Solaris

Solaris, directed by Michał Zdunik, is a retro-futuristic meditation on the encounter with what one fears and what one does not understand.

A return to the imagination of the 1960s — the era in which Lem wrote his novel — is combined here with the experience of the theater of the picture, including Jerzy Grzegorzewski, who for Zdunik became the first and most important inspiration.

Hence the thinking with an object, an abbreviation, a metaphor, a collage approach to the text. In this staging, Lem's prose is juxtaposed with the poetry of Ginczanka, Baczyński or Przerwy-Tetmajer, creating a multi-layered landscape — literary, emotional and spiritual.

The main character is Kris Kelvin (Krzysztof Brzazgoń), a psychologist arriving at a research station orbiting around Solaris. There he meets his deceased sweetheart, a being created by the ocean that materializes human memories and emotions.

The cosmos in this staging is not a triumph of science, but an isolation and confrontation with one's own past. The ocean of the planet remains a figure of mystery.

At the heart of Solaris is choral music and songs in ancient Greek, taken from the treatise On the Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Next to them are organs - treated like a spaceship. This is a conscious escape from modern visuals: instead of multimedia, a reel tape recorder and analog props appear. The large dolls that will appear in the staging are memory figures. Disturbing and fascinating.

The play becomes a multi-part score, where science fiction meets poetry and metaphysics.

A show for viewers from the age of 12

licensor — Tomasz Lem

631st premiere of the Polish Theatre in Wrocław

Performances with subtitles in English

Performances with English subtitles

The play takes part in the XI Competition for the Staging of Old Works of Polish and European Literature “Living Classics”