DOLL - 23 FESTIVAL INTERPRETATIONS

LALKA Gustav Holoubek Drama Theatre guest performance as part of the 23rd National Festival of Directing Arts INTERPRETATIONS

Love, money and social conventions define the axis of Bolesław Prus' “Doll” — one of the most important stories about ambition, advancement and disappointment with the modern world. It is a penetrating portrait of an era in which Warsaw becomes the scene of a collision of dreams with ruthless class and social mechanisms.

In the new production in Dramatic, Mikita Iłynczyk (director) and Goran Injac (dramaturgy) read this legendary novel through the prism of the political reality of the end of the 19th century: a time of partitions, a time of subjugation, a time of adaptation to a culture that was not their own. The authors raise questions about the experience of an individual living in a reality of subordination — in a world where the idea of “Polishness” turns out to be not so much a community as an unfulfilled promise.

The starting point for the performance was a copy of “Dolls” from 1897 found in the director's family — a book full of pencil underlines, belonging to the director's grandmother, who was a Polish citizen for only six years — until 1939. This material trace forms the framework of the spectacle: Polishness as an experience inherited not by institutions, but by a memory that has not been fulfilled.

In this interpretation, Wokulski becomes a figure who, with his biography, exposes the mechanisms of adaptation and opportunism of the elites. Returning from exile, he observes a world in which the Russian ruble circulates, the war business shapes fantasies about the future, and the society for which he risked his life is ready to fit into the new order in order to preserve the status and semblance of continuity. Wokulski is not part of the system — he tests its limits, revealing how class and capital displace values.

Iłynczyk's “Doll” is a story about the desire for recognition and about trying to fit into a world where every encounter becomes a test of social position, and intimacy loses to the logic of class. The 19th century is a kind of laboratory here, in which mechanisms returning to modern times are revealed. The past and the present intersect without pathos or sentiment, showing a society functioning in the shadow of the domination of the imperial system. Love here becomes one of the mechanisms of social subordination.

Mikita Iłynczyk - theater director and playwright born in Novogródek. He studied at the State Institute of Theater Art (GITIS) in the field of Theatre Knowledge (2012—2015) and at the Faculty of Directing (2015—2020). From 2018 to 2020, he worked with the Minsk theater OK-16, which was closed by the Belarusian authorities after protests in Belarus in 2020. He made his directorial debut in 2021 with the play “Gracious” — the first production of Jonathan Littell's novel realized in the post-Soviet space. He presented his plays and texts in Belgium, Belarus, Estonia, Poland, Austria and Germany. In the years 2022—2023 he was a resident of the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz, where he realized the play “F*cking in Brussels”. Two-time winner of the Dramaturgy Award of the City of Bydgoszcz AURORA — for “Dark Room” (2021, jury led by Swiatlana Aleksijewicz) and “Say Hi To Abdo” (2024, jury led by Marek Ravenhill). Participant in dramaturgy competitions Write-Box, Lubimovka and Sammelpunkt. In 2023, his lyrics were included in the first queer anthology of Belarusian literature “Boys Get Out of Control” published by Skaryn Press (London). He is a scholarship holder of the Gaude Polonia 2024 program of MKiDN, within which he cooperates with the Polish Theater in Poznań. He also cooperates with Vaba Lava (Estonia), Gorki Theatre (Germany), Drama Theatre in Warsaw and Wrocław Contemporary Theatre. Dramaturgic resident of the National Old Theatre in Krakow and Mozarteum University Salzburg. In 2025 he was nominated for Polityka Passports in the Stage category.

adaptation and direction: Mikita Iłynczyk dramaturgy: Goran Injac scenography and costumes: Justyna Elminowska music: Krzysztof Kaliski light direction: Siarhei Rylko photography: Tomek Pawlik assistant director: Antonina Wąsowicz assistant set designer: Kinga Kostoń-Hayatullah choreographic consultation: Krystyna “Lama” Szydłowska production manager: Małgorzata Długowska-Błach producer: Adrianna Gołębiewska makeup: Marta Krasowska, Aleksandra Rubersz inspector: Tomasz Karolak

CAST: Waldemar Barwiński - Szuman Marcin Bosak - Stanisław Wokulski Mariusz Drężek - Suzin Anna Gajewska/Małgorzata Witkowska - Helena Stawska Katarzyna Herman - Baronowa Krzeszowska Robert T. Majewski - Tomasz Łęcki Małgorzata Niemirska - Ghost Marta Ojrzyńska - Izabela Łęcka Agata Różycka - Weronika, Helusia Stawska Piotr Siwkiewicz - Ignacy Rzecki Konrad Szymański - Kazimierz Starski, Prince Mateusz Weber - Geist, Marshal Agnieszka Wosińska - Kazimiera Wąsowska

Premiere: March 20, 2026

More about the performance on the website of the Drama Theater.

Duration: 2 hours 55 minutes with a break

The performance presented as part of the 23rd National Festival of Directing Arts INTERPRETATIONS.

Ticket sales are conducted by the Stanisław Wyspiański Silesian Theatre in Katowice.