Director Remigiusz Brzyk remarked that his adaptation of Władysława Reymont’s classic and epic novel could be called “peasant women” rather than “peasant men”, as the title is often construed. In this way, it could echo Chłopki / Peasant Women: Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak’s bestselling book about the peasant origin of our great-grandmothers, grandmothers, and mothers. Chłopki’s phenomenal success was unprecedented, with nearly 300,000 copies sold. Many, especially women readers, have found that the stories the book contained reflect the lives of their female ancestors. 

Brzyk is right, for his production’s limelight is on the incessantly oppressed women remarkably delivered by the actresses of the Ludowy Theatre: Justyna Litwic, Weronika Kowalska, Katarzyna Tlałka, Beata Schimscheiner, and Małgorzata Kochan. Confined to the histle and bustle of their daily rituals, peeling potatoes and humming folk tunes, they slowly gather strength to fight to speak finally in their own voices. And that is no easy feat, for the raw image of the rural world of The Peasants overflows with violence born from nothing, from everyday situations of negligible significance. In this world of patriarchy, dominant yet lined with weakness, nonconforming individuals, like Jagna – the central figure of both Reymont’s novel and the drama – are doomed to lynch from an unchecked mob. Looming large over all this, as in many Polish villages, is the church’s cross – the ruthless guardian of the ancient order.

This perfect adaptation brings to the surface the key issues of Reymont’s novel, providing fuel for an epic production that you watch with bated breath, even if it is not at all short. Three hours of first-rate theatre.

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Photos by Jeremi Astaszow