage.

Do you read a lot but miss an in-depth discussion about readings? Or maybe you have long lacked time for books and are looking for a carefully selected list of what needs to be read? Join the Polish Theatre Reading Club in Wroclaw.

The books are selected by Justyna Sobolewska, a renowned writer, literary critic, curator of reading meetings. Michał Zadara participates in the discussions, introducing the perspective of the director and artist, and selected fragments of the works are read by actresses and actors of the Polish Theatre. What distinguishes our meetings from many other discussions around literature? That one of the books will become the basis for the theatrical premiere in the 2026/2027 season, which will allow to follow the whole process: from reading and discussion, through repertoire decision, to stage realization.

The first series includes books that guide us through different experiences — from pleasure and power derived from the body, through the language of dissimilarity and maladjustment, institutional violence, to family conflicts entangled in history, nostalgic mythology of the city, to the brutality of war.

List of books

6th meeting: November 12, 2026

Szczepan Twardoch, Null (Novel of the Year 2025 in the readers' poll of Gazeta Wyborcza and Polityka), sets his narrative in the realities of the war in Ukraine, leading a story about violence, a crumbling world and the border experience.

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5th meeting: October 15, 2026

Weronika Murek, Birthday. Excerpt from the publisher's website (Wydawnictwo Czarne): Weronika Murek's daring novel is a story about the theater of life, in which it is not known who is the doll and who pulls the strings. Full of intrigue that ignores reality, events that defy all rules, and anxiety that lurks right now, in the dressing room amid the costumes, under the table or on the way down to the subway.

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4th meeting: September 10, 2026

Maciej Płaza, Kasperl and Margit — the author leads the reader through Poznań and Berlin of the first decades of the 20th century, tracing the fate of a street musician and a young woman dreaming of a career as an actress. Against the background of the Great War, the Wielkopolska uprising and the birth of Nazism, the author draws a story about art, love and the Polish-German border, in which alongside fictional characters also appear Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht.

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3rd meeting: June 18, 2026

Eliza Kącka, Yesterday Was Wrong in Green (Nike Literary Award 2025), takes up the topic of living with a person on the autism spectrum, but at the same time writes more extensively about motherhood, language, difference and the limits of mutual understanding.

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2nd meeting: May 7, 2026

Iga Dzieciuchowicz, Theater. The Pathological Family exposes the systemic mechanisms of violence, abuse and silence in Polish theatre — from acting schools to institutions protecting perpetrators in the name of art, authority and environmental loyalty.

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1st meeting: April 16, 2026

Zyta Rudzka, Only Fools Live to the End — is a story about the body, aging, dependence and violence, set in everyday life, where closeness, pleasure and alcohol organize the lives and relationships of the characters.

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