A Summer's Day

The action takes place in a small resort town on a beautiful summer day. Two men meet by chance in the same spot - one has nothing but failures in life, the other enjoys success with almost no effort. Yet both are unhappy, both regard their existence as wretched and barren, and both ultimately decide to end it. By a strange twist of fate, they choose the same place and time to commit suicide - and consequently get in each other's way. An expressive conversation about the meaning of existence begins, only to fade into the background when both meet a beautiful and somewhat mysterious woman.

Mrożek masterfully blends refined humour with philosophical meditation in "A Summer's Day", keeping the number of events to a minimum so as to paint the psychological portraits of the characters all the more vividly. The central theme is the meaning of life - and the plot leads to rather pessimistic conclusions. Love offers a chance for existential fulfilment, but people are afraid to love: some, like Nieud, because of their complexes; others, like Ud, out of pride and fear of disappointment. Mrożek seems to ask whether we don't prefer safe compromises to radical decisions - even at the cost of spiritual suffering. In this context, the title of the play becomes a metaphor for its own greyness.

In Filip Bochenek's production, the philosophical and psychological nuances of the text have been translated into an extraordinarily metaphorical scenography. The figure of the Lady has gained a poetic interpretation, and the protagonists - donning masks or undefined forms - simultaneously create their image and search for themselves. They are at once embodiments of Mrożek's reflections on the meaning of life and portraits of flesh-and-blood people: now tragic, now grotesque, always profoundly lonely.

Direction: Filip Bochenek
Music: Marcin Sosiński
Cast: Krystyna Kachel, Łukasz Łęcki, Filip Bochenek
Premiere: October 2020
Duration: 60 minutes