The recent years have been a time of exceptionally intense work and great successes for Ewelina Marciniak, even if she has primarily won all that accolade abroad: in Switzerland, with Wagner’s Rheingold in Bern, in Austria, where Bednarczyk’s Iphigenia was one of only two premieres at this year’s Salzburg Festival, and most notably, in Germany. The Polish artist has staged her works in Freiburg, at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and most significantly at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, where her most important productions were born, including The Boxer based on Szczepan Twardoch honoured with the prestigious Faust Award. The adaptation of the first two volumes of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, My Brilliant Friend is her début at the National Stary Theatre in Kraków. The production is full of directorial flamboyance, wit, sharp social commentary, as it tells an initiatory tale about the youth of two girls living in the shadow of Vesuvius. It is a story about true sisterhood, grappling with the oppression of the world, your own biology, and suppressed dreams. It is a tale in which many women (regardless of age) can see themselves, even though the play is not exclusively for the women. It speaks extensively about male fears and obsessions, as well as the violence pervading everyday life and yet so subtle that it often goes unnoticed. Excellent roles from all the actors and actresses, without exception, as is the live sound from the remarkable multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel. Extraordinary, like the whole play.

→ after the performance, a meeting with the creators is led by: Tomasz Domagała