In the new reality, in the place where currently there is an avant-garde theatre scene, a Recreation Centre has been created – one of the places of relaxation and socialization set up thanks to the National Programme of Collective Recreation.

The centre, like all other facilities of this type, meets the desires that accompany every citizen. A need to be left in peace, not engaging in other people’s business, taking care of your own interests and comfort. Staying at the centre helps one forget all that is unpleasant, and find one’s hidden needs.

For an hour we watch a group doing everyday exercises and meditations. There is no mention of a conflict, not even a word about politics. Contact with people with lower or higher earnings are not advisable so as to avoid spoiling one’s good mood. Talk about pay rise or possessions are also a source of embarrassment, guilt, a distraction from bliss – so should be avoided. There is constant tension between the decreed individualism and healthy self-focus – as well as top-down compulsory reactions within a group. Family ties are disappearing – the mother who is dying in another centre is referred to as “my ancestor, I mean the person who gave birth to me”. Buszewicz and Smolar show it in simple, comic-like scenes – amusing variations on the topic of corporate integration or pseudopsychological workshop, in a choreography combining the echoes of tai-chi and more funny performances of the contemporary dance. Philip K. Dick meets Monty Python.

dwutygodnik.com, Witold Mrozek