Performances

Mumerus. Concert

A theatrical meeting of sound, silence, space and the relationships between performers. Susanna Jara, Alicja Margolin and Michał Braszak perform variations and improvisations on works by Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bartók and Grieg, among others. Directed by Wiesław Hołdys.

Napoleon’s Face

Monika Milewska imagines an alternative 1835 in which Napoleon won at Waterloo and still rules France. As the country prepares to celebrate, the emperor faces a different battle: sitting for Louis Daguerre’s camera. The play examines power, image-making and the ownership of one’s own face.

Ghosts of the Atelier — A Romantic Study

Inside a painter’s studio, light can distort faces, music measures time and objects become vehicles of memory. Models, actors and ghostly presences inhabit a space where personal recollections mingle with poses and inherited images. Mumerus invites the audience into this uncertain world without promising easy answers.

Manelle

Inspired by Polish Baroque writing and art, Manelle explores a world of instability, illusion and continual change. Texts by Paweł Symplicjan and other early writers meet masks, movement and music, including Vivaldi. Written and directed for the stage by Wiesław Hołdys; premiered in August 2022.

The Seeds of the God of War

People gather in a waiting room, hoping for better times, love or relief from shattered nerves. Set before, during and after a world war, the performance explores their search for words and gestures with which to endure a changed reality. Fragments of Mahler’s music become distorted along with the world around them.

Godzinki — From Dawn to Dusk

A music-and-dance performance built around songs traditionally sung at particular times of day. Open-throated folk singing, dances associated with warding off evil and Hasidic dance meet poetry by the seventeenth-century writer Jerzy Trzanowski. The action follows the rhythm of a single day.

Prokofiev Died Today

Monika Milewska’s play begins on 5 March 1953, when Sergei Prokofiev and Joseph Stalin died on the same day. Dmitri Shostakovich searches for flowers for Prokofiev’s funeral, but all have been reserved for Stalin. Music, movement and recollections expose the predicament of artists living under totalitarian rule.

Zmora — The Nightmare

A production based on three chapters of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, using Barbara Beaupré’s Polish translation. The Polish production page provides the full description, credits and accompanying material.

A Most Wondrous History — The Rebellion of Fallen Angels

A theatrical encounter with old Polish apocryphal writing and visions of creation, rebellion and infernal law. The script draws on Hieronim Szarfenberg, Cyprian Bazylik and Ianurius Sowirzalius. The outdoor version premiered at Kraków’s Archaeological Museum in July 2018.

These Are Not Doors — A Codicil to Photography

A surreal theatrical world created through bodies, costumes, objects and sound. Directed and designed spatially by Wiesław Hołdys, the production draws on short passages by Bruno Jasieński, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and Jerzy Jankowski. Its Polish page includes production credits, photographs and reviews.

Milan Lessons — Hommage à Tadeusz Kantor

A Polish–French workshop and performance project involving Mumerus, the theatre conservatoire in Lyon and Théâtre des Asphodèles. Inspired by Kantor’s Milan Lessons, participants developed their own collective work around rituals and counter-rituals, including weddings, funerals, greetings and farewells.

The People’s Song

A musical production by Teatr Mumerus and the vocal group Strojone. Rural singing traditions meet urban folklore, street ballads and stories of crime, love and human fate. Songs from different regions and fragments of Mickiewicz’s ballads form a shared world of voices, courtyards and legends.

The Table with Broken Legs

On the table and under the table: dances, games and conversations unfold around an impossible piece of furniture. Inspired by early Polish literature and imagery, the production draws grotesque humour out of encounters with the dead. It received the Marka Radia Kraków award for January 2016.

The Madmen’s Foolish Flour

A dreamlike theatrical journey inspired by Bruno Schulz’s stories and graphic works. Rather than directly adapting a single narrative, the performance builds shifting situations and images: a theatre, a labyrinthine city, living advertisements and a world outside ordinary time. Objects and people continually change their roles.

The Inexhaustible Transformer

Inspired by Bruno Schulz, this production follows a world in perpetual transformation: birds, mannequins, fairground figures, schoolchildren and cyclists emerge from one another. A nearly empty space and very few words make room for the actors’ changing bodies and the audience’s imagination.

