Spectacle about an unusual woman from Łódź at the 28th Festival. „Maria” premiered last weekend.

On Saturday, 14 May, at the 28th Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, we presented for the first time „Maria” by Radosław Paczocha, directed by Adam Orzechowski. The play was inspired by the history of Maria Kwaśniewska – an athlete from Łódź and Olympic medalist who during WW2 saved hundreds of people thanks to her famous picture with Adolf Hitler. The photo had been taken at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin (Kwaśniewska won bronze medal in javelin throw), when German chancellor invited the medalists to his box. During the war the picture became a pass thanks to which Kwaśniewska could save prisoners from the Nazi DP camp in Pruszków.

After the spectacle Dariusz Pawłowski moderated the meeting with its creators. They underlined that the incerible history of Maria Kwaśnieswska’s life was not very popular, even in Łódź. They also pointed out that during works on the spectacle the starting point was the problem: how to show good on stage, how to prepare a play about it. How to speak about its hero, full of empathy who throughout all her life showed that it was possible to live for other people, regardless of the circumstances. Can the theatre speak of positive characters? Does the context of the war in Ukraine change the spectacle’s overtone?

Thank you for this mutual night at our theatre! We want to thank the representatives of the Regional Olympic Council in Łódź (and Maria Kwaśniewska’s friends) – Mieczysław Nowicki and Tomasz Rosset, who after the show gave special books and badges to the spectacle’s creators. We do hope that our spectacle  not only will popularize Maria Kwaśniewska but it will promote her ideas of empathy and openness to other people as well.

Radosław Paczocha
„Maria”
Direction: Adam Orzechowski
Stage design: Magdalena Gajewska
Music: Marcin Nenko
Cast: Karolina Łukaszewicz, Diana Krupa, Małgorzata Goździk, Marta Jarczewska, Monika Kępka, Paulina Nadel, Barbara Szcześniak, Filip Jacak, Sebastian Jasnoch, Jakub Kotyński, Jakub Kryształ, Arkadiusz Wójcik 

Photographs: Katarzyna Bąba