Tango Łódź

Does revolution have gender? In Łódź the revolution was a woman and it was women’s business. It breaks away in Łódź textile workers – mothers, wives, lovers and eventually revolutionaries.

Noise, rush, run. Screams of children and husband. Work during the day, cleaning up at night, in the morning going to the nursery with children. I was not afraid of hard work. To tell the truth in my whole life I was afraid only of the foreman, husband, father and the director.

You bet on a cigarette I will kill the woman with the flag on the barricade with one shot? There will be calm then. Her daughter will never again shout „mother, do not buy any more children” everytime the woman gets pregnant. There will be silence then. Just like it was when the women went on strike. At night you could hear people breathing, there was emptiness, there was deafening silence, there was darkness, the women cried out ot fear. They demanded to live in dignity. But they could only ask for that. Their employers were the only ones who could demand anything. Never a good word, always curses, always insults, always kicks.

„Tango Łódź” was written by Radosław Paczocha specially for Powszechny Theatre in Łódź. The play raises questions on Łódź. What was it like? What is it like? Is it true that – as one of the characters says – God punished the city by giving it the industry?

The play had its first preview during the 22nd edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant.