Teatr Polska - "Maryla"

The performance tells the story of Maryla – Maria Kwaśniewska, a javelin thrower who won a bronze medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Through her example, the creators reveal the machinery of propaganda: how the Olympic ideal was weaponized to construct an illusion of a just system, while a brutal fascist ideology was taking root before the eyes of athletes, officials, and committees worldwide.

The performance raises questions about the boundary between sport and politics, about collective and individual complicity in the erosion of democracy, freedom of speech, and human rights. Can a single gesture of defiance ignite larger change? Maria's gesture with lowered arms did not stop the war. Yet in that moment, standing at attention and refusing to yield, she impressed Hitler – and her despised photograph became her personal wartime passport and her ticket to saving lives.

The Berlin Olympics did not serve as a warning. The creators remind us that this same mechanism has returned at subsequent Games: Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Beijing, Sochi, Qatar, Paris, and many others.