Between the legs of Lena, or “The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary” according to Caravaggio

What was Rome like under Caravaggio? The city was covered with sweat, blood, and paint, and the wealth of palaces and the gold of the churches were adjacent to the musty alleys into which no sane person ventured. The Capital of the World, the Eternal City... nowhere as there was profane audaciously permeated with the sacrum, the most vile liquors with the wine of the Mass, and the omnipresent death with the fullness of hedonistic life. Pick yourself something at the city market: maybe bread, maybe dirty love. Or better, will you buy a painting or atone for your sins? Can you afford it?

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio — a man of blood and bones, an artist made up of contradictions, who went down in history not only thanks to his brilliant, extremely courageous painting ahead of his time. It is with him that we walk through the bustling squares and crowded streets, it is with his eyes, hands and mouth that we learn the charms of courtesans, we pray for him, we curse him, we admire him, we hate, we love. And just as he does, we feel this invisible, disturbing, dense presence—angels, devils, demons, and all the saints. Nor will we escape the one, the only one, forever sanctified by his image: Lena, the muse and resurrector, who used to say of her beloved that “she is like a disease.”

Ahead of the long-awaited return of Agata Dudy-Gracz to the Silesian Theater. “Between the legs of Lena, or” The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary “according to Caravaggio” is a story about a genius who paved holiness and sanctified the most mediocre mundane. The finest paintings come to life on stage, but also the whole dirty, vile world in which one of the most illustrious artists in the history of the world came to live. Will the divine light still be able to break through this terrible darkness? And we — will we collapse again under the weight of rebuking eyesight and harsh judgment?

The performance is dedicated to the ensemble of the Klaipeda Drama Theater.

The license for the performance of the work was issued by the Association of Authors ZAiKS

Note: The show includes scenes of sexual nature, violence, nudity and profanity. The show is recommended for viewers from the age of 16.

The performance was qualified for the 32nd National Competition for the Exhibition of Polish Contemporary Art.