The Demons

Tickets
Address ul. Starowiślna 21, Kraków
Entry 60–80 PLN
Venue's website www.stary.pl…
Length 255 min
Director Paweł Miśkiewicz
Release 2021
Author Fiodor Dostojewski

Performing: Natalia Kaja Chmielewska, Ewa Kaim, Ewa Kolasińska, Katarzyna Krzanowska, Aleksandra Nowosadko, Agata Łabno, Anna Paruszyńska-Czacka, Michał Balicki, Szymon Czacki, Paweł Charyton, Łukasz Stawarczyk, Mikołaj Kubacki, Stanisław Linowski, Daniel Namiotko, Przemysław Przestrzelski, Iwona Bielska

When Dostoevsky began publishing The Demons in the latter half of the nineteenth century in the pages of Russki Vyestnik, the world was in turmoil. Marxist thought was in the ascendant, industrialisation was galloping ahead, new social ideas were emerging. Nietzsche had come out with his radical critique of Christianity and all of Western culture based on Christian illusions. The Demons captured the spirit of these times. This tale of a group of young revolutionaries who long to bring about a great social upheaval to overthrow the old order is still considered a prophetic work. Dostoevsky made a keen assessment of the impending dangers that revolution could bring. The cruelty and unscrupulousness he ascribed to the revolutionaries were mirrored in the dreadful regimes of Stalin and his successors.

We do not know how our society and politics will look in a year's time, or after that. Yet one thing is certain: major systemic changes are on their way. In everyday life, we see that people have reached a boiling point. Every moment sees another revolt, protest, or riot. in our day. Disillusionment and anger with liberal democracy and capitalism are growing among those who are excluded from the benefits these two projects offer. And those on the outside are a highly diverse mix: sexual, religious and ethnic minorities, the folk and the collapsing proletariat, the precariat, and the millennials and zoomers, children of the boomers, who left few places for their children on the job market, and also brought the natural balance of things to a sheer precipice, with scenes that seem torn from disaster films becoming an everyday reality. What will the revolution of the twenty-first century be like? Will it be condemned to spectacular failure, much like the revolution started by Verkhovensky? In an era of advanced technology, in-depth social discourse, political correctness and carbon-free projects, might the "Demons" of the nineteenth century reveal themselves to be Angels?

script, dramaturgy: Joanna Bednarczyk translation: Tadeusz Zagórski, Zbigniew Podgórzec scenography, costumes: Barbara Hanicka music: Rafał Mazur trumpet: Tomasz Kudyk choreographer: Paweł Sakowicz video, lighting director: Marek Kozakiewicz, Adam Lipiński concept of performance "Karl Marx. Capital": Jerzy Rogiewicz stage manager: Hanna Nowak

This performance will be presented in Polish with no surtitles.

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