Director Lilach Dekel Avneri recommends visiting The Dramatic Theatre of the Capital City of Warsaw, Poland:
In 2010, the show I directed, Adam Geist, was invited to participate in the international festival at the Dramatyczny Theater in Warsaw. It was commissioned by Paweł Miśkiewicz, the previous artistic director of the theater. My team and I watched great performances, met fascinating people, and were exposed to a dream audience. For the first time, I delved deeper and deeper into the city of my late grandma Bronislawa Ruszkowski. Warsaw is a very different European city from what we know; When you know you are standing on the ruins of the Warsaw Jewish ghetto from the second world war, your point of view is different.
I worked for a month and a half at the Dramatyczny Theater on the show Muranooo with Polish actors: Klara Bielauka, Ksistof Dratz, Alona Szustak, Wojtek Knievsky, and Israeli actors: Lanny Shachaf and Noam Ben Azar. A year after the festival, I was invited to direct in the theater an adaptation of a story by a young Polish writer Sylwia Chutnik. It was an exciting co-production and an unforgettable experience.
Muranoo. Photo: Tomasz Dubiel- Teatr Dramatyczny Warsaw. Photo: Envanto Elelemnts
- Theatr Dramatyczny. Photo: Lilach Dekel Avneri
When I close my eyes and think about the theater, I remember the room we slept in, which was only a few steps away from the backstage; I see the lovely bar where we spent time after every performance, the front stairs overlooking Warsaw, and the small market in the square. I felt a part of the history of the place. And, of course, it is impossible not to mention the incredible repertoire curated by the former artistic director Paweł Miśkiewicz, the collaboration with the theater staff, the curiosity, and the love for radical theater creation. I’m not sure what kind of repertoire there is today because the management has changed, but a visit to the Palace of Culture and Science and the Dramatyczny Theater is recommended.
Legend has it that the room once occupied by actress Lanny Shachaf was Stalin’s preferred location to gaze out over the city and admire the obelisk constructed in his honor.
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