“40-year-old” through the eyes of “Zette”, or how art connects generations [RECENZJA MUSICALU]

“Long before “Succession” or “The Sopranos”, millions of TV viewers were delighted with the Polish series in which a heroic engineer struggled with family and construction problems and traveled through Warsaw in a famous toddler,” announced the Rampa Theater before the anniversary premiere of the musical “The 40-Year-Old” , which took place on the 15th at the Targówek Theater. The audience’s favorites returned, this time to the theater, to let us know that engineer Karwowski has not yet said his last word.

Big surprise

Sitting in the audience, I was fully aware that I would probably be one of the youngest people there. I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t surprised either – after all, it was a show based on a cult TV series from the 1970s that was filmed long before I was born. However, I remember that as a child growing up in the early 2000s, I still had the opportunity to watch “Czterdziestolatka” on one of the leading television stations.

So the fate of the Karwowski family is no stranger to me, but I looked at them from a completely different perspective – it was the perspective of a child born after the political transformation of the 1980s and 1990s. Meanwhile, “The 40-Year-Old” took the audience to the 1970s, a time that was nothing short of they did not resemble the reality we knew. All the problems of the world of that time were shown, from the problems that the main character had with the classic Polish car, the Fiat 126p, through limited access to a telephone (the scene in which Madzia talks to Stefan made me laugh out loud!), to the still relevant in our culture – fear of transience.

The plot, despite being set in time and space, was quite modern. The main character was given a task that millions of people around the world face: how to put on a good show to be heard? Karwowski (played by the fantastic Modest Ruciński) succeeded without a doubt. The modernization of the plot also benefited the heroine, whom viewers loved for her independence and decisiveness. Of course, we are talking about a Working Woman who is not afraid of any work. I must admit that Joanna Drozda was truly amazing in this role. Every time she appeared on stage, I wondered what I would be laughing at this time along with the rest of the audience.

As for the musical part of the show, there were of course the greatest hits of the 1970s from the repertoire of artists who were at the peak of their fame at that time (Maryla Rodowicz, Krzysztof Krawczyk). While watching the performance, my only complaint was the temperature in the audience – it was hard not to take off my jacket as sweat poured from my forehead and emotions ran high during the final part of the performance. However, I tried not to pay attention to such inconveniences, after all, how many times in my life will I have the opportunity to go back to the 1970s?