A Human Link: Piece on Agnieszka Holland at Culture pl

 

I wrote this piece on Agnieszka Holland's work and reputation for Culture.pl.  You can read it here. 

Awake, Arise: A Report on Awakenings (Przebudzenia) - the 13th Retroperspektywy Festival (Łódź, 23/8 - 1/9 2024)

Culminating in the sublime LIVET: Suite for the Earth concert, which brought together performers from Poland, Ukraine, Norway and Bulgaria, last year's Retroperspektywy proved an unforgettable edition of the international theatre festival, which is invariably a highlight of summertime in Łódź. And Retroperspektywy returned this year with a just-concluded edition marking a milestone: the 20th anniversary of its founder, Teatr CHOREA, whose activities encompass workshops with and training of diverse community groups, and, of course, the staging of its own inimitably creative concerts and shows.  

Tomasz Rodowicz... and the CHOREA birthday cake

Based at Fabryka Sztuki in Łódź since 2007, CHOREA's defining feature (or one of them) has been its merging of ancient traditions with practices associated with the 20th century avant garde (taking particular inspiration from the work of Grotowski) and cutting-edge contemporary physical theatre, generating dynamic performances combining song, text, movement, and dance.

The group's ethos has never been one of slavish reconstruction of past models. Rather, CHOREA has been all about exploring how ancient theatre forms can be mobilised to speak to current concerns (and enduring existential ones). As a company they're bridge-builders, alchemists, risk-takers, empowerers, and creators of unique theatrical experiences that attune audiences to the expressive capabilities of the human body and voice, providing a fusion of sensual and intellectual pleasures - also accomplished with a spirit of play.

Exhibition:
Evocations - 20 Years of CHOREA

Under the title "Przebudzenia" ("Awakenings"), this year's edition found CHOREA in a mood both reflective and celebratory. This was evident, for one, in the theme of the festival's accompanying exhibition, "Evocations: 20 Years of CHOREA," curated by Magda Milewski and Janusz Adam Biedrzycki, which presented a narrative of the group's activities accompanied by photos and a well-chosen physical "trace" of each live event through the display of a prop or costume. On Monday and Tuesday there was also the rare opportunity to watch filmed shows from the CHOREA archive.

Ola Shaya opening What's Demeter?

What's more, the opening show of this year's edition, punningly titled What's Demeter?, offered an exhilarating rollercoaster ride through a diverse selection of songs and scenes from CHOREA's performance history - a bit like 2013's "50 Years on Stage" event by the British National Theatre, but much more excitingly done. With artistic supervision by CHOREA co-founder Tomasz Rodowicz and "interventions" by director Łukasz Kos adding a fresh eye, the evening was no mere cobbled together "Greatest Hits" package. 

Elina Toneva and the company in What's Demeter?

Instead, What's Demeter? worked as a profound, playful and cohesive experience in its own right, with a strong flow and meaningful transitions but also loose, improvisatory elements, as artists from the company's past and present took to the stage or joined in and sang from the audience.

Po Ptakach (After the Birds) in What's Demeter?

Highlights were plentiful, from Ola Shaya opening the proceedings in cabaret style to quiz audience members on favourite productions and deliver a number from 2011's The Blue Parrot concert, to Sean Palmer unleashing his gorgeous gritty growl ("CHOREA in the house!") to score Rodowicz and Dorota Porowska's super-sensual pas de deux from 2005's After the Birds (Po Ptakach) - incidentally the first CHOREA performance I saw. 

Ragnarok in What's Demeter?

And even if you had seen some of the featured extracts before you would perforce experience them afresh here, since a major component of the event was the live filming of most of the performances by Kamil Wallace, with the images relayed on a large screen to achieve some startling juxtapositions. 

