Łódź the capital of theatre. The 30th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant to begin on 9 March!
Two spectacles presented by national theatres, international co-productions, the latest play of Krzysztof Warlikowski, outstanding Polish and European creators, hot names of theatre art masters. The 30th, jubilee edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant – the first theatre festival organized in free Poland – is soon to begin in Łódź. – We invite you to Powszechny Theatre in Łódź between 9 March and 16 April – Ewa Pilawska, artistic director of the festival, says.
- The 30th edition of the festival is held under the honorary patronage of Mr Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, minister of culture and national heritage and Ms Hanna Zdanowska, mayor of the City of Łódź
- The festival is co-financed by the City of Łódź Office
- The 30th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant is to start on 9 March. The is the jubilee edition of the event that has grown in the Łódź cultural landscape. The viewers, not only from Łódź but from Poland and abroad, have looked forward to it. Thanks to the festival Łódź, as usual, opens the calendar of theatre festivals in Poland. Only after that viewers in other cities take part in other events but it is Łódź that opens that parade. Our city becomes the capital of Polish theatre, the Polish theatre heart beats here – Hanna Zdanowska, mayor of the City of Łódź, says.
- It is one of the oldest Polish theatre festivals and at the same time the first theatre festival that was organized in free Poland, after 1989. Ewa Pilawska, its founder, first organized Festival of Pleasant Plays. But then, due to her vision and courage, the festival evolved, it became the Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant and it gained international importance. Here we could see the most outstanding Polish and world creators – Zdanowska adds.
- This year we invite you to spectacles of two national theatres. On our Big Stage we will present „Once Upon a Long Day” produced by The Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Kraków and directed by a Flemish director Luk Perceval. On our Small Stage we will present „Fredro. The Jubilee Year”, produced by National Theatre in Warsaw and directed by Jan Englert – Ewa Pilawska, artistic director of the festival, announces.
- We will show two international co-productions. The festival will be inaugurated by a spectacle-performance „Mothers. A Song for Wartime” directed by Marta Górnicka, co-produced by The Chorus of Women, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and the Avignon Festival. In April we will present „Republic (Der Staat)” directed by Jan Klata – a co-production of The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow and Nationaltheater Mannheim – Pilawska adds.
- We will also have two Master Performances. The first one – „Happy Days” produced by Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw – has been a legend and I did want to present it because it was my ambition to show the master class of Maja Komorowska. The second one will be shown on Saturday, 13 April, only two days after its world first presentation. It is „Elizabeth Costello. Seven Lectures and Five Moral Tales”, produced by Nowy Theatre and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski – Pilawska says.
- And there are other interesting spectacles as well: „Little Fifteen” directed by Tomasz Man and produced by Nowy Theatre in Słupsk; „Last Days of Nicolae i Elena Ceaușescu” directed by Wojciech Faruga and produced by Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz; „The Melodrama” directed by Anna Smolar and produced by Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw”; and „How I Didn’t Kill My Father And How Much I Regret It” directed by Mateusz Pakuła, a co-production of Nowa Łaźnia Theatre in Cracow and The Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce – Ewa Pilawska says. – We also invite our viewers to the retrospective exhibition „30 Years of International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant” with Krzysztof Kelm as its curator – director Pilawska adds.
- During the 30th edition of the festival we will see many outstanding actresses and actors, to mention Maja Komorowska, Adam Ferency, Mariusz Bonaszewski, Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Ewa Wiśniewska, Anna Seniuk, Jan Englert, Marek Barbasiewicz, Wiesław Cichy, Ewa Dałkowska, Maja Ostaszewska and Roman Gancarczyk among others – the festival’s artistic director underlines.
The great theatre holiday will start on 9 March. The tickets for the spectacles of the 30th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant will go on sale on Thursday, 22 February, at 1 p.m. – at the theatre, online and in the ticket machine in Galeria Łódzka.
In the Audience Plebiscite the viewers will traditionally choose the best spectacle, the best actress and the best actor.
More details on the festival are available on the website: https://powszechny.pl/pl/festiwal/
Programme of the 30th International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant
9 March – 16 April 2024
9 March (Saturday) at 7 p.m.
Opening of the retrospective exhibition „30 Years of International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant”
Foyer, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
9 March (Saturday) at 7 p.m.
„Mothers. A Song for Wartime”, directed by Marta Górnicka, co-production of The Chorus of Women, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin the Avignon Festival d’Avignon; Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne; Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw; SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht); Tangente St. Pölten – Festival Für Gegenwartskultur (Austria)
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
10 March (Sunday), at 7:15 p.m.
„Little Fifteen”
Directed by Tomasz Man
Produced by The Witkacy Nowy Teatr in Słupsk
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
11 March (Monday), at 7:15 p.m.
„Little Fifteen”
Directed by Tomasz Man
Produced by The Witkacy Nowy Teatr in Słupsk
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
16 March (Saturday), at 5 p.m.
Maja Komorowska’s Master Performance
Samuel Beckett „Happy Days”
Directed by Antoni Libera
Produced by The Gustaw Holoubek Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw
Presented in The Gustaw Holoubek Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw
The ticket price covers the bus trip from Łódź do Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw and back to Łódź. The trip to Warsaw: buses leave at 1.30 p.m. on 16 March, 2024, from the Manufaktura parking lot (The Jan Karski Street)
