Cast

Inga

Chmurzyńska

Jan

Dravnel

Monika

Frajczyk

covering for Monika Frajczyk on September 18–20

Natalia

Kalita

Damian

Sosnowski

Filip Zaręba

About performance

The creators of WHAM BAM have chosen to do just that: they’re setting off. They are excited! They feel goosebumps! But on the inside, they are thinking: “holy shit,” “let me be.” A crisis. But easy does it. Keep moving. The world, broken into splinters and shards, will not put itself back together on its own. Not on its own, no, but we’re starting on this journey together. What shall we find at the end? A forest, perhaps? Or just your every-morning pour-over. No one knows just yet. Let’s go.

All this here is a tale of the road. And also, of people and non-people who want and who rush

Creators

About the creators

Krzysztof Zygucki

A lawyer by profession. A waiter out of passion for money and food. A philosopher and cyclist for life. Runs a lot. Sometimes swims. When he stops, he drinks espresso. Leans towards pretentiousness and shows a poor sense of humour.

He is a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Directing and Dramaturgy at AST Kraków. He graduated in law from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and in philosophy from the Pedagogical University in Kraków.  He assisted Remigiusz Bryk in the play Chłopi at Teatr Ludowy in Kraków, and Michał Zadar in his graduation performance Oresteia at AST Kraków. A member of the Synergie collective and the AST Dramaturgy Lab. Winner of the Debiut TR award and the WyspianKiss award at the 13^th Forum of Young Directors. His works have been presented at the Divine Comedy Festival (Ha ha ha) and the Klasyka Żywa Festival (Ah ci Persowie). Author of the script for Pół żarciem pół serio (AST Kraków) and Poza zero czyli jak pokochałem bombę (Teatr Barakah, Kraków).

Wera Makowskx

Wera Makowskx graduated from the Faculty of Directing and Dramaturgy at AST Kraków. She made her debut with Ludowa historia Polski at New Theatre, Łódź, for which she created the script and dramaturgy (the script was later published in the Dialog magazine). She was a semi-finalist for the Gdynia Drama Award. She directed the plays Sweet & Romantic (TR Warszawa) based on Paul Preciado’s Testo Junkie, ONO-1 (eatr im. Jana Kochanowskiego w Opolu), Inferno (Festiwal Nowe Epifanie), Ciało (Sopot Non Fiction), Poza Zero (Teatr Barakah) based on Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove and Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow. She is the dramaturge and author of Ha ha ha’ and Limit Frequency. Together with second and fourth-year students of AST Krakow, she produced Wielopole, Wielopole’ in an abandoned café during the strict lockdown. She loves sitcoms, console games, picking mushrooms, a simple life and peace and quiet.

About the author of Two Motion Novels

Mateusz Górniak (born 1996 in Silesia) is an author, playwright and film critic. His debut novel, Trash Story (Ha!art, 2022) made him a finalist for the NIKE Award and was shortlisted for the Conrad Award and Gdynia Literary Award. His 2023 Dwie powieści ruchu earned him a nomination for the Gdynia Literary Award. He is also a two-time winner of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Award. As a dramaturge, he has worked at various theatres, including Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz, Contemporary Theatre in Szczecin, and Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, where, during his artistic residency in the 2023/24 season, he created Adaptacja Jutuba and collaborated on the play Elizabeth Costello directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. His short stories and essays have been published in various magazines, including KINO, Mały Format, Dialog Puzyny, Mint Magazine, Dwutygodnik and Stoner Polski, the latter of which he was a long-time editor.

Reviews

• t is impossible not to notice that „Trzask Prask” is a performance deeply rooted in the reality of Polish millennials. The “two novels of movement” are, after all, “narratives about people pushed by capitalism to the margins of the affluent world.” Zygucki does not shy away from this socio-political background, yet neither does he overemphasize it. […]
  „Trzask Prask” is a performance about crisis as a driving force. At a time when institutional theatre often loses its way between commercial accessibility and artistic ambition, Zygucki’s production sounds like the voice of a generation that has no time for compromise.

  Agnieszka Sielańczyk, „KMAG”

• The way Filip Zaręba portrays a person struggling with depression must be called beautiful. […]
  
  It is therefore a good thing that the repertoire of TR Warszawa now includes a performance for those who are no longer teenagers, but do not yet feel fully adult. For those who live in a state of restlessness – between adolescence and maturity; between the desire for change and the fear of it. One can only hope that the performance will attract precisely this kind of audience. After all, coming-of-age films are enjoyed by viewers of all ages – perhaps theatre has the same opportunity as well?

  Adrianna Wolińska, „Dwutygodnik”

• „Trzask Prask” is also, in part, about being able to recognize moments worth holding on to amid constant movement and change. About finding the courage to embrace stability as well — a relationship, an emotion, a connection. So that a life opportunity does not come along only to “call and say that it’s gone.” Because when you are constantly on the move, it is impossible to truly hold on to anything. That is why, as Jan Dravnel puts it, it is worth “always doing it, because if you don’t do it, you’ll never know.” Prask. And that’s that.

  Marek Zajdler, „Nasz Teatr”

• „Trzask Prask” is more than a love story. […] There is flair and momentum in this performance, but also an openness to emotion. The creators consciously draw on pop-cultural clichés. Admit it — you, too, would like to get into a car and drive to the edge of a forest, experiencing cinematic adventures along the way.

  Dominik Gac, „Teatr Pismo”

• The project would not be nearly as compelling without the outstanding performances of the TR Warszawa ensemble, whose work convincingly captures the generational sense of disorientation, emotional instability, and uncertainty experienced by people searching for solutions to their problems and in need of support and help. Inga Chmurzyńska, Jan Dravnel, Monika Frajczyk, Damian Sosnowski, and Filip Zaręba clearly understand the material and successfully support the director, Krzysztof Zygucki, who has handled the difficult and painful realities of contemporary life faced by young people with remarkable skill. And when viewed more broadly, not only young people. For it seems that, when in crisis, it is all too easy to break with one’s existing life — *trzask prask*, and it is all over. In reality, however, it is an instinctive impulse, a desperate reaction, a decision whose consequences cannot be foreseen. A desire for change. A will to survive.

  Ewa Bąk, „Okiem Widza”

• Ultimately, the performance is a journey through the world of young people, and its reception will depend on the stage of life at which the viewer finds themselves. For some, „Trzask Prask” will be a mirror; for others, an oddity.
  

  Maria Sławińska

Subsidized by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund.

Programme name: Edukacja artystyczna

Project title: Przepływ

Date of contract signing: 29 July 2025

Amount of funding granted: 81,000

Total project value: 220,935.19