Particularly overwhelming in this regard was the opening sequence of 2022's Ragnarok. This was already a uniquely haunting spectacle that seems to distill all human suffering and striving, fear and fortitude, as, to the celestial sound of Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater, the performers slowly make their way across the stage towards the light as a tangled, straining collective. This time, with the variously pained or hopeful faces also presented in close-up on the screen, the piece combined the power of physical theatre with that of silent cinema, and reduced this viewer, for one, to tears.

Joanna Chmielecka in What's Demeter?

On the solo side, Joanna Chmielecka delivered a physical and vocal Bruno Schulz-derived tour de force atop, under and whilst taking the legs off of a table, while Małgorzata Lipczyńska, Anna Maszewska (who is also the festival's indefatigable coordinator), and Julia Jakubowska reassembled for a scene from the latter's witty 2020 feminist fairytale revision Księżniczki (Princesses). 

Dzień Dobry Pinky Mouse! in What's Demeter?

A number from 2021's Dzień Dobry Pinky Mouse! took the already anarchic children's musical to a new level of hilarious mania. And the company's versatility is such that the next moment they could morph into the protagonists of 2015's Derby.Biało.Czerwoni (Derby. Red and White): rapping football fans ready for a ruck.

Maciej Maciaszek in What's Demeter?

Threaded throughout were some soul-stirring interludes of choral singing that spoke to the group's deep roots, while the final section, from 2014's Vidomi - a piece originally developed in collaboration with visually impaired performers - was a delicious last tango in which the audience was invited to the stage to dance, bringing the performance to a perfect, bonding close as we then headed outside to the CHOREA birthday party. The whole evening was an invigorating and inspiring experience. 

Zjem twój dżem

The organisers also took the opportunity in this anniversary year to significantly spotlight the work of CHOREA's Intergenerational Group and its Older and Younger Children's Groups. Among several shows for family audiences, the Older Group presented the endearingly berserk Zjem twój dżem (I'll Eat Your Jam) which brought songs, some film noir spirit and a dose of well-judged social commentary to its tale of food, crime and cross-generational relations set in the Łódź district of Bałuty.

Eden:
A Scenical Fairy Tale in Several Pictures

Made up of participants from ages 16 to 80, the all-female Intergenerational Group presented two shows: Pauza, and Eden: A Scenical Fairy Tale in Several Pictures. Pauza didn't come together for me, but Eden, directed by Biedrzycki, Magdalena Paszkiewicz, and Wiktor Moraczewski, proved a magical experience - something of a companion piece to the same team's also ecologically-minded Rój. Sekretne życie społeczne ("The Hive: Secret Social Life") from 2018. 

Starting with a disarming scene of chat and comedy (look out for the troublesome deckchair), the piece evolved into an ambient evening of physical theatre, one that - through brilliant lighting (green and blue washes turning fiery red), sound, costumes and performances from the 13-strong cast - conveyed the kind of deep care for and attention to nature that Teatr Nowy's witless recent musical adaptation of The Secret Garden sorely lacked. 

Eden:
A Scenical Fairy Tale in Several Pictures

Each different section of Eden was clearly designed and delineated, but the show felt cohesive, and developed a very tender, affirmative tone, with the bodies of the cast eventually becoming the garden plants, blooming by night in a gorgeous final sequence. With audience members given seeds on our way out, the show offered a cleansing and restorative celebration of nature in the feminine. 

Teraz wiesz, jak się czuję

The invited companies this year included Grupa Performatywna Chłopaki, who presented Teraz wiesz, jak się czuję (Now You Know How I Feel), a lively, crowd-pleasing exploration of contemporary Polish masculinity that combined quiet heart-on-sleeve confessional moments with wild elements of stand-up, game show and porn-parody to interrogate social expectations and stereotypes, and point to possibilities of moving beyond them.

