The Marriage at the Warsaw National Theatre was the last production by the Lithuanian Master of Theatre Eimuntas Nekrošius. It was created on the basis of Witold Gombrowicz’s play of the same title which is known as one of the most significant works of Polish drama of the 20th century.
E. Nekrošius presented his last production at the Warsaw National Theatre in June of 2018. In November of the same year he passed away. In November of this year, at the Youth Theatre, where Nekrošius had started his creative path, we will part with his final work.
A gem of the new Polish drama of the mid-twentieth century Marriage by Witold Gombrowicz is a poetic treatise on creating the world out of nothing – out of a void. The main character, Henryk, struggles both with himself and with figures looming out of darkness which envelops Gombrowicz’s “interhuman church” – the ruined world that must be built up after the war. Yet it remains uncertain whether the action of Marriage is set in reality or it is just Henryk’s dream…
Where in the ruins of the old world order should we look for a new beginning? What do we encounter in life: other people or a picture of ourselves? Does our world create itself spontaneously among us? And if so, from where comes “so much noise” when we are with others? In Marriage there are many allusions to Hamlet, but Gombrowicz understands tragedy otherwise, he sees it in everyday existence. That which is outwardly mundane, becomes fatal to young Henryk whose marriage turns into a funeral.