"Small Apocalypse 20XX"

"Small Apocalypse 20XX" is a production directed by Waldemar Raźniak, based on Tadeusz Konwicki's work "Small Apocalypse". It will be shown on January 9, 2027 at 18:00 on the Chamber Stage of the National Old Theatre im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej at ul. Starowiślna 21. The main character is a writer persecuted and surveilled by the system, defending himself through internal emigration. One day colleagues visit him with a request for public self-immolation. At first he wants to refuse, but the idea gradually begins to consume him: his last day of life could become his final work, and public suicide the only possible gesture of resistance against the system. Konwicki's work was created when communism was in decline. It was a caricature, an expression of resistance and a moral reckoning with the consciences of generations of that time; over time it also became a document of a bygone era. The creators ask whether the specter of totalitarianism has truly passed. They point to the reviving threat of Russian imperialism and political surveillance, which has become the domain of technocracy entering every sphere of life. For this reason "Small Apocalypse" appears to them as a possible dystopia. Apocalypse here means, according to its etymology, "revelation"—the moment when truth reveals itself with unprecedented clarity. Along with the protagonist, the audience embarks on a delirious-cyberpunk dream about the future. Along the way, enigmatic, phantasmagorical figures accompany him, testing his courage, convictions and moral choices. Piotr Gaszczyński from "Theatre for Everyone" wrote that Raźniak's production "is a vivisection of a man facing the impossible", with Grzegorz Mielczarek in the role of the Writer taking center stage. Cast: Bogdan Brzyski, Iwona Budner, Grzegorz Grabowski, Paweł Kruszelnicki, Katarzyna Krzanowska, Zbigniew Kosowski, Krzysztof Stawowy, Grzegorz Mielczarek, Aleksandra Nowosadko