Zeromsky Backstage

Żeromski Backstage is a unique adaptation of Stefan Żeromski's Diaries developed by Weronika Zajkowska as part of the Żeromski Dramaturgical Residence. The director refers in an artistic way to the relationship that takes place between — the audience, and the author who gives us his private notes.

An important slogan for this work becomes in the accepted assumptions backstage, that is, everything that is the hidden layer of any literary, dramatic or stage work. Through an insight into the author himself, the director makes an attempt at vivisection: “I would like to examine how a form of performative reading, which is something both post- and pre-stage, is able to throw something new into the interpretation or shape of the text.”

Using performative tools, Zajkowska elaborates the relationship between the texts of “Diaries” and her own experiences, experiences and memories. In this work he explores the concept of reading itself, looking for new possibilities in it and how a given event can be extended, how to maneuver in it between a theatrical event and a new theatrical form.

A performance of the Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce presented as part of the 8th ZONA KONTAKT Drama Festival. The program of the festival is here.

From reviews:

Zajkowska takes on the role of a performer — sometimes even a stand-up performer — and she is excellent at it. She tries to look at the biography of the writer in order to tell about him, although most of the time she rather reviews herself in it, and Żeromsky becomes only an excuse to talk about himself. She is accompanied on stage by the actors of the Kielce theater, Oskar Jarzombek and Dagna Dywicka, who help to recreate what we remember about Żeromski. The director plays so well at the intersection of the real and the fictional that we forget about the theater and the fact that the reality we are watching does not have to be true at all. (https://teatr-pismo.pl/trampolina/).

In the main prize-winning dramatic performance Żeromski: Backstage, Weronika Zajkowska moves smoothly between fiction and reality. The director and playwright invites the audience to a performative lecture, during which she introduces the “facts” (also — invented ones) about the life of the author of Przedwiośnia, read by her from his diaries and scientific studies; and then — with varying effect — she tries to relate them to her private experiences. (...) Barto also appears on the recording. Bielenia, with whom the director performed in the Białystok theater circle in childhood. Zajkowska is interested in the relationship between autobiographical notes and her recipients, and above all — what in the materials often considered to be a fairly reliable source of knowledge, remains silenced, hidden or undercolored. (https://culture.pl/pl/artykul/laboratorium-nowego-teatru).

Prizes:

- Main prize for Weronika Zajkowska for dramaturgy at the International Theatre Festival Divine Comedy, Krakow 2025, - prize for playwright in the amount of PLN 20,000 from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, - XI Award Debut TR Warszawa — for “extremely precise work on unsealing the boundaries between fiction and reality in biographical and autobiographical material.”

Tickets can be purchased HERE.

More information about the show can be found HERE.