Hic Sunt Dracones

The Czech company Teatr Divadlo Continuo provided one of the festival's most startling experiences with Hic Sunt Dracones, directed by Pavel Štourač. This piece probed the darker corners of consciousness and  corporeality, creating some jaw-dropping images of dismemberment and bodily fragmentation, though not without a dose of absurdist black humour that Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam might enjoy, very much operating in the bold surrealist Czech tradition of Jan Švankmajer. The physical panache of the four performers - Sara Bocchini, Kateřina Šobáňová, Granada Gallego and Diana Khwaja - was enhanced by fantastic music and sound performed live by Jakub Štourač.

Magda Kuraś Quintet / Bilgoraj Triptych

Two terrific concerts by female-fronted Polish bands also spoke to the CHOREA ethos of combining tradition with experimentation. With repertoires based on Konin-area melodies and South-Eastern Polish traditions respectively, the Tuleje trio (Gosia Zagajewska,  Wojtek Kurek and Ksawery Wojcinski) and the Magda Kuraś Quintet (featuring Kuraś, Maciej Świniarski, Ziemowit Klimek, Tomasz Chyła, and Kuba Krzanowski) both took folk music in fresh directions, with jazz, rock, art song and improvised elements, to create rich, immersive sounds that felt totally organic. 

Eine Winterreise. A Winter Journey.
Schubert/ Müller/ Baczyński

The festival's final show also centred music, this time from the classical canon. Contrasting with the expansiveness of What's Demeter?,  the Festival closed with an intimate piece for three performers: an interpretation of Schubert's seminal 1827 song-cycle, Winterreise. Eine Winterreise. A Winter Journey. Schubert/ Müller/ Baczyński was co-directed by singer Łukasz Konieczny and dancer/choreographer Boris Randzio who also performed the piece, alongside accomplished pianist Nikolaus Rexroth. 

The performance's innovations included Randzio's danced contribution  - and the incorporation of poems by the great Polish poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, who was killed in the Warsaw Uprising. The use of Baczyński's verse alongside the original Wilhelm Müller poems that Schubert based the work around developed a powerful counter narrative that suggested the building of a Polish-German cultural bridge in the context of the work's themes of alienation, melancholia and mortality.

Summing up CHOREA's achievements at the time of the company's 15th anniversary five years ago, the critic Piotr Olkusz described them as "the wealth of Łódź," crediting the group with forging "a new form of participation in culture and new responsibility for culture. They've slightly changed us." That definition still stands, and Awakenings was another edition of RPS that opened viewers' eyes, ears, minds and hearts to a rich variety of performances and expressions. As CHOREA enters its next decade I continue to wish that the company would push the "international" element of Retroperspektywy further in terms of audiences as well as performances, broadening out to be more accessible to non-Polish speakers and to ensure that their world-class work is more widely seen than ever. Still, as it is, this year's Festival offered some beautiful ways of celebrating CHOREA's past, being in the present, and looking to the future. 

The 2024 Retroperspektywy Festival took place at Fabryka Sztuki in Łódź between 23 August - 1 September.

All performance images by Agnieszka Cytacka fotografia.

'Generations' Said...: A Report on the 12th Retroperspektywy International Theatre Festival, Łódź, 18-27 August 2023

Among the most joyous screenings at this year's New Horizons Film Festival  last month was that of Agnieszka Zwiefka's Vika! (2023), a documentary dedicated to the life and work of the Warsaw-based octogenarian Wirginia Szmyt, a former teacher and correctional facility director turned Poland's (and, let's face it, probably the world's) oldest DJ. 

Combining stylised music video-inspired sequences with footage of Vika on the decks at Pride marches and parties in Poland and abroad, plus intimate  reflections on her complicated family relations, lockdown isolation (and bonus appearances from her hilariously troublesome cat), Zwiefka's film celebrated Vika as a figure whose energy and zest for life not only challenge ageist stereotyping but who also unites diverse demographics - groups that many (not least the mainstream media) prefer to present as irredeemably polarised right now. 

