Jarzyna's new play explores Polish-German relations

«In the most powerful scene of the play, the German public views archived film footage of how Warsaw was destroyed by Hitler's army - building by building.

They also listen to Danuta Szaflarska, a former Warsaw Uprising partisan. Leciwa, a beautiful and strong actress, speaks the monolgoue of the old woman about her friends and family, her furniture and library - all murdered and destroyed during the bombing. Everyone she knew was killed. One can feel how her survival is absurd and at once a miracle.

When the old woman, along with her grand daughter, look into a giant screen - they see the wealthy and well decorated homes of German families. They imagine to themselves how they could have led peaceful and prosperous lives if not for the war.

Grzegorz Jarzyna puts numerous paradoxes on display for us concerning the families of the German attackers and their Polish victims. He did an amazing job directing the scene where it is shown how Poles are incapable of doing anything right, how they eat the worst food, dress without taste and say ridiculous things. This scene, on the one hand, gives us an ironic portrait of Polish psychological complexes, while at the same time making fun of German stereotypes of Poles.

When the line is spoken regarding how there wasn't even any internet in Poland during the 1970s, the director thereby hammers how his point about how silly thinking about "polnische Wirtschaft" is. The German public feels embarrassed of itself at this point. But then they laugh again when a radio recording of Radio Mary was broadcast, announcing that there was a time in history when the whole world belonged to Poland, but the evil Germans and Russians took it away from us.

Coming to terms with Polish history, Masłowska makes fun of another extreme as well - that represented by young people who wish to forget their national identity and be Europeans above all. The author makes a strong statement about the problem of national identity.

The play also looks thoughtfully at the inter-war years of the Second Polish Republic. The lies of communism, and the poverty of the communist system and its' replacement by vicious turbo-capitalism. Instead of prosperity - it only offers a virtual life of fake dreams and easy credit. Idiotic promotions, banal stars and stupid talk shoes and soap operas.

Masłowska manages to describe this landscape in the language of Różewicz and Mrożek, Tym and Bareja. She gives us a portrait of young people who seem to be living in a virtual, photoshoped world, where you can create ideals of beauty by merely clicking on your mousepad. She also shows the hopeless life of elderly people - they never get to go on a vacation. They don't have cell phones. They can't afford anything.

The play sometimes overwhelms us with its' thoughtfulness and the extent of its' vision. Jarzyna does, however, manage to juggle everything just right, using numerous methods to shore up all of the component parts of a complex whole. The scenography, lighting and three large video screens are an integral part of making the play go smoothely. Naturally the actors also make quite an impression.

Those of us who consider Poland to be a victimized nation ought to think about the last few seconds of the play, which show how Poles - who constantly complain about how unfair the world has been to them - at the same time refuse to help immigrants from the south who merely wanted some bread.»