Wycinanka z Szymborskiej
Aleksandra Głogowska
1 February marked the 10th anniversary of the death of one of Poland’s most famous poets, essayists and the first Polish woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, a master of simple words and detail. Julian Przyboś called Szymborska a short-sighted woman who could see small things well and only up close. She was very critical of her own work: “I write at night, and during the day I have a nasty habit of reading what I’ve written, and I see that not everything stands the test of even one turn of the globe. A poem written in spring does not necessarily stand the test of autumn,” she said in an interview. We invite you to the world of the master of poetic irony and intimate form, full of wisdom, reflection on human existence and verbal virtuosity. The radio play also uses poems read by the Nobel winner herself.
script: Aleksandra Głogowska
direction: Aleksandra Głogowska
sound production: Agnieszka Szczepańczyk
musical development: Aleksandra Głogowska
radio premiere: 3 February 2022
running time: 43’32’’
cast: Irena Jun, Dorota Landowska, Katarzyna Dąbrowska, Zuzanna Saporznikow
Aleksandra Głogowska
The Literary Director of Polskie Radio RDC, a graduate of the first Radio Directing Course organized by the Polish Radio Theatre and the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. The winner of the 20th edition of the Interpretations 2020 competition for the best radio play of the Polish Radio Theatre (for her radio play Przed sklepem jubilera). She won the second prize at the Radio Plays Festival 2021 in Poznań for her radio play The Christmas Eve Story by Charles Dickens. The winner of the Special Prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage at the Grand PiK Festival of Artistic Radio Forms 2022
and the award of the Programme Board of Polskie Radio RDC (2021).
Free entrance
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Parawan
Andrzej Strzelecki
Andrzej Strzelecki’s Parawan is a musical play about the trouble and difficulties that an intellectual faces in the process of adapting to the norms and rules of the new regime that has just knocked on his door. Unexpected visitors make the protagonist realize the existence of changes that are not to his liking and that he did not expect. Although the sole purpose of the visitors is to make the protagonist’s life better, he is not at all prepared for that gift. This is because the external changes are not followed by the internal transformations of the intelligentia, which struggles to adapt to the new conditions of life. This is, however, not a problem for his colleagues, mother, friends and strangers, who all successfully enter the new system. All it takes are minor adaptations and a bit of resourcefulness, sometimes cunningness. This ease further aggravates the protagonist’s distress, causing comical and tragicomic situations. The play is a self-ironic look at the beginning of Poland’s political transition. It is written in verse that, given its subject matter, provides a kind of ‘filter’ that protects the brisk dialogue from the danger of easy simplifications.
direction: Rafał Zawierucha
sound production: Agnieszka Szczepańczyk
music: Marek Stefankiewicz, Piotr Rubik
music recording: Hubert Stefankiewicz
radio premiere: 6 February 2022
running time: 42’20”
cast: Aleksandar Milićević, Joanna Halinowska, Dominika Kachlik, Hubert Paszkiewicz, Mateusz Kmiecik, Piotr Kruszewski, Jakub Hojda, Ewelina Bator
songs performed by: Kamil Studnicki, Jakub Hojda, Dominika Kachlik, Ewelina Bator
Rafał Zawierucha
Theatre, film and radio actor and television presenter. In 2012, he graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw with a degree in acting. He has performed at Warsaw theatres: Współczesny, Och-Teatr, IMKA and Capitol as well as Television Theatre. He has hosted Canal+ Discovery’s television series Polska filmowa and starred in films: Jack Strong, Bogowie, Wkręceni, Obywatel and Miasto 44. He is also known for his part in the series Przepis na życie and Siła wyższa. In 2012, for his role in the film Księstwo by Andrzej Barański, he won the Golden Duck for best actor. He played Roman Polański in Quentin Tarantino’s Once upon a time… In Hollywood (2019). He is the host of the shows: Europa filmowa and Polska filmowa at TVN Fabuła.
