People called them “traitresses of the nation,” “collaborators,” “renegades.” They were guilty of intimate relations with German soldiers during World War II. Actresses, singers, stars of the silver screen and cabaret artists. Did they really deserve the infamy and punishment meted out by the resistance? What were their motivations? Do we have the moral right to judge them today?

The performance by director Jędrzej Piaskowski and playwright Magda Fertacz investigates the problems of betrayal and collaboration from the perspective of personal memory. One of their inspirations was the authentic story of Maria Malicka, an outstanding pre-war actress with her own stage at 8 Marszałkowska Street. Accused of collaboration with Germans during the occupation, the artist was banned from performing in Warsaw after the war.

The script was also inspired by the character of Arletta (real name Leonie Bathiat), a famous French film and theatre actress in the 1930s and 1940s, who maintained close relationships with Germans and was subsequently sentenced to prison. Later, however, she continued her career as a star of national renown. Another concept was the story of the Deutsches Filmtheater, which operated in the building of Teatr Rozmaitości during the occupation, as well as Mon Café, a popular meeting place for Warsaw’s gay community, situated in Aleje Jerozolimskie before and during the war.

By constructing a theatrical fantasy about wartime stories, the creators raise a number of questions about the stigmatisation, punishment and judgment of people who, for various reasons, evaded heroism and the duty to fight and sacrifice their life for their country. How are historic memory and the moral judgment of past attitudes constructed? What are the limits of interpreting and imagining history which involves trauma and heroism? How do you heal collective memory?