Vika! (2023)

As usual taking place at Fabryka Sztuki and other venues in Łódź across 10 days in August, Teatr CHOREA's Retroperspektywy International Theatre Festival (RPS) this year took as its theme the subject of "Generations," exploring conflicts, correspondences, and, in the words of Artistic Director Tomasz Rodowicz, "attempts to find oneself in intergenerational relationships." (Evidently the topic is of particular concern to Polish creatives and curators at present, since this year's Hommage a Kieślowski festival, which happened in Sokołowsko concurrently with RPS, also chose "Generations" as its theme.) Given the festival's focus, the appearance of DJ Vika at the RPS final Friday party was perfect; the DJ brought the youngest and oldest attendees to the dance floor with a fun, eclectic set that spanned styles and decades. 

I've attended Retroperspektywy for the past 5 years, always finding it among the most multifaceted, inclusive and carefully curated of festivals. If anything, those qualities seemed enhanced this year - perhaps appropriately, given the festival's theme. This 12th edition was one of the strongest yet, as the programme encompassed plays, puppetry, concerts, dance, an  exhibition of work by young artists from Jola Kró­lic­ka's studio at the MSK Art Centre, a series of intergenerational ecological workshops, and meetings with creatives after each event. (Sadly, one much anticipated performance, Łukasz Kos's new take on An-ski's Dybuk, had to be cancelled due to an accident.)

Księ­gi nie­po­ko­ju.
Sta­ni­sław / An­to­ni / Fer­nan­do 

The opening premiere, Księ­gi nie­po­ko­ju. Sta­ni­sław / An­to­ni / Fer­nan­do (Books of Disquiet. Stanislaw / Antoni / Fernando), directed by and starring Rodowicz alongside two charismatic young performers, An­to­ni Wój­cik-Urba­niak and Sta­ni­sław Gi­nal­ski, perfectly established the Festival theme, using a sustained chess metaphor to dramatise intergenerational tensions and moments of complicity. 

Księ­gi nie­po­ko­ju.
Sta­ni­sław / An­to­ni / Fer­nan­do 

Lower-keyed and more distilled than some CHOREA opening shows, the piece nonetheless proved stimulating, incorporating translated text by Fer­nan­do Pes­soa, clever set and costume design by Kró­lic­ka, and - perhaps inevitably - a Seventh Seal homage, as well as benefiting hugely from Rodowicz,  Wój­cik-Urba­niak and Gi­nal­ski's evident rapport. 

I am OK

Like last year's edition, the Festival again boasted a significant Ukrainian presence, presenting two shows by Khar­kiv Sta­te Aca­de­mic Pup­pet The­atre. These productions were both directed by Oksana Dmitrieva, and each was finely attuned to the very different demands of the material.

I am OK was raw, direct and immediate in its focus on the diverging fates of four teenage friends (played by Li­liia Osie­ichuk, Ser­hii Sme­re­chuk, Olek­san­dra Ko­le­sni­chen­ko, and Yakiv Oze­rovin) in  Bucha from the first days of the Russian invasion; it wasn't surprising to see some audience members openly weeping by the show's climax.

Vertep

Vertep, by contrast, tapped into a deep well of ritual and tradition. Named in reference to the  Ukrainian portable puppet theatre which presents the nativity story and mystery plays, and which was suppressed by the Soviet state, the performance was full of rich symbolism, soulful singing and creative design. 

Ścia­na z wi­do­kiem

Teenage experience in a contemporary context was also explored in Grupa Coincidentia's Ścia­na z wi­do­kiem (Wall with a View), an idiosyncratic, wild but tender portrait of teenage lockdown loneliness. The pri­ze-win­ner of the Ar­ti­stic Event for Chil­dren and Youth Pro­ject, the show was undertaken in  collaboration with Chil­dren's Art Cen­tre in Po­znań un­der the au­spi­ces of the 23rd Bien­na­le of the Art for Chil­dren, but doesn't shy away from darker emotions. Still, the show placed emphasis on the saving possibilities of creativity and imagination.

