It’s probably one of the few shows about our football. Although in the history of Polish theater we had many directors or actors interested in this sport, it was usually a topic for Polish cinema. Ratajczak decided to stage a performance based on a script by Piotr Rowicki, which is obviously linked to the World Cup in Qatar, which is about to start. Zofia Zborowska-Wrona will recreate the figure of Ewa Pajor, the most recognized Polish footballer. The roles of players and coaches who wrote the history of our football were played by: Michał Żurawski, Maciej Zakościelny, Jędrzej Hycnar, Marcin Korcz, Jakub Sasak and Piotr Głowacki. We will recognize them, the aforementioned Lewandowski, Bońek, Górski, but also Ernest Wilimowski, Kazimierz Deyna, Jacek Gmoch, Adam Nawałka, or even Janusz Wójcik or Emmanuel Olisadebe.
The show “Nothing happened” whose title refers to the many defeats of our football, was created out of passion and love for football. This is announced by the Garnizon Sztuki Theater. – This is a tribute to the cult figures of Polish football – a story about the professional and life paths of footballers, always difficult, often also full of dramatic events – reads in the announcement.
Przemysław Iwanieczyk: If someone from the art world starts playing football, it means that he is one of the few artists who does not treat this area of life as not very serious, not deserving we focus on it. Why did the Lord do this?
Piotr Ratajczak: This is my second encounter with sport, we once had a show called “Królowie Strzelców” according to reports by Zbigniew Rokita at the Nowy theater in Zabrze. It was about athletes entangled in the political system, communism. In this case, it is the result of my fascination with football, being a football fan, especially in the national team. After winning the World Cup play-offs with Sweden in great joy, in great ecstasy, I ran to Grażyna Wolszczak, director of the Garnizon Sztuki Theater in Warsaw. I said that we had to do a show about footballers, about Polish football. Maybe it should even be a critical show, but let it be a sort of tribute to the history of the sport. To my surprise, Grażyna Wolszczak accepted this crazy idea and we have been implementing it since September. We are rehearsing with a group of fantastic actors, the premiere soon.
These will be portraits of Polish footballers, we have chosen them over many discussions and controversies, as people with their favorites in football have come together to discuss. There will be meetings with players and coaches. In short, a range of famous people from the world of football with diverse stories, but also personal destinies. Looking at the selection of heroes, it’s easy to guess that each of them has experience beyond a sports career. It’s a clash with culture, politics, each of these characters has a story, a drama.
Somehow I don’t trust you and somehow I don’t believe you… Not because you’re an untrustworthy man, but because you talked about tribute to the people of Polish football. Both in art and in everyday life, in a fan’s perception, Polish football is an object of mockery, not an excuse to pay tribute.
I say. I was seven years old when I started my encounter with football. 1982 marks the first world championship. Goals and shots from Zbigniew Bonek, great team. Of course, there is great sentimental potential in me and the belief that our representation will one day succeed, but you know what it is. We try to love it, love it, but more often than not it causes us frustration, hence the title of our show “Nothing Happened”…
Thus, the slogan is inextricably linked to the feeling of defeat.
I hate that slogan because I always think it happens when it fails. It’s a tragedy, I lie on the ground for an hour after losing a match. In our script, there is a scene called “Their defeats”, where our heroes talk about how they deal with defeats, how they overcome the permanent depression that results. Maybe we will disenchant something with our performance, showing that something beautiful has happened in our football as well. With such a dream it is still possible that our generation will also experience fantastic evenings linked to the World Cup and the European Championships.
You miss…
Of course I miss you.
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I have the impression that you miss Polish football from the time when, as young people, we looked at it uncritically. And the next World Cup in Qatar will be an event saturated with commercialism and harm to others.
Of course, but because we are not indifferent to what happens in modern football, there is a scene in our script called “Nepali”. It gives the floor to stadium builders in Qatar. People who risked their lives for a few dollars to build facilities for wealthy sheikhs for this unique event. Thus, I suggest that our performance is not only a winner for football, it also has potential and a critical perspective. It’s also an attempt to consider where we are today as fans. Maybe at the end of the performance, each of us will want to take the ball, go to the yard, put on a T-shirt with the name of Bońka or Deyny and play with each other for pleasure.
Since Janusz Wójcik is one of the heroes, the memorable phrase “The sausages go up and we shave the suckers” must be quoted.
Unfortunately, this sentence appears in the show as a certain symbol of the Polish formative thought of the 1990s.
Did the actors have any doubts about taking the role? Due to the World Cup this is probably a seasonal show.
In terms of the repertoire, the show is planned over several seasons, there is a tour route, so it will have to be updated. In the first scene, our fans come on stage and argue, which is the most important event in the history of Polish football. Of course it was Wembley, the match against Argentina in 1978, against Belgium in 1982, and it was the end of the match against Sweden in the spring, which gave access to the championship. It was like that, but it’s actually the most important event in recent years. Hopefully after November we will have to change this scene and add some exciting events in Qatar.
If we find soccer wires in Polish art, they are extremely critical vis-à-vis the environment. Take, for example, “Soccer Poker”.
I guess that’s how it turns out that there is nothing positive about Polish football in Polish art. The constant subject of corruption, footballers who only manage the ball, bad referees. All of this is a breeding ground for cabaret or memes. Or maybe we’ll clean up the area with our show, encourage serious football talk with great acceptance and zest for the games.
As a director, you probably dream that after the performance, the spectators come together and discuss at length what was the most important event in history. But as for the heroes of the discussion, there will probably also be many.
There are times in the series where the actors step out of roles and discuss the characters they are playing. This is, for example, about Ernest Wilimowski and his story, when he first played for Poland, then joined the Wehrmacht, he played for the representation of the Third Reich. We can also recall the story of Anatoly Tymoshchuk, a Ukrainian who remained in Saint Petersburg after the outbreak of the war and who works for the Russian club. The same goes for Maciej Rybus, who stayed in Moscow. The cases of the latter two create new contexts for Wilimowski’s story. The fate of Kazimierz Deyna and the difficult period of his depression and alcoholism are also not obvious, which ended tragically. Each spectator will carry his own emotions, his own vision, his own feelings and will discuss with others what has been most important in the history of our football. Even now, being a few generations into this job, we can see that something else is important to everyone. For me, the most important will be Zbigniew Boniek, Spain and Mexico. For the youngest, Lewandowski is the only and most important. Those who fell in love with football in the 90s have a problem, they probably don’t have any idols. These are subjective and fascinating situations.
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