Opening Night: 17 September 2011
Author: Juliusz Słowacki
Title: The Cause according to "Samuel Zborowski" by Juliusz Słowacki
Original Title: Samuel Zborowski
Director: Jerzy Jarocki

Auditorium: Wierzbowa Street Hall

The Cause

author of the script and director: Jerzy Jarocki
set design: Andrzej Witkowski
lighting design: Mirosław Poznański
music: Stanisław Radwan
choreography: Jarosław Staniek
video: Barbara Sieroslawski

 

Awards and Nominations:

2012 – The Warsaw Felix award in "the best theatre director" category to Jerzy Jarocki for direction of The Cause (a prize awarded posthumously)
2012 – The Warsaw Felix award in "the best male leading role" category to Mariusz Bonaszewski for the roles of Lucifer / Bukary / Advocate
2012 – The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Award for the best actor to Mariusz Bonaszewski for the roles of Lucifer / Bukary / Advocate
2012 – nomination for the Warsaw Felix award in "the best female leading role" category for Dominika Kluźniak for the roles of Eolion / Helion / I

Cast:

Four leading spirits:

Lucifer / Bukary / Advocate Mariusz Bonaszewski
Samuel Zborowski Waldemar Kownacki
Prince / Chancellor Jan Zamoyski Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Eolion / Helion / I Dominika Kluźniak

ACT I

Scene 1, Eolion's Dreams

Eolion Dominika Kluźniak
Prince Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Doctor Adrian Wiśniewski (guest actor) 
Theologist Jerzy Łapiński
Sage Jacek Różański
Women's Choir Ewa Konstancja Bułhak, Ewa Decówna (guest actress), Anna Gryszkówna / Joanna Kwiatkowska-Zduń (from September 21, 2012), Kinga Ilgner, Milena Suszyńska, Anna Ułas

Scene 2, Eolion and the Fisherman's Daughter

Eolion Dominika Kluźniak
Fisherman's Daughter Milena Suszyńska

Scene 3, Under the Cascade

Prince Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Lucifer Mariusz Bonaszewski
Fisherman's Daughter Milena Suszyńska
Eolion Dominika Kluźniak

Scene 4, In the Prince's Castle

Bishop Jacek Mikołajczak
Bukary Mariusz Bonaszewski
Helion Dominika Kluźniak
Prince / Chancellor Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Theologist Jerzy Łapiński
Logician Karol Pocheć
Choir of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God Jerzy Łapiński, Karol Pocheć, Kamil Przystał (guest actor) / Klaudiusz Kaufmann (from February 23, 2013; guest actor), Jacek Różański, Mateusz Rusin, Adrian Wiśniewski (guest actor)

ACT II

Scene 1, At the Amphitrite Club

Amphitrite Ewa Decówna (guest actress) 
Oceanids Ewa Konstancja Bułhak, Anna Gryszkówna / Joanna Kwiatkowska-Zduń (from September 21, 2012) Kinga Ilgner, Anna Ułas
Heliana Milena Suszyńska
Lucifer Mariusz Bonaszewski
Commentator (off voice) Jan Englert

Scene 2, In the Cemetery

Samuel Waldemar Kownacki
Chancellor Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Priest Jacek Mikołajczak
Lucifer Mariusz Bonaszewski
Haunted Woman Anna Gryszkówna / Joanna Kwiatkowska-Zduń (from September 21, 2012)
Women's Choir Ewa Konstancja Bułhak, Ewa Decówna (guest actress), Kinga Ilgner, Milena Suszyńska, Anna Ułas
Faithfuls in front of the chapel Jerzy Łapiński, Karol Pocheć, Kamil Przystał (guest actor) / Klaudiusz Kaufmann (from February 23, 2013; guest actor), Jacek Różański, Mateusz Rusin, Adrian Wiśniewski (guest actor)

ACT III

Lucifer / Bukary / Advocate Mariusz Bonaszewski
Samuel Waldemar Kownacki
Chancellor Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
I Dominika Kluźniak
Pluto Jacek Różański
Various spirits Ewa Decówna (guest actress), Anna Gryszkówna / Joanna Kwiatkowska-Zduń (from September 21, 2012), Kinga Ilgner, Dominika Kluźniak, Milena Suszyńska
Valkyria I Ewa Konstancja Bułhak
Valkyria II Anna Ułas
Caretaker I Karol Pocheć
Caretaker II Adrian Wiśniewski (guest actor) 
Archangel Mateusz Rusin
Christ Kamil Przystał (guest actor)

Production team:

  • director's assistant: Anna Turowiec
  • assistant director trainee: Tomasz Szczepanek
  • set designer's assistants: Elwira Szyszka, Anita Trzaskowska
  • lighting technicians: Adam Kalka, Dariusz Wieczorek
  • sound technicians: Marcin Kotwa, Maciej Rybicki
  • video production: Mariusz Chałubek, Paweł Woźniak
  • stage manager: Adam Borkowski
  • prompter: Alina Wieczorkówna
  •  

Gallery:

Karol Pocheć (Logician), Mariusz Bonaszewski (Lucifer / Bukary / Advocate), Jerzy Łapiński (Theologist). Phot. Stefan Okołowicz

  • HEAVEN AND HELL

    Although Maria Wojtyszko's play touches upon the painful subject of losing loved ones, Jakub Krofta's deft staging provides light entertainment for the whole family. Premiere: 22 February 2025

  • OTHER DELIGHTS

    This adaptation of the novel Other Delights is the second staging of one of Jerzy Pilch's works at the National Theatre, following The Holy Father's Skis.  

