The Possible Worlds

We live at the dawn of the cosmic era. We are witnesses to a great change. Surrounded by a flood of media reports about war, helpless in the face of a crisis of imagination and a lack of adequate narratives, we try to recognize possible variations and retell the story - to find a way to momentarily forget our fears and the fears of modern times, to regain agency and influence events. Is it still possible to think of this world differently? Four representatives of the human species, guided by artificial intelligence cues, engage in the ultimate game. The stakes are high, with Planet Earth serving as the stage for this peculiar escape room. The spectacle is filled with surprising plot twists, playing with conventions, dialogue with pop culture, bitter irony, and dark humor. Monologues intertwine with ensemble scenes dominated by movement, singing, dancing, play, and music. Everything leads to a surprising finale. "I hope the next planet isn't dealt with so easily," says one of the characters.

Written and directed by: Krzysztof Popiołek
Set design: Anna Wołoszczuk
Costumes: Piotr Popiołek
Musical arrangements: Krzysztof Popiołek
Assistant director: Bibianna Chimiak
Assistant set designer: Anna Kolanecka
Production manager: Piotr Motas
Visual identity: Grzegorz Komorowski
Photography: Piotr Nykowski
Lighting concept: Adam Dzidziszewski
Sound and multimedia production: Piotr Motas
Lighting production: Krzysztof Nowak
Technical-acoustic support: Krzysztof "Novik" Nowak

cast:
Bibianna Chimiak
Karolina Sabat
Dariusz Mikuła
Piotr Starzyński

premiere: September 17-18, 2022

Tickets 

for the performance are sold stationary (Teatr Kana, świętych Piotra i Pawła 4/5 square) and online [online ticket sales].

Tickets for both performances of the Teatr Kana (diptych - Density of Population and The Possible Worlds) include a promotional price of 30 PLN (25 PLN for pass owners).
 

"Population density" and "Possible worlds" - a diptych about the catastrophe

Both performances, directed by Krzysztof Popiołek and produced together with the Kana Theatre company, are a peculiar dialogue with the present and the future; they use different theatre languages but complement each other into a coherent whole. The first, by means of a multi-voiced stage story about the Chernobyl disaster that took place on April 26th, 1986, attempts to establish a ritual of confrontation with personal fears and premonitions (and 'conjuring' them so that they do not come true...), the second - realised after the experience of the disastrous Russian invasion on Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 - in a perverse and ironic way seeks a new language and new hope. 

„How to create in the final times? Warn against the inevitable to somehow save ourself from it? Joke around in a wave of so called gallows humor? Kana Theatre asks this question to both themselves and to us from the stage perspective. In all seriousness, yet not without a blink of an eye. It’s not accidental that the theme of the play is the escape room. The characters locked in the room have a task ahead of them - how to escape a room from which it is either impossible, or certainly very difficult, to escape? Keeping in mind that this particular escape room is the Earth, the planet of the people. Well, the task in front of The Fantastic Four is worthy of the Marvel superheroes, it’s to save the world. The apocalypse presented in The Possible Worlds is paradoxically cheerful. It doesn’t mock the world but smiles at it. It doesn’t negate the efforts to save it. However, it sorrowfully jokes about hope that it is possible. They make good theatre. Intelligent, discretely funny, and as usual amazingly ensembled with a few incredible solo performances. Everything is choreographically polished and convincing with the creative image. Kana actors smile at us and at themselves. Wry it’s a smile, yet above all it’s a sad one as in its melancholy the sorrow permeates sometimes silly and childish jokes that are presented by them – still young artists from the oldest and the most loyal off theatres in Szczecin. That is why this sad and funny play simply touches. Okay, maybe not everyone but me for sure."
Artur Daniel Liskowacki, Kurier Szczeciński

Awards:

- Nomination for the 2023 Amber Ring Award in category: 'best performance of the season'

The spectacle was created as part of the OFF Poland program organized by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute.