WAŁĘSA IN KOLONOS will be present online on 31th March, 8:00 PM, at facebook.com/laznianowa.
Kuba Roszkowski’s “Wałęsa in Kolonos” directed by Bartosz Szydłowski portrays the tragic stalemate of the Polish people who, entangled in their - everlasting controversies, renew the category of fate. It confronts Poles with the future. Szydłowski and Roszkowski place the main hero and us all on the edge of the precipice that Wyspiański described in “The Wedding”. This is augured by the scene of Wałęsa’s funeral, portrayed in the costume of a Greek myth. After the death of the main hero, the void opens, irrespective of how loved or hated he was, for what was the most important, after all, was the time in both 1980 and 1989 when at least 10 million Poles and their families believed Wałęsa the hero who brought back freedom and hope. It is not immaterial either that the performance, making references to the sense of community, is played in the Łaźnia Nowa in Nowa Huta whose strong desire is to renew it. The breakdown of society construed as community is even more terrifying. Again, it reminds one of the chaos-ridden crowd from the frst scene. As Athena/Danuta Wałęsowa (Anna Paruszyńska) realises, Poles are not reminiscent of the Greeks, who knew that their heroes were imperfect, and praised them for achieving miracles of courage by combating their imperfection and weakness. Just like Wałęsa. The artists do not whitewash Wałęsa. He is scenically played by Jerzy Stuhr sporting the iconic moustache, in an easily recognised suit with the Blessed Virgin on the lapel. The hero he plays does not hide that he’s had shameful episodes in his biography. The problem of the Poles lies in elevating to monuments people who are hardly even mediocre, whose biography will quite likely fail to survive the test of time, thus at the same time discrediting their true heroes.
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