XVII MFG Insatiable, or pure treasures

Competition performance of the 17th International Gombrowicz Festival Marecki Tadeusz Lużyński Cultural Centre in Marki

The play, directed by Jerzy Łazewski, is a stage narrative full of surprising twists and turns, enriched with beautiful songs by Dawid Ludkiewicz. Three extraordinary literary imaginations meet on stage: Witold Gombrowicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Bruno Schulz. Their grotesque, poetic and absurd worlds are woven into one story about a man who tries to save meaning and beauty in a time of anxiety.

These three artists were united not only by the era, but also by a personal relationship — they knew, read and valued each other, although each of them followed their own, artistically different path. The common denominator of their work remains irony, grotesque and a penetrating look at the condition of society. The clash of their personalities and artistic languages creates a unique space in the performance — at the same time full of humor and deep reflection.

The starting point of the play is the experience of war, and the answer to its nightmare becomes the grotesque — a tool for the defense of imagination and freedom of spirit. In the context of modern threats, this topic sounds worryingly topical today.

The show opens with a virtual prelude: VR walks leading into space paintings by Witkacy and Schulz and films based on photographs brought to life by AI. In the dramaturgic layer, the director draws on excerpts from Gombrowicz's Operetta, Pornography and Diaries, Miss Tutli Putla, In a Small Manor, Witkacy's Shoemakers and Unwashed Souls, as well as quotations from their correspondence.

The clash of the youth of art adepts with the experience of masters, idealism with irony, life with its finiteness creates an extraordinary theatrical space — a world on the border of dawn and dream, in which the theater becomes a refuge for imagination and a place of dialogue with reality.

“Insatiable, or pure treasures” is a unique spectacle. The filmmakers managed to combine lightness and seriousness in a bold, intelligent, funny way. Create a non-obvious theatrical form, full of attraction and provocation. Thought-provoking. He plays in it and works for the sake of the performance everything: the lyrics, the space, the scenography, the music, the choreography, and above all the actors. I count him among all the important performances that have given me so much that it is really impossible to forget them.

Ewa Sokół-Malesza, www.e-teat.pl