MORPHINE

A multi-genre production based on Szczepan Twardoch's novel about a torn man entangled in major historical events.

SCRIPT Matouš Danzer and Ewa Zembok
TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL Michal Alexa
DIRECTOR Ewa Zembok
DRAMATURGY Matouš Danzer
SET DESIGN Jana Hauskrechtová
COSTUMES Alexandra Gnidiak
VIDEO ART Lidya Arinna Emir
MUSIC Mana Dark, Jan Čenich
LIGHTS Jaro Repka
CAST Dana Marková, Václav Marhold, Lidya Arinna Emir
PRODUCTION Simeon Hudec, Pavlína Košáková

Premiere September 11, 2025, 7:30 p.m., Synagogue in Palmovka

I am me, and my world is no more. In this world, I am not me.

Konstantin Willemann is a thirty-year-old Varsovian in October 1939. He is a bon vivant who enjoys fine wines, fast cars, and his mother's money. Konstantin loves his Polish wife and son above all else. But Kosťa also loves morphine in his veins and the body of Salome, a Jewish prostitute, beneath him.

The Black Angel whispers words in his ear that are even more intoxicating and destructive than a syringe filled with liquid happiness.

Konstantin longs for the certainties of what was once a seemingly solid order of things. However, this clashes with the reality of the first weeks of World War II and the occupation of his beloved city, which has been "raped" by Wehrmacht troops. The descendant of a German aristocrat and a Polonized Silesian woman fights for Poland in a Nazi uniform; but Kostík is not really Polish, German, a resistance fighter, or a traitor.

So who is Konstantin Willemann, Kosťa, Kostík? Someone, no one.

He is in the world for no other reason than to live. His existence serves only his existence.

This ambiguous individual is also reflected in today's social challenges and dilemmas, which disrupt the existing order of things and demand clear answers to questions about our identities and attitudes. On closer inspection, the blurred figure of Kostík can also be seen as a person torn by the frenzy of the 21st century.

The production is a co-production with Krajina přílivu z.s. with the support of: the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague, the State Fund for Culture, the Czech Literary Fund Foundation and the Polish Institute in Prague.