Invisible bridges. Architecture of light.

The Włodzimierz Gniazdowski Impresarial Theatre in Włocławek invites you to a performance entitled: “Invisible bridges. The Architecture of Light.”

Can a great discovery save the world and at the same time distance man from what is most important to him? “Invisible bridges. Architecture of Light” is a poetic-biographical spectacle inspired by the life of Tadeusz Reichstein, an outstanding chemist born in Włocławek, Nobel Prize winner and Honorary Citizen of Włocławek. It is a story not only about a scientist whose discoveries changed medicine, but above all about man: his childhood, his choices, his longing for his place of origin, the need to know the secret of life and the price that sometimes has to be paid for crossing the limits of human knowledge. The stage story takes the viewer from the enchanted garden of childhood and the symbolic parting with Włocławek, through the laboratory and the world's first method of synthesizing vitamin C, enabling its cheap production, to the Nobel Prize ceremony. Reichstein received it in 1950, together with Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench, for his discoveries concerning the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological action. The show, however, does not build a monument to the scholar. It shows a man torn between science and family, success and a sense of responsibility, worldwide recognition and the memory of his own roots. The Nobel Prize here is not only the culmination of a career, but becomes a burden and a question about the meaning of the work done. Light, movement, whispers, chorus and symbolic figures of trees create a space on the border of memory and sleep. The recurring motif of the fern, Reichstein's later scientific passion, is a reminder of the fragility of life and the wisdom of nature. The eponymous invisible bridges connect matter with life, science with empathy, Włocławek with Basel, and the past with what remains of man.

The performance is part of the celebration of the year established by the City Council of Tadeusz Reichstein in Włocławek, which falls on the thirtieth anniversary of the Nobel laureate's death.

Participants of the theatre workshop “SCENOMANIA” (artistic season 2025/2026) take part in the performance.