Staged in traverse, with well-incorporated multimedia elements, and director and designer Kon­rad Dwo­ra­kow­ski on stage to add musical accompaniment alongside composer Ro­bert Jur­čo, the performance boasted a great central "duet" by the briskly multi-roling Dag­ma­ra Sowa and by Pa­weł Chom­czyk as the troubled teen. 

IV RP Snów

Several ambitious pieces in the programme used dance to express and meditate on existential anxieties. I wasn't convinced by Sto­wa­rzy­sze­nie Sztu­ka Nowa's IV RP Snów (4th Republic of Dreams), directed by Da­wid Ża­kow­ski and choreographed by Woj­ciech Gru­dziń­ski. Despite the clear commitment of its supple trio of performers (Ewe­li­na So­bie­raj, Bo­rys Jaź­nic­ki, Mi­chał To­kar­ski), the production teetered between arresting and risible, and succumbed to the latter in a key section scored to Diana Krall's uniquely painful rendition of "Cry Me a River." 

BUD
(Photo: Øystein Haara)*

On the other hand, BUD, presented on the large stage at Teatr Pinokio by the Bergen-based Carte Blanche - Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance as part of the ongoing ACT IN_OUT collaborative project, was explosively effective. 

Directed and choreographed by Roza Moshtagi, the gripping piece combined elements of dance and installation art to explore the condition of waiting and suspended time - its performers (Ire­ne Ve­ster­hus The­isen, Ole Mar­tin Me­land, Aslak Aune Ny­gård, Anne Lise Røn­ne, Tri­ne Lise Moe) variously sitting, laying, convulsing, or racing in the space. Enhanced by a soundscape that veered from otherworldly chants to pounding industrial noise (mu­sic is by Ly­kor­go­us Por­fy­ris), BUD is a major, original piece of work that deserves wide international attention. 

Full Measures

Also highly distinctive was Full Measures by Finland's Li­vsme­dlet director/ choreographer/puppeteer/performer duo San­dri­na Lind­gren and Ish­ma­el Fal­ke, which examined the human compulsion to quantify and measure sundry aspects of life experience as a form of control. 

Initially I was reminded a bit of the great central section of Martin Crimp's unloved play In the Republic of Happiness, as Lind­gren and Fal­ke communicated through a volley of exchanged averages, stats and percentages, delivered in an amusingly deadpan fashion that gestured at social critique.  But the piece evolves into something quite other in its frenzied, frantic later section. Throughout, a multitude of measuring sticks are employed as versatile and expressive aids and props, finally forming a forest that might, perhaps, be a space for our beleaguered protagonists to begin anew. 

Mo­rze ∞ moż­li­wo­ści

Generally exploring darker themes, puppetry has indeed often been a vital component of the festival over the years, testifying to Poland's exceptional creativity in this field. But this year's standout puppet performance, Fundacja Gra/nice's Mo­rze ∞ moż­li­wo­ści  (Sea of ∞  Possibilities), proved a bewitchingly gentle affair.

Mo­rze ∞ moż­li­wo­ści

Freely adapted from Kobi Yamada's book Maybe, this was a calming, beautiful family show that offered pure Sunday lunchtime enchantment, following its enterprising, wide-eyed protagonist (designed by Ju­sty­na Ber­na­det­ta Ba­na­siak) through various tasks and attempts, as they learn the value of trying again, and develop their potential. With a twinkling soundscape, and a simple video camera projecting elements of the set, the design conjures forest, ocean and mountainside up to to a final flight, and the show charmed audience members of all ages from beginning to end. 

Rejs

Two outstanding ensemble concerts book-ended this year's festival, both comprised of music composed and arranged by the esteemable Piotr Klimek - one of the undisputed heroes of this year's event. (Another hero would be the festival's tireless General Coordinator, Anna Maszewska.) Written, directed and conceived by Dworkowski, the first concert, Rejs (Cruise), brought together a diverse crew of performers as the MUR/BE­TON & Ga­da­ją­cy Pies (CONCRETE/WALL & Talking Dog) collective to take the audience on a journey through the courtyards of Łódź history as a wider metaphor for human experience. 

