Requiem for sleep

We are all addicted to something — that's what today's REQUIEM FOR SLEEP is about. It's a mourning song, not so much about dreams as it is about lost dreams—after the ability to dream vanishes, killed by the addictive, dopamine, insatiable, doomscrolling structure of modern reality.

— Jan Czapliński ・

We are lonely beings who, for most of our lives, suffer from

misunderstanding,

anxiety,

exclusion.

We can look for closeness and relationships that will eventually show us how extremely unhappy we are. We can delude ourselves that courage, anger or struggle will help us get out of it.

The sad truth is that the only thing that can really save us is

work,

sex,

dear,

our beautiful perfect bodies

and delight in how we are.

The stage adaptation of one of the most powerful artistic studies of addiction of the twentieth century, a novel by Hubert Selby Jr., directed by Darren Aronofsky, is a brutal tale of modernity, the constant rush to pleasure, the pushing of boundaries and the inhuman acceleration in the pursuit of fantasy. Finally, it is a story about a body that needs to be stimulated, and when there is still little, it will have to be paid for it all. It's a mourning song for our dopamine-fueled dreams.

What a beautiful and exciting vision, to finally be just for yourself. To fall asleep and never wake up again. ・

Based on “Requiem for a Dream” by Hubert Selby Jr.

Co-production: STUDIO Theatre in Warsaw

WARSAW PREMIERE: April 17, 2026

KRAKOW PREMIERE: 25 April 2026

A show for adult viewers only. Sensory stimuli: smoke, loud sound effects, strobe light. Sensitive content: drugs, nudity, simulated sex scenes, simulated masturbation scenes, violence, vulgar language. Compulsive eating scene. Thoughts of resignation.

Requiem for sleep — program

THE WORKS USED IN THE PERFORMANCE ARE PROTECTED BY THE ZAIKS AUTHORS' ASSOCIATION

“Lux Aeterna” music and lyrics Mansell Clinton D “Techno” music — Marcin Masecki, Tomasz Popowski