„Ferragosto” – the best spectacle of 2019!
“Ferragosto” – the play by Radosław Paczocha, directed by Adam Orzechowski, received the 2019 Plaster Kultury Award as the best “Theatre Spectacle in 2019 in Łódź”. It was voted for by theatre spectators. Thank for all your votes – awards given by the audience have always been the most precious ones. Our congratulations to all nominees and winners!
“Ferragosto” was prepared for the 25th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant specially for the 100th anniversary of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s birthday. He was a writer, essayist, critic, journalist, soldier, a prisoner of the Soviet labour camps (gulag) For the whole period of communism in Poland Herling-Grudziński lived abroad as a political emigrant. During the times of the Polish People’s Republic any information on Herling-Grudziński was strictly censored and his name was put on a special list of writers never to be published. His works became widely known and appreciated in Poland only after 1989.
– He was a fascinating person. When it was announced that 2019 would be Herling’Grudzinński’s year I knew it was our duty to remind our viewers how important he was and how important his works have been – said the Powszechny Theatre director Ewa Pilawska who is also the Festival’s artistic director.
The title of the play by Radosław Paczocha refers to the August 15th Italian holiday. It is a free day for all Italians. The cities become deserted because its inhabitants leave looking for some shelter from the heat. Herling-Grudziński described the day as unbearable from a psychological point of view. „Ferragosto” tells the writer’s story during and after WWII.
