The script for Zero Point is based on three great novels: Life and Fate and Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman, and The Kindly Ones (Les Bienveillantes) by Jonathan Littell. All three striking narratives portray National Socialism of the bleakest period of the 20th century. They portray human lives.

Preparing the new spectacle, Janusz Opryński selected three narratives. The common thread is the representation of totalitarian states – Germany and Russia – all three novels focus on National Socialism, and yet they touch upon the essence of humanity in the most painful manner. The first novel that Opryński began to work on was Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Les Bienveillantes). It is a flamboyant historical fresco depicting the final years of the Third Reich, the events of the Eastern Front of World War II. It presents the backstage of the Holocaust and the role played by technocrats and experts in its orchestration: lawyers, economists and highly skilled administrative staff.

At the same time, Opryński was seeking another take on the issue. A conversation with Adam Michnik directed him to Vassily Grossman’s Life and Fate, the story of World War II which simultaneously constitutes a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the history of the 20th century, including the totalitarianism of the Stalin’s USSR. Everything Flows is Grossman’s last novel, which, unlike its predecessor, somehow managed to avoid being “arrested” by the authorities. The novel is not only an incredible literary masterpiece and a profound historiosophical treatise, but also a genuine and poignant story of human lives. It tells a tale of a Soviet camp prisoner, released after 30 years of incarceration and painstakingly attempting to adjust to new reality. The work on the spectacle began with the chronologically most recent novel, going backwards towards older narratives authored by Grossman.

The first public reading of the script is one of the initial stages of the spectacle production.