In the new reality, in the place where currently there is an avant-garde theatre scene, a Holiday Resort has been created – one of the places of relaxation and socialization set up thanks to the National Programme of Collective Recreation. The resort, like all other facilities of this type, meets the desires that accompany every citizen. A need to be left in peace, not engaging in other people’s business, taking care of your own interests and comfort. Staying at the centre helps one forget all that is unpleasant, and find one’s hidden needs.

Thanks to these holiday resorts, one can finally feel genuine relief. All decisions have already been taken, all matters resolved, the internal and external situation is stable, and prosperity is at your fingertips. Time to rest.

PRODUCTION
Komuna// Warszawa & Katarzyna Koślacz

DIRECTOR
Anna Smolar

TEXT
Michał Buszewicz

DRAMATURGY
Michał Buszewicz, Anna Smolar

SET DESIGN AND COSTUMES
Anna Met

VIDEO AND PHOTO
Rafał Paradowski

EDITING
Michał Czarnecki

DIRECTOR’S ASSISTANT
Alicja Kobielarz

For an hour we watch a group doing everyday exercises and meditations. There is no mention of a conflict, not even a word about politics. Contact with people with lower or higher earnings are not advisable so as to avoid spoiling one’s good mood. Talk about pay rise or possessions are also a source of embarrassment, guilt, a distraction from bliss – so should be avoided. There is constant tension between the decreed individualism and healthy self-focus – as well as topdown compulsory reactions within a group. Family ties are disappearing – the mother who is dying in another centre is referred to as “my ancestor, I mean the person who gave birth to me”. Buszewicz and Smolar show it in simple, comic-like scenes – amusing variations on the topic of corporate integration or pseudopsychological workshop, in a choreography combining the echoes of tai-chi and more funny performances of the contemporary
dance. Philip K. Dick meets Monty Python.
Witold Mrozek, Dwutygodnik.com

If the performance by Anna Smolar is critical theatre, then it is probably one which hides the blade of criticism behind the facade of social grotesque; not expressing its reasons directly but commenting on reality by showing it with a twist. Throughout the entire show, the director creates a relaxing, friendly, gentle atmosphere and tries to thicken it to the point of it becoming disturbing. The title Resort, which operates thanks to the National Programme of Collective Recreation, is almost an Orwellian institution that serves… injecting the patients with artificial optimism leading to existential isolation.
teatralny.pl, Szymon Kazimierczak