Opening Night: 8 May 2014
Author: Friedrich Schiller
Title: The Robbers 
Original Title: Die Räuber
Translator: Michał Budzyński
Director: Michał Zadara

Auditorium: Boguslawski Hall
Running time: 3 hours 10 min, two intervals

The Robbers

A world riddled with injustice and social turmoil. Sweatshirts instead of tunics against the backdrop of modern stagecraft. Our times – as seen by Michał Zadara.

Friedrich Schiller published The Robbers in 1781 at the age of 22. He criticized 18th-century despotism and depravity, portraying the world at the verge of transformation. Today, the youthful passion of his drama still resonates strong, provoking questions about contemporary social order. Corporation and gang – what laws are they governed by? What are the origins of anarchy and crime? The stage machinery is put into motion to highlight the hectic pace of changes. In this thrilling show, poetry clashes with street grime.


director: Michał Zadara 
set design: Robert Rumas 
costumes: Julia Kornacka 
lighting design, video: Artur Sienicki 
music: Jacek Szymkiewicz 
engineering design: Mirosław Łysik

Awards and Nominations:

2014 – The Konrad Swinarski Award for the best theatre director to Michał Zadara for direction of The Robbers
2014 – The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Award for the best actress to Wiktoria Gorodeckaja for the role of Amalia Edelreich

Cast:

Maximilian, Count von Moor Mariusz Bonaszewski
Karl von Moor Paweł Paprocki
Franz von Moor Przemysław Stippa
Amalia von Edelreich Wiktoria Gorodeckaja / Barbara Wysocka (guest actress)
Herrmann, the illegitimate son of a Nobleman Robert Jarociński
Spiegelberg Oskar Hamerski
Schweizer Mateusz Rusin
Grimm Bartłomiej Bobrowski
Razmann Ksawery Szlenkier (guest actor)
Schufterle Paweł Tołwiński
Roller Przemysław Wyszyński (guest actor)
Schwarz Arkadiusz Janiczek
Daniel, an old servant of Count von Moor Waldemar Kownacki
Pastor Moser Tomasz Sapryk (as a guest actor from September 1, 2016) / Mirosław Konarowski
female roles  Marzena Gorska (guest actress)

Production team:

  • set designer's assistants: Elwira Szyszka, Anita Trzaskowska, Arkadiusz Ślesiński (costumes)
  • sound technicians: Mariusz Maszewski, Rafał Barański
  • lighting technicians: Zbigniew Szulim, Bartłomiej Kaczalski
  • video projections: Mariusz Chałubek, Paweł Woźniak
  • stage manager: Ewa Dworecka
  • prompter: Jolanta Szydłowsk

Gallery:

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  • OTHER DELIGHTS

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  • FAUST

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  • FEBLIK

    Małgorzata Maciejewska's surprising drama received the Tadeusz Różewicz Drama Award in 2022, the competition's first year. The show is directed by Lena Frankiewicz. 

  • A DREAM PLAY

    After the well-received Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Sławomir Narloch returned to the National Theatre with another premiere – A Dream Play by Strindberg.

     

  • KING LEAR

    King Lear may be Shakespeare's boldest examination of human nature. Jan Englert will play the title role in the National Theatre's production.

  • WAITING FOR GODOT

    "What do we do now? Wait. [...] We're waiting for Godot". Piotr Cieplak directs Waiting for Godot by Beckett. Is this a classic yet? Does it still have its avant-garde power?

  • FREDRO: THE JUBILEE YEAR

    To celebrate 230 years since Aleksander Fredro's birth, the National Theatre invites you to an evening dedicated to the life and works of Poland’s greatest comedy writer. 

  • TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS

    Małgorzata Bogajewska directs for the second time at the National Theatre. This time she draws on Ödön von Horváth's 1931 drama.

  • THE THEATRE MAKER

    The play by Thomas Bernhard, one of the most outstanding playwrights of the second half of the 20th century. In the title role – Jerzy Radziwiłowicz. 

  • ALICE'S WONDERLAND

    Have you ever quarreled with the Time or visited a forest where things have no names? Alice’s Wonderland is a musical performance based on the famous novel by Lewis Carroll. 

  • THE MISANTHROPE

    Jan Englert stages a classic play by Molière. What is Alcest's misanthropy: an uncompromising commitment to the truth or a doomed uprising against social conventions?

  • THE BOOKS OF JACOB

    In the middle of the 18th century Jacob Frank proclaimed the new principles of the Jewish faith. This is a staging of the most important novel by Polish Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. 

  • THE DECALOGUE

    A meditation upon the moral foundations of the present – an iconic work of Polish cinema, rethought thirty-five years after its creation by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. 

  • MARY STUART

    Grzegorz Wiśniewski returns to the classic drama about human passions interwoven in a ruthless machinery of history and intrigue.

  • MÜNCHHAUSEN FOR ADULTS

    Baron von Münchhausen lived in the 18th century and told incredible stories about himself. Maciej Wojtyszko directs his own play about the famous adventurer and mystifier.

  • Solidarity with Ukraine | Солідарні з Україною

    The ensemble of the National Theatre stands in solidarity with the Ukrainians who are fighting for the independence of their homeland.

  • PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

    1900. On a hot, stormy day, Mrs Appleyard's boarding school residents go on a picnic near Hanging Rock. The new theatrical version of the Australian prose classics. 

  • SNAKE SKIN

    Artur Urbański directs his own play which main character is Ruth Berlau, one of Bertolt Brecht's closest associates and life companions.

  • AUTUMN SONATA

    A story about the need for love and acceptance, about an inherited emotional coldness, about the psychological costs of creativity. A theatrical version of a film script by Ingmar Bergman. 

  • MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS

    A performance about the need to experience something that surpasses us. In the title role of the prioress – Małgorzata Kożuchowska. 

  • HEDDA GABLER

    Hedda Gabler – work by Henrik Ibsen, a master of psychological realism – in stage interpretation of director Kuba Kowalski is a poetic performance.


  • HOW TO BE LOVED

    This is the performance about love and moral responsibility for another person as well as the mechanisms controlling human memory. The dramatisation of the story by Kazimierz Brandys.


  • LUNGS

    Briliant, full of humour and touching love story of a young couple. Breakups and comebacks, passion and sex, the first important decisions and the search for meaning in a complex, modern world.


  • UHLANS

    The Museum of All-Time Polish Uhlans. Exhibits of the national exacerbation. A serious comedy in three acts about the entanglement in myths of Polishness. 


  • THE IMAGE MAKERS

    The truth about the essence of creation and responsibility in art. Director Viktor Sjöström is working on the film The Phantom Carriage, based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf. 

  • FOREFATHER'S EVE

    Mickiewicz's poetic drama interpreted by Lithuanian Master Eimuntas Nekrošius — theatre visionary known for his unique theatrical language.


  • KORDIAN

    The Polish nation's tragic choice: to die heroically in the name of a noble idea or live a life "making shoes for dogs"? — the alternative presented to Kordian in two parables.

  • FLEA THE SWINDLER

    Tremendous fun and great laughs – not just for kids. The antics of the Flea are directed by Anna Seniuk with the music composed by Maciej Małecki.


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