Damned Strong Love

Teatr im. Wilama Horzycy (Toruń, Poland)

Friday, 2.06.2023 | at 7.30pm

Teatr Horzycy (small stage), Pl.Teatralny 1

tickets prices:

normal 60 zł

reduced 50 zł

earphones: English

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Damned Strong Love by Lutz van Dijk tells us a true tragic love story set in Toruń. A young boy, earning extra money by singing at German performances given in today’s Horzyca Theatre, falls in love with a Wehrmacht officer. As far as we know today, he is the only Pole convicted under Section 175, penalizing homosexuality, who has told his story. Damned Strong Love is a story that changes the lives of the lovers forever. It is a moving testimony of the struggle for the right to a feeling which is treated as a crime. It is a story about discovering your identity and about being afraid to talk about who you are. Teofil Kosiński, the main character of Damned Strong Love, dreamt that “people in all countries of the world would finally understand that punishing love and tolerating violence is always a crime.” What
kind of world would he see today?

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Play script after the book Damned Strong Love. The True Story of Willi G. and Stefan K. by Lutz van Dijk

directed by: Aleksandra Jakubczak

play script: Krzysztof Szekalski

costume and set design: Jana Łączyńska

music: Bartosz Dziadosz

video: Wojciech Sobolewski

lights: Jędrzej Jęcikowski

performers:
Matylda Podfilipska,
Wojciech Jaworski,
Maciej Raniszewski / Łukasz Ignasiński
Błażej Stencel (guest appearance),
Bartosz Woźny (guest appearance) / Borys Jaźnicki (guest appearance)

assistant director: Wojciech Jaworski

stage manager: Iza Smużny

photo: Wojtek Szabelski

running time: 1h 30 (no intreval)

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review:

The Toruń theatre company has put on a performance that is simple, bold and upto-date. With her distinct political stance, the director is also capable of using much subtler means, showing the viewers a beautiful love story, the cruelty of war and the bitterness of old age filled with fear and courage. It is a damn important show.

Katarzyna Niedurny, krytykapolityczna.pl

It is good that the Horzyca Theatre has reached for the memoirs of the only Pole with a ‘pink triangle’ (this is how homosexuals were marked in Nazi camps and prisons), who publicly shared his war experiences. On the centenary the Polish theatre opened in Toruń, it is worth recalling a story showing how strong a presence did theatre have in the lives of the people of Toruń. Reaching for The Damned Strong Love however is a significant choice primarily because of today’s reality, in which people belonging to sexual minorities have become pawns in the hands of cynical political players who manipulate the growing aversion to them.
Mirosława Kruczkiewicz-Siebers, news.com.pl