A Beautiful End of the World

Aneta Kyzioł, POLITYKA

After a yearlong hibernation TR Warszawa is waking to life in great style. Grzegorz Jarzyna's "T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T." based on the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1968) is a hypnotically beautiful performance. Not only is it well-thought out but it is also brilliantly acted. The family of an industrialist (the touching and deadly tired Englert, whose role is made up of Pasolini's interviews and poems) is first presented to the audience during their morning routines; the father browses through his paperwork, the mother (Danuta Stenka) puts on her makeup, the son and daughter (Jan Dravnel and Katarzyna Warnke) brush their hair and the maid (Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak) sets the table. They all constitute perfect incarnations of the upper class. A young unexpected guest (Sebastian Pawlak) will make each of them search their own souls, realize the unpleasant truths and ask uncomfortable questions about the system of values, the reasons for spiritual emptiness, loneliness, the role of God in their life and their fears. Pasolini's film intrigued the viewer with the mysterious figure of the visitor; was he God sent or was he the messenger from hell? Did the awakening of consciousness which caused the downfall of the family bring salvation or did it lead to destruction? Jarzyna's performance shifts the accent to the members of the family and carries out a post mortem of the world of late capitalist values which the family members benefit from and which, right before our very eyes, enters into the period of great crisis. It is one of the masterpieces which through poetry and polysemantic images opens space for the viewer's own queries and doubts.