Unfamiliarity with ancestors, alienation, extreme pessimism, trauma passed on through generations, inherited fear, hiding one’s roots, sense of identity in question, death is omnipresent – these are the main features of the syndrome, described by psychologists and psychiatrists and the main theme of most of the stories whose protagonists are Polish Jews, children and grandchildren of survivors.
Dorota Abbe, an actress with the Teatr Nowy in Poznań, is also a representative of the second generation after the Holocaust.
The second generation Post-Holocaust syndrome is a part of my life, my identity, says Dorota Abbe, but I would like to confront it, ask myself and the viewers questions about identity, memory, whether it is possible to break the cursed circle of inherited traumas. I believe there is hope for us. We are here and now. We don’t close ourselves, we want to talk, we want to know.
The performance is based on stories by Mikołaj Grynberg from the volume Rejwach (“I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To”). The play was made in co-production with the “On the Margin of Society” Foundation and the Martyrological Museum in Żabikowo. The play is in the finals of the Nationwide Competition of Performing Polish Modern Art.
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- Text: Mikołaj Grynberg
- Dramaturgy: Dorota Abbe
- Directed by: Dorota Abbe, Piotr Dąbrowski
- Set design and costumes: Paula Buczyńska
- Music: Krzysztof Kaliski
- Lighting director: Łukasz “Benek” Wieczorek
- Production: Izabella Nowacka, Fundacja Na Marginesie
- Cast: Dorota Abbe, Piotr Dąbrowski, Maciej Zakrzewski
- Off-screen voices: Erna Birnbach, Dorota Abbe
- Live music: Krzysztof Kaliski
The play is co-funded by the local government of Great Poland voivodeship. It received financing from the “Off Poland Project '' from the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatrical Institute in Warszawa. The project has been realized thanks to funds from the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport. The project was carried out in cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung.
This project was selected through the Open Call track, which was made possible thanks to the support of the Jewish Humanitarian Fund.
