The drama of “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner from 1991 has become one of the most important American stage texts of the last few decades. In 1993 he was staged on Broadway, and in 2003 a miniseries of the same title directed by Mike Nichols. In 2007, Krzysztof Warlikowski directed “Angels in America” at the translation of Jacek Poniedziałka at the Difference Theater, is one of the most outstanding Polish staging of Kushner's drama.
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The text of the American also became the inspiration for the playwright and deputy director of the Dramatic Theater for Program Affairs of Julia Holewińska, the author of the drama “Angels in Warsaw”, which was realized by Wojciech Faruga at the Dramatic Theater. It was a real challenge. On the one hand, Faruga and Holewińska wanted to avoid dealing with outstanding adaptations of Kushner's drama, on the other – work on the spectacle began in the shadow of the crisis, with which the dramatic theater has faced for many months. The atmosphere of anxiety regularly appeared here with the appointment of Monika Strzępka as the director of the theater.
The outstanding director took over the reins in the dramatic September 1, 2022, replacing Tadeusz Słobodzianka in this position. From the beginning, Strzępka wanted to manage the theater in a collective way, together with Małgorzata Błasińska, Dorota Kowalkowska, Agata Adamiecka-Sitek and Monika Dziekan. In November of the same year, the then Mazovian voivode Konstanty Radziwiłł annulled the choice of a shred, which a few days later entrusted the position of an adviser for artistic matters. She returned to the position of director in April 2024, under the judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw.
In mid-December last year, the Vice President of Warsaw, responsible for the culture of Aldona Machnowska-Góra, informed about the end of cooperation between the city and Monika Strzępka. The duties of the director were taken over by Mariusz Guglas, currently deputy director for administrative and technical matters. After the competition for the position of director was unresolved, in mid -June the city authorities offered this position to Wojciech Faruga – the then director of the Polish Theater in Bydgoszcz. He officially took his position on November 1.
– I expect wise and safe processes that take place here from this season. We want to restore the love or the pleasure that this work brings. If we succeed, I am convinced that the artistic effects will be delightful – declares Faruga in an interview with tvn24.pl.
Wojciech Faruga – Director of the Dramatic Theater Gustaw Holoubek photo: Karolina Jóźwiak / Dramatic Theater Gustaw Holoubek in Warsaw
Tomasz-Marcin Wrona: Is “Angels in Warsaw” a Polish response to the famous “Angels in America”?
Wojciech Faruga: It will be more adequate to say that our performance rather uses or continues the narrative strategies of “Angels in America” to tell a completely different story than the one with USA .
In Poland, the AIDS epidemic had a much smaller scale than in the United States, it consumed much less victims. Which does not mean that the situation was less tragic. In 1985, the reaction to the growing number of HIV infections was the “Hiacynt” campaign, in which the Security Service under surveillance and interrogated LGBTQ+people. In fact, it was a systemic form of repression against LGBTQ+people. The “Hiacynt” campaign is therefore one of the elements of the history of the Polish AIDS epidemic we are talking about in “Angels in Warsaw”.
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