“Couples Therapy” - a performance

Three pairs. One space. One seemingly simple goal is to try to fix what has broken in the relationship. Sounds familiar? And that is the first pitfall of this show. Because although almost every viewer will find in the characters familiar gestures, silences, small lies and great expectations, the creators do not offer us another banal story about the fact that “it is worth talking about”. Instead, they launch an intricate theatrical machine in which each subsequent answer raises a new question, and each attempt to clarify the situation can lead to even more confusion.

Predatorously played, firework-free theater. He is constantly smouldering with humor, successfully glimpses reality and leaves us with an important message whose destructive power drives us into the armchair. Marek Zajdler The seemingly therapeutic session thus turns into something like a social experiment and a detective puzzle. The viewer is drawn into this game almost without asking permission. It is necessary to listen carefully, observe, remember. Who said what? To whom? Why right now? And what else do we not know? “Couples Therapy” does not deal all the cards from the beginning. On the contrary, it skillfully doses information and allows the viewer to remain in a state of controlled uncertainty for a long time. And when it seems that we already understand the balance of power between the protagonists, the show manages to take another turn.

Couples Therapy” is worth watching for a well-constructed story. For acting. For the pleasure of following the theatrical intrigue. And those moments when the audience bursts into laughter, and a second later falls silent, because the joke suddenly turns out to be painfully familiar. Karolina Wójs Under the layer of lively dialogue, energetic confrontations and laughter hides a rather serious story about closeness. About how much we are willing to tell the person we love. It's a compromise that sometimes we can't make. Grief that can turn into anger over the years. The show requires precision, good pace and the ability to balance between comism and emotional truth. It's not enough to “play funny.” It is necessary to build a character whose behavior will be funny and believable at the same time. The acting team does it brilliantly.

Director Wojciech Urbański leads the whole with a sense of rhythm. The next situations spin like a spring, the tension grows, the pace picks up, and the comedic element begins to dangerously approach the border beyond which the drama is already located.

“Couples Therapy” is a spectacle that is vivid, intelligent and surprisingly close to the everyday experience. It entertains, draws in, throws new leads, and, by the way, leaves the viewer with a question that is difficult to throw out of the head after leaving the theater: how much of what we have just seen on stage do we know from our own lives? This question can no longer be enclosed in an envelope...

Directed by: Wojciech Urbański

Written by: Matias Del Federico

Translation: Rubi Birden

Cast:

Agnieszka Wiedlocha,

Magdalena Kumorek,

Magdalena Gorska,

Antoni Pawlicki,

Marek Kalita,

Pavel Lawrynowicz