The 7th edition of “Comedywriting” is about to begin
The organizers of the 7th edition of “Comedywriting” – the all-Poland competition for writing a modern Polish comedy – already wait for the entries. The competition is organized by Powszechny Theatre in Łódź. – It is a drama competition for everybody who wants to create language of modern Polish comedy in the theatre – says Ewa Pilawska, the Powszechny Theatre, who is the competition’s originator. The plays may be sent in till the end of August 2022.
“Comedywriting” is the only drama competition in Poland exclusively devoted to comedy. – Polish comedies are almost absent from our theatres. Of course there are comedies staged by many theatres but very seldom they are written by Polish playwrights. We often do not pay much attention to this fact… When we created Polish Comedy Centre in Powszechny Theatre in Łódź many years ago and when we started “Comedywriting”, I wanted to encourage Polish playwrights to think if there was a Polish sense of humour in the theatre. Can we define it and develop it? Do we keep a distance from ourselves? Can we show it on stage? Can we talk sensibly about important things while keeping distance and smile? I wanted to create a laboratory of comedy in order to look for the answers to the above questions – Ewa Pilawska recollects.
- The first edition was solved in 2008. Since then we have inspired many talented authors. The plays specially for the competition were written, among others, by Radosław Paczocha, Paweł Mossakowski, Jarosław Jakubowski, Wojciech Bruszewski… It was thanks to “Comedywriting” that Juliusz Machulski started to write comedies for the theatre – Ewa Pilawska says. – So far we have received more than 1000 comedies – it may form a small library. Many of them are available on Polish Comedy Center’s website in electronic versions. We also published “An Anthology of Modern Polish Comedy”. From my point of view the most important thing is that we premiered many of the plays in Powszechny Theatre. Of course it was an artistic risk but the theatre has to take risk in order to develop itself – Pilawska sums it up.
In Powszechny Theatre we produced the following plays from the competition: “Psychotherapolitics” (“Psychoterapolityka”) by Dominik W. Rettinger, “Next-Ex” by Juliusz Machulski, “Reshuffle” (“Roszada”) by Paweł Mossakowski, “Kochanowo i okolice” (“Kochanowo And Surroundings”) by Przemysław Jurek, “My Son Brother’s Mother” (“Matka brata mojego syna”) by Juliusz Machulski, “Release Carp” (“Uwolnić karpia”) by Piotr Bulak, “Summer Villa” (“Letnisko”) by Fred Apke, “Life” (“Życie”) by Jarosław Jakubowski, “Dryl” by Wojciech Bruszewski and “The Spitting Image of My Son-In-Law” (“Wykapany zięć”) by Krzysztof Kędziora.
The “Comedywriting” plays we staged by theatres in Poland and in Europe. Three plays written by Juliusz Machulski: “Next-Ex”, “My Son Brother’s Mother” (“Matka brata mojego syna”) and “Brunch” were shown in TV Theatre, directed by their author. “A Visit” (“Wizyta”) by Radosław Paczocha was also produced by TV Theatre. In 2020 “The Spitting Image of My Son-In-Law” (“Wykapany zięć”) by Krzysztof Kędziora, directed by Paweł Szkotak, was presented in TV Theatre live from Small Stage of Powszechny Theatre in Łódź. It was the first live TV Theatre presentation during the pandemic.
The plays written for the 7th edition of “Comedywriting” - the all-Poland competition for writing a modern Polish comedy can be sent till the end of August 2022 to Powszechny Theatre in Łódź. For detailed information check the competition’s regulations. The “Comedywriting” laurates will be chosen by a specially appointed jury.
