Łódź in the background. Machulski, Gadomski, Child in a Situation – the first part of 2020/2021 season in Powszechny Theatre in Łódź

We return to playing live – in September on our Big Stage you can see „The Maid” and „Sheer Madness”. In the first part of 2020/2021 season we will present three first previews – two of them were written specially for our Theatre, the third one was translated into Polish to be premiered in Łódź. Here is what you will see:

• „Everything that glitters” by Michał Walczak, or „tabloid-type saloon musical”; the play inspired by Bogdan Gadomski – the local music journalist, a biographer of stars and camp lover.
• „Tidiritkum” by Juliusz Machulski – the play about a multigenerational family with a shameful story of a former secret police agent in the background. Can we take care of our loved ones? Or do we prefer to buy a substitute of love and therefore have a peace of mind?
• „Johnny, king of moving” by a Canadian playwright David S. Craig will be premiered in Poland. It will be the 9th presentation in the Ewa Pilawska original project „Child in a situation”. The play with Łódź in the background tells how grown-ups shift responsibility for problems they cannot cope with to children.     

„Johnny, king of moving” - the play about a boy who must grow up before his parent

On 23 September on our Small Stage there will be a first preview of the 9th spectacle in the „Child in a situation” project. - „Johnny, king of moving” („Danny, King of the Basement”) shows a family relations breakdown. It tells about a loneliness of a boy that his mother has shifted responsibility onto, abusing confidence and unconditional love. In the play we have many forms of loneliness and the characters unsuccessfully try to stifle them by buying different things and offering substitutes of love – says Ewa Pilawska who directed the play on a voluntary basis. The play is moved to Łódź and the characters live in a tenement house in Pomorska Street.  

So far the play has been staged in Canada, the US and Germany. Its American version had over half a milion spectators and its author, a Canadian playwright David S. Craig, received a prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award (Toronto’s Tony Award). In July the play was presented by Radio Łódź – it was the radio version of a spectacle for people with poor eyesight and blind. In September we will present the live version – on the stage and with the spectators. The shows will be accompanied by workshops prepared by actor Andrzej Jakubas and educator and therapist Aleksandra Dulas. The play will be presented in our Theatre but in case the pandemic returns the professional on-line shows will be prepared.      

„Tidiritkum” - Machulski about buying conscience with a former secret police agent in the background 

It will be his fourth play written specially for Powszechny Theatre. Juliusz Machulski again shows the problems of a multigenerational family but this time asks questions about the past. Does it influence our life and the lives of our loved ones? To what extent does it change our relations? What is family today? Can we support our parents and grandparents or do we only provide care for them, having a peace of mind instead? There is also a Łódź  feature in the play – a shameful story of a former secret police agent who had a huge success in the city. The first preview is to take place in December.

Michał Walczak on the Łódź colourful person

Playwright Michal Walczak has been preparing a play about a colourful and controversial Łódź personality – Bogdan Gadomski. He was an opera fan, he loved bichon frise dogs, he was a specialist on Polish and world songstresses, a biographer and friend of many stars. Gadomski, who died in March, will be a hero of „Everything that glitters” - the play that Walczak describes as a „tabloid-type saloon musical”. The list of the play heroes includes poodle Bu-Bu Mon Cheri Adorea, Violetta Villas, Aldona Orłowska, Krzysztof Krawczyk as well as divas, dogs, glitters, sequins, Nina Andrycz and David Lynch.

Stars for Barbara Połomska and Michał Szewczyk

On 1 October at 1 p.m. two Powszechny Theatre actors – Barbara Połomska and Michał Szewczyk – will be awarded their stars in the Łodź Walk of Fame (Piotrkowska Street). The ceremony will be a part of the Powszechny Theatre 75. anniversary celebration to be held in 2020. Barbara Połomska was an undisputed star of the Polish cinema in the seventies and the eighties. She was often described as „the Polish Brigitte Bardot” and media covered her international successes. She played in many films and TV series but remained faithful to theatre and to Łódź. Michał Szewczyk has been one of the most popular Powszechny Theatre actors, loved by fans and critics. He played in many films and TV series as well as TVP Theatre spectacles and Polish Radio dramas. Barbara Połomska and Michał Szewczyk have been the Powszechny Theatre actors for more than 60 years, they both form an impressive chapter of the history of Łódź and Polish theatre.

National Reading, „The Maid Advises”, original projects

On 5 September the Powszechny Theatre actors  Ewa Sonnenburg and Jan Wojciech Poradowski took part in National Reading project. They read fragments of „Balladyna” by Juliusz Słowacki and the event happened in Music Theatre in Łódź. In the season to come Powszechny Theatre plans another previews of The Reading theatre for people with poor eyesight and blind that will be co-produced with Radio Łódź. Other original projects and social initiatives – spectacles for the retired, for the unemployed and for the students – will  also be continued. Another previews of our series „The Maid Advises” will be presented in our YouTube channel and in TV TOYA – the main media partner of the project.