The performance is for viewers aged 16 and over.
The script uses fragments of Grzegorz Łyś’s reportage, “Bzik kolonialny. II Rzeczpospolitej przypadki zamorskie”, Wydawnictwo W.A.B, 2023
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English
After the evening performance, there will be a meeting with the creators.

When three grown-up siblings bring their ailing mother to the hospital it turns out she is no longer their mother, she is the protagonist of a canonical piece of literature, and they are Staś, Kali, and Mea; there is even an elephant, should it be necessary.
Piotr Domalewski – director of such award-winning films as “Silent Night” and “Choir Boys” – takes this canvas and paints a bittersweet, yet amusing story about family, community-building, and the need to broaden one’s horizons.
“In the Desert and the Wilderness,” one of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s most controversial books, is accused of spreading racism and colonial ressentiments, and its solid place on high-school reading lists is often called into question. Domalewski takes a critical look at its narratives, juxtaposing them with a personal family story and the imperial drives that the Seafaring and Colonial League once stirred in Poles.

Close Your Eyes, Nel… is, quite simply, a story about family, with an anti-colonial, but also anti-patriarchal — message woven into the fabric of the production so subtly that it is almost invisible. Domalewski and his team have performed an acrobatic feat, transforming the ideologically questionable tale of children crossing the desert into a mere point of reference for a new story written over it: an intimate family story full of shame, trauma and tenderness. The production is a little like a dream, a little like a funny-scary cabaret and, at times, a cruel psychodrama. It is superbly written, with outstanding performances from the entire cast.
Justyna Nowicka, Radio Kraków

A production of such psychological depth has not been seen at the Stary Teatr since the premiere of Long Day’s Journey into Night. This is not a show about In the Desert and the Wilderness – for the director’s purposes, the mother could have immersed herself in any other book to sketch out the context. Dorota Pomykała can confidently stake her claim to the role of the season. The way she portrays the character evokes a wide range of emotions, leaving the audience reeling long after the performance has ended.
Piotr Gaszczyński, teatrdlawszystkich.pl

Cast

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