Tajemnik

A world of folk beliefs, elusive spirits and unsettling magic, inspired by Bolesław Leśmian’s Polish Tales and Światopełk Karpiński’s Tale of the Iron Wolf. Human longing and fear bring mysterious creatures into everyday life. Written and directed for the stage by Wiesław Hołdys.

A Fair of Wonders

Wandering performers, charlatans, beggars, pilgrims and musicians meet at a fair promising remedies, miracles and protection from evil. Old Polish comic and fool traditions become a theatrical world of songs, spells, puppets and transformations. The production was created in both indoor and outdoor versions.

The Road to the Eighth Square

A journey into a world where time can run backwards and you must run as fast as you can simply to stay in the same place. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, with a passage from Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the performance turns life into a bewildering game of chess.

Ampuć, or the Fantastic Zoology

"Ampuć, or the Fantastic Zoology". Based on the book by Jan Gondowicz about lands belonging to fantastical creatures; itself inspired by the great Argentinian writer, Jorge Louis Borges. The first edition of the book had roughly 133 'beasts', which then increased by around 55 by the time of the book's second edition. The text explores the need for beasts in human story-telling and their role in the realm of human imagination. The book has been adapted for stage and directed by Wiesław Hołdys.

Games and Play — A Theatrical Treasure Hunt

A joint project by Teatr Mumerus in Kraków and Europe et Cies in Lyon, developed through Polish–French theatre workshops. Drawing on Lewis Carroll, it takes performance beyond the stage: the original event moved from Villa Decius through a city bus to Teatr Zależny, inviting the audience to participate.

The Feast of Fools: Carnival and Lent

Inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, this production brings together two opposing yet intertwined rituals. Fairground theatre, masks, live music and the comic tradition of a world turned upside down meet poetry, rhymes and old carnival games.

A Sugar Ration Card

A workshop project culminating in an outdoor performance about official and underground culture in communist Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. Censored writing, party newspapers, songs, satire, leaflets and official reports reveal the clash between two kinds of language.

Dr K. — Hommage à Franz Kafka

A theatrical collage inspired by Kafka’s short works. People and situations undergo constant metamorphosis: an ape becomes human, a person becomes an insect, and everyday rules give way to unsettling rituals. The production combines physical situations, puppetry and dance.

Circuses and Ceremonies

The paintings of Witold Wojtkiewicz become a world of actors, puppets, masks, clowns and dancers. People turn into dolls, ceremonies slide into strange circuses, and familiar places take on a disturbing life. The few spoken words come from the writings of Roman Jaworski.

Laputa & Lagado — Gulliver’s Third Voyage

An adaptation of the third voyage in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, from the flying island of Laputa to the land of the immortals. Mumerus returns to the adult satire often omitted from children’s versions, exploring its grotesque vision of human nature and institutions.

Archive 1

Archiwum spektakli

Jarmark Cudów

OBRAZY - spektakl inspirowany malarstwem

An European Odyssey Homecomers czyli międzynarodowa koprodukcja teatralna z udziałem Mumerusa

MŁODZIEŻOWA ODYSEJA czyli jak profesjonaliści i młodzież z siedmiu teatrów z różnych krajów opowiadało dzieje Odyseusza

IWONA - TRAGICZNA HISTORIA WEDŁUG WITOLDA GOMBROWICZA

THE STARVING POET - Przygody i niepowodzenia młodego Europejczyka z XX wieku

DIABELSKIE GODZINY według FERNANDO PESSOI

U B U według Alfreda Jarry

POMNIK BOHATERA - spektakl uliczny Studia Teatru Mumerus w koprodukcji z studiem Teatro Guirigai z Madrytu

PODRÓŻ NA KSIĘŻYC

" PIEKŁO - NIEBO CZYLI PRZERAŹLIWE ECHO TRĄBY OSTATECZNEJ "

M U M E R U S - Spektakl inspirowany "Nowymi Atenami"

KABARET WYCINKÓW POD WEZWANIEM WUJA ALFREDA

Upcoming performances

Theatre of Fact: A Book of Complaints and Requests

GHOSTS OF THE ATELIER