Events
Maria Kwiecień
set design, costumes:Anna Gołdanowska
lights:Damian Bakalarz
video:Maria Porzyc
sound:Konrad Biel
cast:Gabriela Jaskuła, Marta Ledwoń, Wioletta Tomica, Przemek Buksiński, Daniel Dobosz, Jarosław Tomica
Produced by:Konfrontacje Teatralne
The Mayor by Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk is a veritable phenomenon on the Polish theatre scene. One of the best texts written for theatre in recent years in Poland has not been premiered since its inception almost a decade ago and to this day constitutes the only piece by Sikorska-Miszczuk that has not been staged yet. What is the reason? Why did not The Mayor become a staple of the strand of plays dealing with the Holocaust and with our means of coping (badly) with this thorny issue? The Mayor was created parallel to other texts that were swiftly staged: it was written shortly after “The Art of Dialogue: Lublin Jews” (“Sztuka dialogu. Żydzi lubelscy”) workshops, organized in 2007 by Theatre Confrontations in cooperation with the Drama Laboratory (Laboratorium Dramatu) and the NN Theatre, which yielded a number of plays: Our Class (Nasza klasa) by Tadeusz Słobodzianek, Adherence (Przylgnięcie) by Piotr Rowicki, Jew (Żyd) by Artur Pałyga; in addition, as a counter-narrative to the workshops Paweł Passini, Łukasz Witt-Michałowski and Piotr Ratajczak wrote Nothing that is Human (Nic, co ludzkie). Except The Mayor, all these texts were staged. Truth be told, Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk’s drama belongs to a different order; it goes a step further than all the other texts. Seemingly, it needed time and some history homework that all of us had to diligently do so that could be The Mayor adapted for stage. Thanks to Maria Kwiecień, 2015 sees the play’s return to Lublin and to the Confrontations Festival. We take utmost pride in the premiere of The Mayor.