Free entrance
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Czarny poemat
Władysław Broniewski
On the 60th anniversary of Władysław Broniewski’s death, Polish Radio Theatre presented a radio play based on the poet’s oeuvre. It contains not only excellent poetry, but also Broniewski’s early prose attempts. These sketches were written 100 years ago, after Broniewski had returned from the Polish‑Bolshevik war, after which he took up philosophical studies in Warsaw. All his life the poet also wanted to write a novel and fulfil himself as a novelist. He never made his dream come true, though. Although not strictly autobiographical, his work furnishes some personal tropes. He was haunted by all too painful memories of the war, which would get in the way of his relationship with reality and himself. Although the protagonist of the radio play has never been seriously wounded on the front, he did witness death: his comrades’ death and while killing his enemies. What happens to a person’s soul when they take another person’s life, even if it is an action justified by war? What kind of mark is left by crossing the boundaries of humanity, even if it’s morally justified?
adaptation: Anna Szamotuła
direction: Anna Szamotuła
sound production: Andrzej Brzoska
music: Piotr Skotnicki
radio premiere: 10 February 2022
running time: 42’
cast: Katarzyna Dąbrowska, Mariusz Bonaszewski, Zbigniew Suszyński, Krzysztof Szczepaniak,
Michał Klawiter, Karol Kunysz, Anna Szamotuła, Piotr Skotnicki
music performed by: Artur Włodkowski – saksofon tenorowy (tenor saxophone),
Piotr Skotnicki – instrumenty klawiszowe i programowanie (keyboard instruments and programming)
wykonanie piosenek / songs performed by: Krzysztof Szczepaniak
Anna Szamotuła
A graduate of Cultural Studies and Film Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University and the first Radio Directing Course organized by the Polish Radio Theatre, the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing and FiNA. She has worked with Radio Afera since 2007 and has headed the Culture Department (2010–2019). A journalist, presenter, voice-over talent, author of interviews, reporting and broadcasts: RAT | Radiowe Atelier Teatralne, Stany Nieważkości, Studio Fixum at Radio Afera. A radio theatre playwright and director. The finalist in the Radiowy Teatr Wyobraźni competition (Channel 4 of the Polish Radio): a co-writer of the radio series Radioterapia, directed by Xawery Żuławski, co-author of the radio play Paraliż senny (KuratorArt Festival), an author of a series of reportages produced as part of the 5 Zmysłów. Ekspresja project; an author of the reportage Pod nawierzchnią produced as part of the research project Ruchome Modernizacje run at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Adam Mickiewicz University. A playwright and director for radio plays Stupor, LabiryntUszu, Parasomnia, Itinerariusz, Atlas Odchyleń, Kleistość, Orfeusz, Radio (by I. Iredyński) and Czarny poemat based on the poetry of W. Broniewski; a joint coordinator of the series Teatr Na Ucho at Teatr Nowy in Poznań. A co-author of the installation Głos bez Paszportu (Generator Malta during Malta Festival Poznań 2017), a co-curator and co-organizer of the 6th edition of Festiwal Słuchowisk (2016-2021). A spokesperson for Poznań festivals, currently working with CK ZAMEK in Poznań.
Free entrance
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Samobójstwo samotności
Neda Neżdana
A full moon and a roof. There are two cats and two people on it. Cats would like to be able to drink cream in peace, looking up at the sky. Unfortunately, human fate is much more complicated. Our protagonists disrupt the cats’ peaceful evening. She is looking for the perfect place to say goodbye to her own life. He tries to dissuade her from the idea. But how did he end up on the roof at night in the first place? Ned Nezhdan’s tragicomedy Samobójstwo samotności is a story about lonely people that fate puts at the edge of the roof. Will any of them jump? And if so, will they land on their four feet?
