Oh Polsko
Joachim Robbrecht/Frascati Productions
Première: Saturday 30 October 2010

A comical drama/documentary on the absurd machinations of people trying to be world citizens, while in reality they are just seasonal workers.

Day ut ia pobrusa a ti poziwai

Joachim Robbrecht hired two Polish seasonal workers for the theatre production Oh Polsko. The pair will work in the Netherlands on the stage adaptation Robbrecht is making of Jean Genet’s classic play The Maids. According to Robbrecht, the pair are tailor-made for the roles. Photos and anecdotes will be used to create an impression of the way in which Poland has transformed in recent years from a poor post-Communist hinterland into a self-confident consumer society.

Robbrecht: “For decades, Poland has been a byword in the West for willingness to do anything for money. The Poles play the serving maids of ‘Madam Western Europe’ in the hope of finally obtaining the rank of Madam themselves. Oh Polsko is a satire on the theatre we ‘Western madams’ play out every day with our Polish maids. Like the Maids in Genet’s play, diving into their Madam’s wardrobe to perform virtuoso impressions of her, Polish seasonal workers dress themselves up in the symbols of wealth. In contrast to their daily humiliations on the lowest rung of the social ladder: scrubbing, picking asparagus, plastering and castrating pigs.”

For Oh Polsko, Joachim Robbrecht is working intensively with photographer Sofie Knijff. Last year, the two of them travelled through the Netherlands and Poland to record the lives and circumstances of Polish workers.

Belgian Joachim Robbrecht is a headstrong, multi-talented writer and director. He graduated from the directing course in Amsterdam in 2006 and received the Ton Lutzprijs for Adam in Ballingschap. For Frascati, he has previously made Regels voor het Paradijs (2005), Van Gogh, leven en werk (2006), IJS (2007), Anne Frank: leeft en werkt (2008) and !V.O.C.! Wijde weelderige wereld