OH! pretzel

The performance will be presented by Witkacy Theatre in Zakopane.

Directing, staging and text development — Andrzej St. Dziuk Assistant director — Andrzej Bienias Music — Jerzy Chruściński Set design — Jacek Staniszewski Assistant set designer — Jolanta Solska Choreography — Anita Podkowa Production manager — Arkadiusz Kudła Sound director — Natalia Sosna Arrangement — Maciej Gruchacz

Cast: Dorota Ficon, Krzysztof Łakomik, Emilia Nagórka, Marcelina Budz, Adrianna Jerzmanowska, Dominik Piejko, Krzysztof Wnuk, Andrzej Bienias, Krzysztof Najbor, Katarzyna Pietrzyk, Marcelina Budz, Adrianna Jerzmanowska, Agnieszka Michalik, Kamil Jonski, Maria Chy C-Myrmula, Wojciech Całka, Rafal Leks, Gaja Gajewska. Musicians: Piotr Bednarczyk, Jakub Cudzich, Maciej Gruchacz

The author wrote in his Commentary on the 1966 Operetta: “But... how to fill the puppet emptiness of the operetta with an important drama here? Monumental operetta idiocy goes hand in hand with monumental historical pathos — the mask of an operetta, behind which a distorted human face bleeds with ridiculous pain...”

Indeed, the Operetta is the drama in which Gombrowicz shows the fall of the ancien régime — religion and power by the grace of God, democratization and the ghosts of totalitarianism hatching from it, and finally ending — that's it. What can be the conclusion today as to the further future of the world? Who will be — is — man today? Gombrowicz's entire argument is embodied in an action based on the ingenious opposition of dress and nudity — culture and nature, regime and freedom. The history of the 20th century is presented as a sui generis fashion review, and the madness of dress (culture) portrays the diseases of the dictatorship of ideology destroying human freedom (subjectivity). The operetta ends with the apotheosis of the eternally naked youth, the nudity of the eternally young, that is, the element of spontaneous freedom that saves (perhaps) our humiliated humanity.

The premiere took place on January 14, 2017 on the Witkacy Stage.

The performance is presented as part of the project “Klasyka 3.0” - an interdisciplinary initiative promoting the reinterpretation of the classics of literature realized by the Lublin, Lesser Poland, Podkarpackie and Świętokrzyskie voivodships. The presented theatrical performances are aimed at popularizing culture and cooperation between artistic institutions.