translation: Irina Lappo
adaptation: Jan Hussakowski
direction: Jan Hussakowski
sound production: Paweł Szaliński
musical development: Renata Baszun
radio premiere: 1 May 2022
running time: 39’37”
cast: Anna Grycewicz, Oskar Hamerski, Jakub Kordas, Karolina Bacia
Jan Hussakowski
He graduated from the acting department of the PWST’s branch in Wrocław. During his studies, he worked with the Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, where he made his debut in Heiner Muller’s play Mauzer, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. After he had earned an acting diploma, he enrolled in the Directing Department of the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He made his debut with the play Jakoś to będzie. Spektakl o robotach based on the work generated with computer algorithms (penned by Hubert Sulima) at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. He helped direct Peter Turrini’s acting initiative Józef i Maria at the W. Horzyca Theatre in Toruń. He has also directed Vasily Sigariev’s Hipnotyzer at the Teatr Nowy Proxima in Kraków, Janusz Głowacki’s Antygona w Nowym Jorku at the J. Osterwa Theatre in Lublin, Michał Zdunik’s Wzór na pole trójkąta at the Teatr Nowy in Słupsk as well as Witold Gombrowicz’s Pornografia at the Teatr Powszechny in Radom; the latter was the outcome of his winning a competition for a young directors’ directorial explication. He received an award at them – teatr festival in Koszalin 2019 for his performance Reality Show(s) Kabaret o rzeczach strasznych by Przemysław Pilarski at the J. Kochanowski Theatre in Opole. He was also an assistant to Eimuntas Nekrosius on his Ślub by Witold Gombrowicz at the National Theatre in Warsaw and to Mariusz Treliński on Halka at the Grand Theatre–National Opera in Warsaw. Hussakovsky’s latest play is Kim jest pan Schmitt? by Sébastien Thiéry at the Teatr Wybrzeże in Gdańsk. Samobójstwo samotności is his debut with the Polish Radio Theatre.
Free entrance
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Kontrakt
Sławomir Mrożek
Sławomir Mrożek’s Kontrakt is a story about people with extremely different mindsets, backgrounds and aspirations, coming from two ends of Europe. A wealthy resident of a Swiss hotel, Magnus considers himself a guardian of European tradition and idea of aristocracy, which he believes has a natural intellectual and material advantage over the rest of the continent’s inhabitants. A young employee of the hotel who comes from a country “lying east of west and west of east,” Moris is aware of the mechanisms that govern the modern world and acknowledges the evolution of society and its mentality, which must inevitably take place in historical processes. Magnus, who is running out of money to continue staying at the hotel, makes a deal with Moris, his own life being at stake. Moris tries to exploit Magnus’s weakness and way of thinking by referring to historical stereotypes, perceptions and ideological schemes of previous eras. The confrontation forces the two protagonists to review their views and brings unexpected results.
adaptation: Przemysław Wyszyński
direction: Przemysław Wyszyński
sound production: Andrzej Brzoska
musical development: Przemysław Wyszyński
radio premiere: 12 June 2022
running time: 38’
cast: Szymon Kuśmider, Pawel Krucz
Przemysław Wyszyński
An actor, director, choreographer of fight scenes holding a PhD in Theater Arts; he is also a professor at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. A graduate of the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles (2013) and the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw (2010). Some of the Warsaw theatres he has worked with include: National Theatre, Teatr Dramatyczny; he is currently permanently affiliated with Teatr Polski im. A. Szyfmana. Since 2010, he has worked with the Polish Radio Theatre as an actor and director: Witz, Kolacja z Gustawem Klimtem, Virion (Audioteka). His voice work also includes dubbing for Polish language versions of films and TV series. Some of the plays he has directed include: performances of the Salon Poezji series and the play Ferdynand Wspaniały at the Teatr Polski in Warsaw. He also choreographed stage fights in performances such as: King Lear by W. Shakespeare directed by J. Lassalle (Teatr Polski in Warsaw), Hamlet by W. Shakespeare, directed by T. Bradecki (Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw). In 2021, he received the Talanton 2021 award for his playwriting debut at the Polish Radio Theatre.
Free entrance