Theatre of Polish Classics: “The King and the Tsaritsa”

The romance of the last Polish king with Empress Catherine the Great was no secret. It was to the Russian ruler that the monarch owed her assumption of the throne in Warsaw. The Theatre of Polish Classics invites you to the performance “The King and the Tsaryca” directed by Jerzy Zelnik, which was created on the basis of a selection of correspondence between Empress Catherine and King Stanisław August.

In 1755, the secretary of the English deputy, a young Polish aristocrat, Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski, arrived in St. Petersburg. He drew Catherine's attention to himself, losing his head to her himself. Her husband, Peter, discovered romance. He reacted with anger, but quickly mastered it. He was also involved in extramarital affairs. So he blessed the happiness of lovers. In July 1762, he died. At the behest of his wife, who ordered him murdered. Two years later, already as Tsarina, Catherine made Stanisław Poniatowski the ruler of Poland. After another thirty-one years, however, he deprived him not so much of the throne as of the kingdom, leading to the third partition of the Polish Republic.

The creators will show a psychological and emotional portrait of the king and the empress - former lovers who, under the guise of constantly maintained sister-brotherly relations, wage a diplomatic war for conflicting national aspirations and goals.

The echoes of the old passion still sometimes resound between the lines of the letters of the two rulers. However, it is a violent, unsentimental political interest that is the proper content of this correspondence. Therefore, it is an extraordinary material for actors. In the performance of the Teatr Klasyki Polska, they will bring out all the complexity of the relations between Stanisław August and Catherine II, forming a dramatic weave of longing, hope, fear, contempt and cold calculation. “The King and the Empress” will reveal the behind-the-scenes events that led to the disappearance of the Republic of Poland from the map of Europe for more than one hundred and twenty years.

DIRECTORS Script: Halina Rowicka Set design and costumes: Anna Czyż Music: Mikołaj Hertel Light direction: Adam Sobala Characterization: Anna Czyżykiewicz

CAST Tsaryca — Halina Rowicka King — Jerzy Zelnik Skrzypek, Stańczyk — Stefan Kiniorski

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