Following the success of „Melodrama,” Anna Smolar returns to the stage of the Powszechny Theatre – this time in co-production with Malta Festival.

Once again, Anna Smolar takes on the paradoxes of our collective psyche and social order, using a well-known Polish film as her point of departure. This time, she reflects on Agnieszka Holland’s “A Woman Alone,” asking: what do care, solidarity, and loneliness mean today? She invites rapper and freestyle dancer Ryfa Ri – juror on “You Can Dance” – to join the project, marking her debut on the theatre stage.

Who is today’s woman raising a child alone in a big city? In Agnieszka Holland’s 1981 film, she cried out: “I have no backing!” – and the carnival of Solidarity was in full swing. In 2025, we see a woman in survival mode who has mastered the art of blaming only herself. At a time when no one holds a father accountable for unpaid child support, nothing protects a person from unemployment, homelessness, or derailing – and yet, they are still expected to be the master of their own fate. The Polish notion of solidarity expresses itself in isolated bursts of goodwill: let’s launch a fundraiser, let’s help those who have it worse, all while secretly taking comfort in our own savings and property.

What does Irena desire today? What can she promise Boguś? What rules must she break to become the rightful protagonist of this pitch-black script? – ponders Anna Smolar.

This is not the director’s first theatrical encounter with the work of cinema icon Agnieszka Holland. Smolar previously co-directed “Provincial Actors” with Holland at the Kochanowski Theatre in Opole – also based on Holland’s film.

“A Woman Alone”

• Warsaw premiere: Powszechny Theatre, June 14, 7:00 PM
• Poznań premiere: Malta Festival, June 28, 5:00 PM

Tickets for the Warsaw and Poznań performances will be on sale from April 15.