Seasons review – it’s Ibsen vs Peter Pan in chronicle of actors messing up their lives on and off stage

2026-02-02 - 09:15

Polish director-writer Michal Grzybowski’s film has inspired flashes, but mostly eschews humour for a drearier take on the intertwining of stage and life The play’s the thing in this tepid Polish comedy-drama that catches the conjugal complications of its protagonist. Self-righteous theatre actor Marcin (Łukasz Simlat), is mid-run playing Captain Hook in a production of Peter Pan. His terminally unhappy wife Ola (Agnieszka Duleba-Kasza) announces she is off; then, as their argument spills into the theatre wings where she is playing Tinkerbell, she reveals that she previously slept with someone else. Ziemovit/Peter Pan (Dobromir Dymecki) looks sheepish – before being opportunely hoisted out of reach on wires. A few months down the line, Marcin is essaying Torvald in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House opposite his new love Ewa (Wiktoria Filus) as Nora. But when she falls down a trapdoor, guess who is substituted into the role? The tension is ratcheted up when Marcin and Ola once again find themselves leading the bill as sparring Oberon and Titania, in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on which their company’s future rests. Continue reading...