Hymn to Love for orchestra, teddy bear choir and others is a show about Europe that has ordered its ranks to fall in. Successive nations make a racket: Give us our country back! And the Poles are zealously joining the chorus. This is a show about the forgetfulness that every nation enjoys so much. And about people-bombs that are so pissed off that they go off. In this way, everything repeats itself. So specially for us, the chorus will sing “The Song About the Forgetful Nation”:

THE TRUTH is that the NATION allowed it to happen. Let some, selected children die although they were not its children, children of the nation. OK. So be it. It was not THIS country, after all, but THAT: GERMANY. And we do not know anything about it. We did not know that. Some facts have been tampered with for the sake of the narrative. And since we have had this country to ourselves for a relatively short period of time, we are striving to make this country OURS, our POLAND, exclusively OURS, OUR OWN.

So now we cannot afford to accept the Refugees. Oh, we simply cannot afford. We have a lot of space but not enough. We cannot squeeze anybody in. We should love them on their own turf and those who are to blame should help them in the first place, after all. Everybody would receive our smartphone offers and all the discounts would be available to them as well.

It is our Polish way…

OUR HOUSE IS AT YOUR DISPOSAL – YOU ARE VERY WELCOME

… we adore low prices!

Hymn to Love is a masterpiece. Precision and energy, dynamism and rhythmic perfection. Sophisticated musical arrangement authored by young composer Teonika Rożynek lifts the tried-and-tested form onto an even higher level.
Witold Mrozek, “Gazeta Wyborcza”

The text – and everything that unfolds on stage – delivers a stronger punch that one could have bargained for, foregrounding – regardless of how exalted it may sound – the cry of the Shoah. (…) This time around, the effect of Górnicka’s work is not simply astonishing and revelatory – as we have already grown accustomed to – but shocking. This is by no means a hyperbole. Her military and mathematic precision, which she employs to measure out the memory of the Holocaust, has us on the edge of our seats. There is no room left here for understatement or over-interpretation. Górnicka speaks openly about consent, complicity, and co-responsibility on the part of the Poles for the Holocaust. (…) Due to the inclusion of the statements by Breivik, we are aware of the direction we are led into by Górnicka: we are approaching the crimes freeze-framed in the memory, as sanctioned by the authority of hindsight, which – not unlike film – one can rewind, fast-forward, or delete. Looking at human tragedy – Górnicka concludes – experiencing it as a viewer, and refraining from taking a stand means joint responsibility for and condonation of evil.

Patryk Czaplicki, “Didaskalia”

CONCEPT, DIRECTION, LIBRETTO

Marta Górnicka

MUSIC

Teoniki Rożynek

CHOREOGRAPHY

Anna Godowska

DRAMATURGY

Agata Adamiecka

SET DESIGN

Robert Rumas

COSTUMES

Anna Maria Karczmarska

DOLLS

Konrad Czarkowski (Kony Puppets)

LIGHTING DESIGN

Artur Sienicki

PRODUKCJA

Izabela Dobrowolska, Agnieszka Różyńska

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Arnold Prządka

ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER

Anna Krysiak

MUSIC ASSISTANT AND CONSULTANT

Joanna Piech-Sławecka

SET DESIGN ASSISTANCE

Agnieszka Majkutewicz

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Andrzej Szwaczyk

STAGE MANAGER

Magdalena Matusewicz

CAST

Sylwia Achu, Pamela Adamik, Anna Andrzejewska, Maria Chleboś, Konrad Cichoń, Piotr B. Dąbrowski, Tymon Dąbrowski, Maciej Dużyński, Anna Gierczyńska, Paula Głowacka, Maria Haile, Wojciech Jaworski, Borys Jaźnicki, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Ewa Konstanciak, Irena Lipczyńska, Kamila Michalska, Izabela Ostolska, Filip P. Rutkowski, Michał Sierosławski, Ewa Sołtysiak, Ewa Szumska, Krystyna Lama Szydłowska, Kornelia Trawkowska, Anastazja Żak

COPRODUCERS

Chór Kobiet Foundation, Polski Theatre in Poznań, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Maxim Gorki Theater

PARTNERS

Goethe-Institut, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle

Subsidised by the Municipality of Warsaw and Kunststiftung NRW

PREMIERE

21 January 2017