“The Brothers Karamazov” is the most famous novel by Dostoyevsky presenting the dispute of the 19 century Russian intelligentsia. The questions addressed in the novel have remained relevant for next generations around the whole world. Therefore, in his performance, Janusz Opryński tries to juxtapose the reality of Dostoyevsky’s times with the harsh reality of today’s world. He brings back to life brothers Karamazov, the fools for Christ, the saints, the madmen, the saint idiots, so they can help us discover our spirituality. He concen-trates on the key scenes of the novel; the father and sons conversation while drinking cognac, the existence of God, Ivan’s rebellion against this world, children and their suffering and the duel between Ivan and Smerdya-kov and the Devil. Female characters are also important. In the performance by Provisorium Katya, Grusha and Liza seem to love the torments caused by their men more than they love the men themselves. The interpretation of the main motifs from “The Brothers Karamazov” bears traces of Cezary Wodziński’s vision of Russia. He translated fragments of the novel again especially for the performance and his books on Dostoyevsky’s literature were the source of great help and inspiration to the artists while working on the performance.

Provisorium Theatre is one of the most important theatres that emerged from the student culture in Poland. Founded in 1971, it always drew inspiration from masterpieces of Polish and world literature, written by such authors as: Miłosz, Hłasko, Herling- Grudziński, Gombrowicz, Dostoyevsky, Rilke, Yerofeyev. In 1996 the Provisorium Theatre started their collaboration with the Kompania Theatre. Together they staged the following performances: “Koniec Wieku”, “Ferdydurke”, “Sceny z życia Mitteleuropy”, “Do piachu”, “Trans-Atlantyk” and “Homo Polonicus”. “The Brothers Karamazov” is the first performance individually prepared that by the Provisorium Theatre after years of collaboration with the Kompania