Operette

Who is not enchanted by the world of old Viennese operetta? The more that we hardly see her on stages anymore. A world of easy-to-remember melodic arias, duets, multi-voice choir parts. A world of beautiful costumes, jewelry, colorful lights.
The world of dance, charm, mirage and humor. The world is not entirely real, actually completely untrue, just artificial. Artificial and yet delightful with its artificiality, brilliant banality with which we subconsciously love. In which we are up to our ears. Which is our world (?) ... Shakespeare said the world is theater. Gombrowicz stated that it is an operetta. And he described a piece of world history in this form. In the form of an "idiotically divine" operetta with all, sometimes grimly, consistency. With the consistency of a joke used in it, a joke referred to by characters typical of the genre, softened, curly, debased, but also dangerous, ominous.

Musicians:
Mateusz Zaziebło, Dawid Lubowicz - violin
Piotr Ptak, Jacek Dziołak - clarinet
Tomasz Pawłowski, Adam Sychowski - piano
Adam Dębski, Jarema Jarosiński - drums

From press reviews:

This is a serious lesson in Polishness in the operetta edition, because Witold Gombrowicz's play turns out to be still relevant. In Gombrowicz's "Operetta" prepared at the IMKA Theater in Warsaw, Mikołaj Grabowski performs the function of a demiurge. He appears as an orchestra conductor and creator of reality.
Everything goes to the rhythm of excellent music by Tomasz Kisewetter, the same music that accompanied the Polish premiere of "Operetta" directed by Kazimierz Dejmek almost 40 years ago. Now it has been re-arranged and is not performed by an orchestra, but by a modest quartet. The performance gives a bitter image of society shown in an operetta form, "as if a happy story, and therefore terribly sad". It is a story about people who constantly pretend to be someone, searching for their own identity. Grabowski strip us naked. It shows emptiness, disappointed ambitions, unfulfilled hopes. Following Gombrowicz's thought, he strongly mocks today's demiurges and dictators of various fashions, towards whom the society filmed by the media has an almost loyal attitude.
Jan Bończa-Szabłowski, "Rzeczpospolita", No. 81, 7 April 2014

(...) Grabowski appears on stage as a conductor - he "starts" the orchestra, summons the actors to the stage. Such a procedure takes the whole thing in huge parentheses. "Operetta" shows us a world dependent on fashion trends and stylish novelties. Szarm (Marcin Kalisz) wears a blouse with a neckline, colorful saggy pants and a jacket. Firulet (Krzysztof Wieszczek) is wearing a checkered suit. Later, both men will wear paramilitary dresses with pads. The clothes of the princes or the professor are also stylish. The Marquise of Magdalena Grąziowska is characterized by the "look" of the twenties. And finally, the Hufnagiel of Tomasz Karolak appears - heavy fur and a cowboy hat illustrate his willingness to "gallop".
And where are all this group of aristocrats and revolutionaries headed by Maestro Grabowski rushing? It seems no further than to say that this whole world of stars is very artificial after all. (...)
Szymon Spichalski, www.teatrdlawas.pl, April 28, 2014

(...) The show, directed by Mikołaj Grabowski, takes place in Poland, on our native catwalk, with artists from the entertainment industry in the leading roles. In addition, they are mercilessly artificial and bluff to the viewer.
In order for show business to go on, you need someone to lead it by the hand. In IMCE, the director himself is the creator of reality, a real demiurge, who brings to life another dramatis personae. And so on the stage a range of characters appears, creating a strange community trying to find a common language.
(...) At the ball in the Himalay Castle, it is not Fior who is the creator of fashion, he is not the one who comes up with the latest trends. The reality gets out of hand when unidentified characters in sacks appear on stage. It turns out that these are former Polish aristocrats who have lost everything as a result of historical changes and are now wandering around the world in wonderfully selected lumpex clothes. Count Hufnagiel no longer gallops to parties, but with the strength of a true revolutionary holds the bourgeoisie accountable for their offenses against the people.
So Grabowski makes a volte in the second act - from the catwalk for models he makes us go across Polish roads to show how we behave in the face of irreversible changes; whether we come out of oppression with our face or with broken wings. In the finale, the divisions between the better and the worse disappear, the engine of consolidation is Albertine, with whom everyone sings a hymn praising nudity. (...)
Kama Pawlicka, www.teatrdlawas.pl, April 27, 2014

photo: Magda Hueckel, Michał Grabowski