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Professor Inkblot's Academy (Akademia Pana Kleksa)
Production
Written during WW2, Professor Inkblot's Academy has raised generations of children, however, it still has a lot of secrets waiting to be revealed. Shiny colourful pieces of glass, freckles that change owners, a talking starling prince, carefree journeys from one fairy tale to another, even to dog paradise! Still, all this magic hides a story of difficult memories. Food inflated with a magic pump does not entirely satisfy hunger and the thin line between fairy-tale reality and a disturbing dream starts disappearing.
According to Jan Brzechwa, ‘the way to Professor Inkblot's secrets is only through the chimney’. However, we will use the theatre in an attempt to reveal them. The classic story of Mr. Blot read anew, Jan Brzechwa’s poetry, experiences of the actors and actresses of the Jewish Theatre and, last but not least, the songs: all this will take the audience on an unusual journey to a place where childhood meets adulthood, fairy tales meet memories, laughter meets melancholy, and where a child and an adult experience joy and loss together. It is worth coming back to this place to discover it a fresh.
Performance for an audience over 10 years old
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“Professor Inkblot's Academy” has raised generations of children, however, it still has a lot of secrets waiting to be revealed. While coming back to it, we wish to examine once again not just that specific fairy tale, but fairy tale as a genre. Is the role of fairy tales to protect us from the world or rather help us become familiar with what is not entirely fairy-tale-like in this world? Can a fairy tale lie or only sugarcoat the truth? Why does Andersen forbid the boys in Brzechwa’s tale to feel sorry for the Little Match Girl? Why do the children still feel hungry even though they have eaten the food inflated be means of a pump?
The Jewish Theatre is a special place to examine one again the hidden meanings in “Professor Inkblot's Academy”. Superb essayists, like Piotr Paziński or Adam Lipszyc, have recently made their attempts to do so as well and drawn our attention to the gloomy warlike or mythical dimension of Brzechwa’s fairy tale, written during WW2 by the Varsovian Jew. We leave the colourful films directed in the 80s by Krzysztof Gradowski behind. We do not want to replicate them on stage, even though our team member, Ryszard Kluge, appeared in the series on screen. Today he plays the role of Filip the Barber.
It does not mean, however, that the play lacks the fun and fantasy. The actors of the Jewish Theatre, with their superb musical, pantomimic and comic skills, allow us to enter the enchanted world anew and examine closely the things that are alluring and disturbing at the same time. Brzechwa’s poetry, experiences of the actors and actresses of the Jewish Theatre and, last but not least, the songs: all this will take the audience on an unusual journey to a place where childhood meets adulthood, fairy tales meet memories, laughter meets melancholy, and where a child and an adult experience joy and loss together. It is worth coming back to this place to discover it a fresh. Feel invited to a meeting that we all need these days.
Michał Buszewicz, director and author of the adaptation
Witold Mrozek, playwright cooperating in the creation of the play