Fredydurke: I went, I watched, I enjoyed!

On Friday the 16^th of February I invited Dan to see ‘Ferdydurke’, one of the forgotten treasures of 20th century literature. The play is based on Witold Gombrowicz’s first novel, a satirical work and cult classic (what the teachers and cultured people say). I remember that I never finished reading the book, even when it was obligatory at the high school. It is slightly too fiddle-fuddle, too surrealistic and probably requires a ‘mature reader’ who I am not. Anyway, it was brought to London by famous ‘Provisorium’ theatre from Lublin. This theatre group won many international awards including Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival so I took the risk (only £11 per ticket) and challenged Dan with Polish Culture of a high calibre. Noteworthy mentioning that combination of Polish and culture is often very difficult to digest for Western Europeans (curiously they have no problems with digesting any amounts of kabanosy). I must say that it was fun, I still do not understand it very well, but ‘Provisorium’ made a great performance of it.

Dan was a bit shocked at the beginning, he probably thought ‘why people are still coming with such ideas, it’s not revolutionary any more’ but when I clarified that ‘Ferdydurke’ was written in 1937 he had much more appreciation for it. Probably an opera again next time...