Review: PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT at Capitol Musical Theatre, Wroclaw

It's glamorous, colorful, full of love, joy and energy. I love it!

It is a universal story about exclusion, inclusion, travel, the search for understanding, acceptance, and accompaniment of the past and the future. All done with incredible imagination, great music, stage moves, and out-of-the-box thinking.

An indescribable riot of colors, colors, sounds, but also (sometimes difficult) emotions creates an incredible image that, placed in the Polish socio-political context, becomes close to us, at some point we can see ourselves there.

Let's start with the music: tons of great hits that will get your feet moving and make you want to jump out of your chair and dance. The voices are incredible, Justyna Szafran in the role of Bernadette, Michal Zborowski as Tick/Mitzi and Rafal Derkacz as Adam/Felicia form an excellent main trio that complements each other in terms of maturity, and age, but also in the approach of oneself and the search for differences, acceptance of what can be changed and ignoring everything that is around. I also loved a trio of divas (Justyna Wozniak, Ewa Szlempo-Kruszynska, and Malgorzata Wenda) providing the funky vibe of a mythical choir commenting on events and completing the action (but better dressed).

Dancing has never been better! Barbara Olech made a flow of movement with an unstoppable dose of energy filling the stage, you can see the dancers having so much fun. They are like an intense current of the colorful river, which from time to time splashes you with joyful water. You look at them thinking: Oh, it's so great it can't get any better, and then you see Mateusz Brenner, Eloy Moreno Gallego, and Dariusz Kowalewski who are like three matches in a pool of gasoline. You look at them and just feel a warm breeze on your face from the explosion. They are just phenomenal.

Aleksandra Wasilkowska's costumes and set design are so much fun. It's colorful and sparkling, at some point it goes beyond the limits of the imagination and we sail to the absolute high. You have to see it and experience it to understand, but you will love it. I imagine doing this was like making dreams tangible. You get lots of colors, pastels, high heels, and glitter and when you think the limit is reached you get another dose. I love it!

Cezary Tomaszewski, the director, has produced a phenomenal play that offers us candy of wisdom in a particularly fabulous wrapper. The show has no weak points, a well-groomed hand with very long colorful nails grabs you from the first minute to this joyful universe. A pastel glaze covers important topics and familiarizes us with some significant subjects. I don't know if Poland is ready for the queer revolution at Jasna Gora but it's a fantastic first step!

We really didn't realize how much we needed this spectacle and colorful glitter in our world until now.

Photo: Lukasz Giza

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