If You've Been Cut in Half

A. Mickiewicz Theatre in Częstochowa

Duration: 90 minutes | Age group: youth and adults | Premiere: May 30, 2025, A. Mickiewicz Theatre in Częstochowa

A production realized as part of the "Theatre Poland 2026" programme of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

A dark comedy about ghosts hiding in trunks and empty barns. About memory preserved in the earth. About a village cracking under the weight of trucks hurtling down the highway. About identity torn between a field falling into disuse and a flickering television screen. About growing up in a place where everything is cut in half: home, family, school, and even the word "we" itself.

Marcel, the protagonist, searches for himself amid family secrets: the mysterious ancestor Leokadia Be, whom no one is allowed to mention, his grandfather, a doll left by his mother, a soldier's corpse in the barn. A past full of riddles offers him no peace, and uncovering them brings no simple answers. The play is based on Łukasz Baryś's novel and takes place in Sromutka, a village whose rhythm is disrupted by the roar of speeding trucks. The highway, a symbol of transformation, tempts with the promise of a new life while bringing death.

The creators employ grotesque and dark humour not to mock, but to come to terms with the cracks in reality and disintegrating communities. The play asks how to build something new from fragments and ghosts, how to break free from the past, and how to find community in multigenerational homes where each generation lives in a different world.

Cast: Karol Czajkowski, Maciej Półtorak, Czesława Monczka, Aleksandra Skraba / Kamila Bartkowiak
Voice-overs: Aleksandra Skraba, Karol Czajkowski, Mariusz Korek

Creative team: director - Kalina Jagoda Dębska | adaptation and dramaturgy - Anna Mazurek | music - Antoni Skrzyniarz | scenography and video - Łukasz Horbów | costumes - Maja Michnacka | choreographic consultation - Wojciech D