Rejs

Unpredictable weather forced the concert from its intended outdoor location on to a smaller inside stage that made the set-up seem slightly cramped. But the exhilarating, ramshackle energy of the piece still steamed through, with brilliantly sung contributions from CHOREA regulars Joanna Chmielecka and Mi­chał Jóź­wik, among others. 

Marja Mortenssen in
Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

Chmielecka and Jóź­wik were also among the exceptional company assembled for the premiere performance of Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi (Life. Suite for the Earth), which was the Festival's soul-shakingly great culmination at the University of Music Concert Hall on Sunday night. 

Also part of the ACT IN_OUT project, and produced by Ola Shaya, this concert united Polish, Norwegian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian artists in an evening of song, with narration and spoken word interludes by the great Norwegian actress Juni Dahr, appearing throughout like a particularly graceful woodland spirit to delivery the poetry. (Alongside Erik Hil­le­stad and Tomasz Rodowicz, Dahr was also co-director of the piece.)

Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

Indeed, themes of human connection to nature were central, in a work dedicated to celebrating the uniqueness of the planet and all that lives on it.  The evening opened with the elegantly black-clad, barefoot ensemble of singers sitting in a circle before rising to take their places alongside a band comprised of Tord Gustavsen (piano), Eivind Aarset (guitar), Tore Brunborg (tenor sax), Hubert Zemler (percussion) and Piotr Rodowicz (double bass). 

Juni Dahr in
Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

Inspired by traditional music from all four countries, the show had a beautiful, seamless flow, placing tradition and modernity in dynamic dialogue through a fusion of folk, jazz and rock elements, supported by the amazing harmonies of the 13-strong choir.

Piotr Klimek in
Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

The all-female soloists brought different yet complementary energies to the evening - from the extraordinary, ebullient Saami joiks of Marja Mortenssen, embodying aspects of the natural world, to the heart-piercing tone of Elina Toneva, specialist in Bulgarian folk-singing, and the theatrical, impassioned style of Zoriana Dybovska, reaching back with intensity and pride into Ukrainian roots. 

Zoriana Dybovska in
Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

With voices soaring in lament or exaltation, complemented by some atmospheric lighting design, the effect was overwhelmingly powerful; the performers also radiated a mutual warmth, respect and love that was heart-warming to witness. As Dahr remarked in an interview: "We are in a very difficult moment in Europe. This is the right moment to join forces, create music, poetry, art together and thus give each other a little faith in the future."

Elina Toneva in
Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

A profound and transformative spiritual experience, Livet bestowed precisely that kind of faith. The concert represents art-making at the highest level, and deserves the widest possible international exposure. (October will see a second performance of the piece in Oslo, and an audio recording will be available soon.) It was an exquisite and unforgettable conclusion to a festival that creatively approached the theme of generations in all manner of resonant ways, adding up to an essential edition of Retroperspektywy that can best be described as one for the ages. 

Li­vet. Su­ita dla Zie­mi 

The 12th Retroperspektywy Festival took place between 18 - 27 August 2023.

With the exception of the image of BUD by Øystein Haara, all performance photos are by AGNIESZKA CYTACKA FOTOGRAFIA

Theatre Review: Pretty Woman: The Musical (Teatr Muzyczny, Łódź)

 

With both Waitress and Once currently being presented at Warsaw's Teatr Muzyczny Roma, it's obvious that the appetite of Polish theatre audiences for West End or Broadway-originated musicals, especially those derived from films, remains strong. 

Having opened late last year after a long pandemic-necessitated delay, Łódź's latest addition to the list of imports is Pretty Woman, the musical version of Garry Marshall's seminal romantic comedy, with music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. The Łódź production is directed at Teatr Muzyczny by the theatre's artistic director, Jakub Szydłowski. And it's not the only take on the show in the country, either: for those wanting to play "compare and contrast," Krakow's Variété Theatre also has a production running concurrently.

