Michał Zadara takes what must be the most classical Polish comedy into a gangster movie bearing the Tarantino hallmark, even if he makes no abridgements in the text and does not remove even a single comma from Count Aleksander Fredro’s original.
The atmosphere for the play was set by the photo session, styled in the convention of Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary Godfather saga. As much as you will not see Al Pacino or Marlon Brando in this production by Komedia Theatre, Arkadiusz Brykalski and Bartosz Porczyk, portraying Cześnik and Rejent respectively, are equally compelling. The first is impetuous as much as he is jovial, the coldness of the latter inspires thrilling chills. The third pillar of the acting is Maciej Stuhr as Papkin, a comical and pitiable mafia henchman. You’ve never seen any of them in roles like these before.
Michał Zadara’s take at The Revenge turns into a wildly entertaining tale, even if riddled with bitterness, about how violence becomes curbed by legal contracts, not even for a moment ceasing to be violence. The inspiration for the visual aspect is the eminent British painter Edward Hopper, while stage dazzles with stellar cast. Set designer Robert Rumas has created a glass-walled bar interior, a near replica of Edward Hopper’s famous Nighthawks. A semicircular bar frequented by drifters: usually soldiers of the mob, and other scum and villainy: straight out of a noir thriller. Everything unfolds before your eyes, and they play with open cards. The dispute over a boundary wall is replaced by a legally binding contract. The place of violence is taken by bureaucracy, and even if one or more pockets bulge with hefty guns, what of it? This is the way order is maintained in this world. This is law and justice in action.
Critics have hailed the Warsaw production of The Revenge Zadara’s best production in years. Devilishly if not dangerously funny yet profoundly bitter, even cruel at the same time. Thus, a jest, satire and deeper meaning – all in one. Something for everyone.
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Photos by Marek Zimakiewicz
