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was different – architecturally and his-
torically. He began his work at the thea-
tre which was located in a building built
by the German bourgeois back in 1842
and which had operated and staged plays
for over 100 years until the end of the
Third Reich. For nearly fifty years, the
theatre reflected Legnica’s name as “Lit-
tle Moscow” – between 1946 and 1964
the building headquartered the Russian
Drama Theatre of the Northern Troops
Division. Finally in 1977 the theatre reo-
pened as the Polish Drama Theatre and
later evolved into today’s Modjeska The-
atre. Głomb used this stormy, complicat-
ed and deeply broken history into a the-
atrical play that he has prepared for the
commemoration of the 40 years of the
Polish drama stage at Modjeska Theatre.The play in question is an adaptation
of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s psychological
novel Demons. Its plot is set in a provin-
cial town and presents the 19th century
Russian revolutionaries with their atti-
tudes and positions. Dostoyevsky’s workwas an inspiration to the theatre artists
in Legnica not only because of its brutal
presentation of Russian politicians and
social thinking of the time, but also –
even more importantly – because of its
timeless warning against evil charmed
in the manipulations of querulous indi-
viduals and uncompromising carriers of
the idea of happiness all as well as the
prophetical announcement of 20th cen-
tury nightmares.
“From Dostoyevsky’s polyphonic nov-
el we have picked the part of the plot
focused on Pyotr Verkhovensky (his
character was inspired by the revolu-
tionary Sergey Nechayev, the founder
of a secret terrorist organisation called
the People’s Reprisal Society, who pur-
posefully arranged the killing of one of
the organisation’s members only to re-
inforce it by blood). Here comes a man
from the metropolis who drags naïve
rural people into a conspiracy and whose
consequences they will all have to face.
The second motif, which attracted us to
this novel, is the mechanism of gossip.
But also the reality in which everyone
listens to everyone. In our adaptation of
Demons we present the plot without re-
lation to a specific time. We do not want
to have a performance with costumes,
objects and traditions of 19th century
Russia,” Głomb explains.
Even though Demons is the first ad-
aptation of a Dostoyevsky piece in the
Legnica theatre, it is one of the many
plays in which local artists find inspira-
tion from Russian motifs or artists. This
“eastern” direction was initiated in 2002Even though Demons is the first
adaptation of a Dostoyevsky
piece in Legnica, it is one
of the many plays in which
local artists find inspiration
from Russian motifs.Eastern Café Legnica with a view to Russia, Grzegorz Żurawiński