When the musical premiered on Broadway in 2018 and then in London in 2019 (where it's currently at the Savoy Theatre) critics were quick to point out the "problematic" elements of the material's Cinderella-meets-Pygmalion set up, in which Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward finds love with the businessman Edward Lewis after he's paid for her services - as if people hadn't been making such critiques since the film's release in 1990. (Among actresses who turned down Julia Roberts's star-making role over concerns about the "tone" of the script and its "degrading view of women" were Michelle Pfieffer and Daryl Hannah.) 

In most respects a facsimile of the film, with a book penned by Marshall and the film's screenwriter J.F. Lawton, Pretty Woman: The Musical certainly doesn't attempt a revisionist view of its source's sexual politics. What Szydłowski's production does do, though, is add a bit of a meta framework - mild but nonetheless welcome - which presents the production in the context of a sound stage film set, complete with crew, cameras,  clapperboards and the occasional "re-take" for a flubbed line. You'd hesitate to call it Brechtian, but, carried through to a witty curtain call, this self-conscious conceit puts a little bit of distance on the material, serving as a wry reminder of its origins. 

Pretty Woman: The Musical
© Teatr Muzyczny w Łodzi, Michał Matuszak

Otherwise the show offers a faithful, straight-down-the-line retread that delivers the expected mix of comedy, light social satire and romance. (Its machine-tooled slickness is the opposite of the last musical I saw, the National Theatre's wonky but characterful Hex.) Adams and Vallance's songs, with their upfront "80s pop/rock sensibilities, are generic and lyrically banal but serviceable and easy on the ear (well, except for the shrill "Rodeo Drive"): they sound good here in Polish translation by Daniel Wyszogrodzki, and are enhanced by fun, diverse choreography by Jarosław Staniek and Katarzyna Zielonka. 

Budgetary constraints are evident in elements of Grzegorz Policiński's  design - such as a meant-to-be-palatial Beverly Hills penthouse suite that looks more like the set of a 1970s sitcom. But there's an affectionate early '90s nostalgia to aspects like the displayed Cher, Thelma & Louise, and Terminator 2 posters. And the production reaches its romantic apex in a simply beautiful staging of the opera scene, with the La Traviata performance interwoven with the musical's centrepiece romantic ballad "You and I," that moves the couple from opera box to the stage and back to the apartment. It's the show's standout sequence in terms of fully integrating song, dance, design and lighting to develop character and move the narrative forward. 

Pretty Woman: The Musical
© Teatr Muzyczny w Łodzi, Justyna Tomczak

From costume choices to hairstyle to physique, Malwina Kusior as Vivian hews closely to Julia Roberts in the film. But Kusior succeeds in creating a strong audience rapport from the start, and from her impassioned delivery of Vivian's early "I want" song "Anywhere But Here" ("Jak najdalej stąd" - hej, Domalewski!), she makes all the musical moments count. As Edward, Marcin Jajkiewicz brings less to the party, but he does well by the soul-baring ballad "Wolność" which sounds much stronger and more meaningful here than in its blander English language incarnation, "Freedom".

 

A solid ensemble offers lively support, including Paweł Erdman as the hotel manager who schools Vivien in etiquette in an amusingly done number, and the ebullient Maciek Pawlak in two roles, including Erdman's bellboy sidekick. The biggest departure in terms of characterisation is Małgorzata Chrusciel's brassy, peroxided Kit, who's closer to a full-on John Waters heroine here than to Laura San Giacomo in the film. The definition of a fun, undemanding night out (though definitely over-extended at a whopping 3 hours), judging by the enthusiastic response of the packed audience it's easy to see Pretty Woman taking its place alongside Les Mis, Miss Saigon and Madagascar as a popular new addition to Teatr Muzyczny's repertoire. 

Pretty Woman: The Musical is booking at Teatr Muzyczny. Further information here.