„Flying Spaghetti Monster” at the 31st Festival

On Wednesday, 26 March 2025, at the 31st International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant, we presented „Flying Spaghetti Monster” – the spectacle of Mateusz Pakuła, produced by Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Cracow. Again the house of Powszechny Theatre was more than full and the viewers gave a long ovation to the creators. Thank you for another mutual festival night!    

The starting point for the play is Flying Spaghetti Monster, god described for the first time in 2005 by Bobby Henderson, a physicist; followers of Pastafarianism who belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster believe in its existence. Religious studies specialists consider Pastafarianism a parody of religion. Followers of the cult of Flying Spaghetti Monster have a different opinion, they disagree with those countries which do not recognize it as a full-fledged religious organization.       

The main character of the spectacle is Bobby Henderson, who – after his death – goes to hell for spreading his faith. „ I don’t believe in God, nor in the Devil, nor in Muhammad, nor in reincarnation, I believe in nothing, do you understand?” – he says to Satan. In his latest play Mateusz Pakuła raises the issues connected with discrimination and offences against religious feelings and tolerance of followers of religions and beliefs other than the predominant ones.           

After the spectacle, during the meeting with its creators which was moderated by Jacek Cieślak and Jacek Wakar, Mateusz Pakuła emphasized the most important problem for him that the play would carry the message of freedom – freedom from indoctrination, freedom from imposing ideological and religious views, freedom from social pressure, freedom from tradition seen as the need to comply with an imposed vision of the world (and the beyond).

The creators told about their work on the parts, the role of improvisation in „Flying Spaghetti Monster”; Pakuła emphasized that his intention was that the spectacle would be different (from the point of view of load and emotions) from his previous play „How I Didn’t Kill My Father And How Much I Regret It” which last year, at the 30th Festival, won the Audience Plebiscite (ex aequo with „Mothers. A Song For Wartime”) in the Best Spectacle category. The spectacle is a „religious farce” but at the same time it asks questions on fundamental problems.

Today we will present it for the second time, so see you then!                  

 

Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Cracow
Mateusz Pakuła
„Flying Spaghetti Monster”
Written and directed by Mateusz Pakuła
Stage design and costumes: Justyna Elminowska
Choreography: Mikołaj Karczewski
Light: Paulina Góral
Music: Antonis Skolias, Marcin Pakuła, Dominik Róg, Zuzanna Skolias-Pakuła
Live music: Marcin Pakuła, Dominik Róg
Cast:  Zuzanna Skolias-Pakuła, Emose Uhunmwangho, Jan Jurkowski, Szymon Mysłakowski

 

Photos:  Maciej Zakrzewski