Performance “Anxiety Comes at Dusk” dir. Gosia Wdowik at The Artium International Theater Festival

June 12 Performance “Anxiety Comes at Dusk” dir. Gosia Wdowik is part of the series Selected Polish performances at European theater festivals.

The performance, based on the book by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, is a story about the experience of loss and its effects for the body and imagination; about an attempt to confront the tragedy that traps the 10-year-old heroine and her loved ones in a world of mourning; about the need to find meaning in death. It is also a story about coming of age and the end of childhood.

The world of eternal winter and penetrating cold is full of magical thinking, spells and prayers. We see it through the eyes of a little girl entering adolescence. She is an observer of events, as well as a narrator and a creator of fantasy. She stores the memory of the tragedy, faces the feeling of guilt and responsibility for her parents, and struggles with the pangs of emptiness.

The plasticity of the world seen from a child's perspective and the child's imagination, as described in the book, allows director to create visual images from the recorded experiences. These images become independent micro-stories. The disturbing everyday life, on which the director builds the visuals of the show, also consists of observations of the bond between people and animals. Thus viewers can take better look at relationships between family members who live side by side but not with each other.

Directed by: Małgorzata Wdowik
Screenplay, adaptation: Rrobert Bolesto
Dramaturgical cooperation: Magdalena Komornicka
Set design, lighting director: Aleksandra Prowaliński
Costumes: Maja Skrzypek
Music: Agata Zemla
Sculptures: Jan Baszak
Stage manager/director's first assistant: Katarzyna Radomska
Second assistant director: Piotr Soroka
Cast: Agnieszka Dziewa, Urszula Kuśnierz, Anna Nabierakowska, Karolina Paczkowska, Artur Borkowski, Eloy Moreno Gallego, Jan Kochanowski, Jakub Pewiński