Agnieszka Przepiórska returns in a monodrama whose significance transcends the boundaries of theatre. In this tale of Irenka K., an elderly woman from ul. Opaczewska in Ochota district of Warsaw, who, after eighty years of silence, breaks the silence to testify to the atrocities committed at and around Zieleniak. During the Second World War, the area was taken over for a transition camp manned by the SS RONA units. Their victims remembered its staff as most unscrupulous monsters. Permanently drunk sadists enjoying the most refined acts of violence, night by night they would rape countless women and girls. The air was pierced by moaning, shouting, and screaming until deathly silence set in and shrouded the whole square. Now, having carried that trauma for decades, Irena relives the trauma. And we accompany her to Zieleniak.

The Rescued directed by Maja Kleczewska’s is a new word in the world of Agnieszka Przepiórska’s one-woman theatre. An accusation, each second of which tears at the heart and a powerful voice recalling those who have been lost without a trace of memory. The performance concludes with a roll call of those murdered in the Zieleniak. but, including only the names we know, the list is tragically short, which may be the most shocking. The Rescued delivers a career-defining performance from Przepiórska, supported with Kleczewska’s potent direction and Krzysztof Garbaczewski’s extraordinary visuals. A small production this may, yet likely to be among the most significant works you’ll see on the Polish stage this season.

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Photos by Magda Hueckel