18 March (Monday), at 7 p.m.
„How I Didn’t Kill My Father And How Much I Regret It”
Adapted and directed by Mateusz Pakuła
Co-production of Teatr Łaźnia Nowa in Cracow and The Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
19 March (Tuesday), at 7 p.m.
„How I Didn’t Kill My Father And How Much I Regret It”
Adapted and directed by Mateusz Pakuła
Co-production of Teatr Łaźnia Nowa in Cracow and The Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
20 March (Wednesday), at 7:15 p.m.
Julia Holewińska, „Last Days of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu”
Directed by Wojciech Faruga
Produced by Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
21 March (Thursday), at 7:15 p.m.
Julia Holewińska, „Last Days of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu”
Directed by Wojciech Faruga
Produced by Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
6 April (Saturday), at 6 p.m.
„Once Upon a Long Day”
Directed by Luk Perceval
Produced by The Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Cracow
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
7 April (Sunday), at 6 p.m.
„Once Upon a Long Day”
Directed by Luk Perceval
Produced by The Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Cracow
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
10 April (Wednesday), at 7 p.m.
„The Melodrama”
Directed by Anna Smolar
Produced by The Zygmunt Hübner Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
11 April (Thursday), at 7 p.m.
„The Melodrama”
Directed by Anna Smolar
Produced by The Zygmunt Hübner Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
13 April (Saturday), at 4 p.m.
Master Performance
„Elizabeth Costello. Seven Lectures and Five Moral Tales”
Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski
Produced by Nowy Teatr w Warszawie
Presented in Nowy Teatr w Warszawie
The spectacle will be shown in Nowy Theatre in Warsaw. The ticket price covers the bus trip from Łódź do Nowy Theatre in Warsaw and back to Łódź. The trip to Warsaw: buses leave at 12.30 p.m. on 13 April, 2024, from the Manufaktura parking lot (The Jan Karski Street)
14 April (Sunday), at 6 p.m.
Plato, „Republic (Der Staat)”
Directed by Jan Klata
Co-production of The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow and Nationaltheater Mannheim
Big Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
18 April (Thursday), at 7:15 p.m.
„Fredro. The Jubilee Year”
Directed by Jan Englert
Produced by National Theatre in Warsaw
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
19 April (Friday), at 7:15 p.m.
„Fredro. The Jubilee Year”
Directed by Jan Englert
Produced by National Theatre in Warsaw
Small Stage, Powszechny Theatre in Łódź
Ewa Pilawska on the 30th Festival:
„People are divided into those who love jubilees and those who are tired with them… Jubilees always like to reach the past – they demand to dig through the archives, to excavate memories that were once shelved…We look at old photographs, we recognize ourselves and it strikes us how much we have changed. We are the same people but now we are somebody different. We notice our development, we see how our decisions have left mark on ourselves and on others. For some the past is closed, others are still very much connected with it.
This year International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant will be held for the 30th time. It means that it reached his majority long time ago and now it is in its „respectable” phase of life. This jubilee makes me realize how important those 30 years were and at the same time how pivotal was the courage of looking into the future and taking the artistic risk. This 30 years’ history was written due to facing new challenges by the creators and the audience.
My „thank you” goes to all people who have supported me, helped the Festival spread its wings and confirmed me in the idea that it is worth following the dreams. I thank all creators and viewers with whom we opened another doors. I have the feeling of great joy, happiness and fulfilment because there has been a multigenerational community around the Festival. One day somebody told me she had been growing together with the Festival and I felt satisfied to have created something original and important for the recipient. If the Festival lets us hear a creator’s expression then it is the greatest reason to be proud.
I am glad we succeeded in creating the Festival with a whole range of colours which is not limited to only one trend, one theatrical aesthetics. In order to be complete, the discussion on art should embrace opinions of various generations. Each generation forms its joy and beauty and all the time we should listen to each other.
I am glad the Festival is „intimate”, common and elite – opened to everybody and at the same time responding to the needs of those who want more from the theatre.
The motto of this year’s edition of the Festival is „Theatre festivals”. I would like to invite you to discuss the idea of a theatre festival. What is a festival in general?
In my opinion a festival should be an intellectual challenge and that is why it is essential that it has an artistic programme. Everything that happens on stage is crucial because it launches our sensibility and opens space for discussion. The rest is either an addition or a supplement. Eye-catching package will not replace an aesthetic experience. Festival is a holiday for people who believe in art and especially are sensitive to shallowness and lack of authenticity. A festival is an honest conversation with the audience.
A crucial question arises here on a relation between a festival and a place where it is organized as well as the recipients of the festival programme. Our Festival is a story of a constant building of multigenerational community, of following a repertoire that has been changing and evolving. What has it given to Łódź? Has it contributed to the development of Powszechny Theatre? Has it found its permanent place in the cultural calendar? Is it the same as Warsaw Theatre Meetings for Warsaw, Divine Comedy for Cracow, Kontakt for Toruń or Dialogue for Wrocław?
I invite you to the 30th edition of the Festival in March and April.
Let’s meet at the Theatre!
Ewa Pilawska
Maria Machulska is the author of the poster of the 30th International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant. She is a world-famous author of posters and illustrator (among others she has been co-operating with „The Time Magazine”).
