Review: FAR AWAY at The Grotowski Institute

The script for this play was created by Anna Wieczorek based on many conversations with her older brother. This is the story of contemporary Ulysses, who since his youth dreamed of getting out of the sad reality of the Polish countryside at the turn of the millennium. It is the story of a man who had the courage to have dreams at all costs and who lived crazy adventures that took him away from home, but they did not deprive him of his good humor and sense of humor. The main character is bold, full of charisma, and has a colorful life filled with bad(?) luck.

Well, he's everything and everywhere, an aspiring actor, a journalist, a pilot, a bodyguard, a businessman, a thief, a traveler... He also represents a generation whose youth was at a turning point in the 20th and 21st centuries. Witness to the opening of Europe in 2004, he evokes his perspective of emigration. Past and present, because his story continues and comes in all shapes and sizes. Living in Britain, a forty-year-old Briton is still searching for his place in the world. Her younger sister decided to follow this research and try to tell them on stage, where the identity of the hero will be divided between the one who is still hopeful and the one who, in retrospect, sees more of his mistakes than his achievements.
Two actors: Jakub Mieszala and Pawel Bernadowski play one character who, in a conversation with himself, is settling accounts with the past and faces expectations
about the future. It's like a duo in a monodrama, both actors are great and bring their own yin or yang to a story.

Thanks to the proximity of the actors and the audience, and the extremely atmospheric space, you can truly feel the story. The wooden floor sometimes creaks like a tormented soul. You are watching it with great pleasure and ease, especially since the plot is sometimes very joyful, but also poignant, sad, and heartbreaking, although we are rooting for the man all the time. The whole concept of the speaker brings to me the vibe of telling stories by the fire or in the dark night with a hot tea, of some interesting person, maybe a brother, an uncle, a neighbor, Gulliver, Odysseus about amazing journeys, experiences, memories, joys, and disappointments. This story is captivating, it is beautifully told, with great respect for life and man.

Graph: Gabriela Kruk