  • FAUST

    Faust is a story based on an ancient legend of a scholar who yearns so much for just a moment of happiness that he makes a pact with the devil. 

  • FEBLIK

    Małgorzata Maciejewska's surprising drama received the Tadeusz Różewicz Drama Award in 2022, the competition's first year. The show is directed by Lena Frankiewicz. 

  • A DREAM PLAY

    After the well-received Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Sławomir Narloch returned to the National Theatre with another premiere – A Dream Play by Strindberg.

     

  • KING LEAR

    King Lear may be Shakespeare's boldest examination of human nature. Jan Englert will play the title role in the National Theatre's production.

  • WAITING FOR GODOT

    "What do we do now? Wait. [...] We're waiting for Godot". Piotr Cieplak directs Waiting for Godot by Beckett. Is this a classic yet? Does it still have its avant-garde power?

  • FREDRO: THE JUBILEE YEAR

    To celebrate 230 years since Aleksander Fredro's birth, the National Theatre invites you to an evening dedicated to the life and works of Poland’s greatest comedy writer. 

  • TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS

    Małgorzata Bogajewska directs for the second time at the National Theatre. This time she draws on Ödön von Horváth's 1931 drama.

  • THE THEATRE MAKER

    The play by Thomas Bernhard, one of the most outstanding playwrights of the second half of the 20th century. In the title role – Jerzy Radziwiłowicz. 

  • ALICE'S WONDERLAND

    Have you ever quarreled with the Time or visited a forest where things have no names? Alice’s Wonderland is a musical performance based on the famous novel by Lewis Carroll. 

  • THE MISANTHROPE

    Jan Englert stages a classic play by Molière. What is Alcest's misanthropy: an uncompromising commitment to the truth or a doomed uprising against social conventions?

  • THE BOOKS OF JACOB

    In the middle of the 18th century Jacob Frank proclaimed the new principles of the Jewish faith. This is a staging of the most important novel by Polish Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. 

  • THE DECALOGUE

    A meditation upon the moral foundations of the present – an iconic work of Polish cinema, rethought thirty-five years after its creation by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. 

  • MARY STUART

    Grzegorz Wiśniewski returns to the classic drama about human passions interwoven in a ruthless machinery of history and intrigue.

  • MÜNCHHAUSEN FOR ADULTS

    Baron von Münchhausen lived in the 18th century and told incredible stories about himself. Maciej Wojtyszko directs his own play about the famous adventurer and mystifier.

  • Solidarity with Ukraine | Солідарні з Україною

    The ensemble of the National Theatre stands in solidarity with the Ukrainians who are fighting for the independence of their homeland.

  • PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

    1900. On a hot, stormy day, Mrs Appleyard's boarding school residents go on a picnic near Hanging Rock. The new theatrical version of the Australian prose classics. 

  • SNAKE SKIN

    Artur Urbański directs his own play which main character is Ruth Berlau, one of Bertolt Brecht's closest associates and life companions.

  • AUTUMN SONATA

    A story about the need for love and acceptance, about an inherited emotional coldness, about the psychological costs of creativity. A theatrical version of a film script by Ingmar Bergman. 

  • MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS

    A performance about the need to experience something that surpasses us. In the title role of the prioress – Małgorzata Kożuchowska. 

  • HEDDA GABLER

    Hedda Gabler – work by Henrik Ibsen, a master of psychological realism – in stage interpretation of director Kuba Kowalski is a poetic performance.


  • HOW TO BE LOVED

    This is the performance about love and moral responsibility for another person as well as the mechanisms controlling human memory. The dramatisation of the story by Kazimierz Brandys.


  • LUNGS

    Briliant, full of humour and touching love story of a young couple. Breakups and comebacks, passion and sex, the first important decisions and the search for meaning in a complex, modern world.


  • UHLANS

    The Museum of All-Time Polish Uhlans. Exhibits of the national exacerbation. A serious comedy in three acts about the entanglement in myths of Polishness. 


  • THE IMAGE MAKERS

    The truth about the essence of creation and responsibility in art. Director Viktor Sjöström is working on the film The Phantom Carriage, based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf. 

  • FOREFATHER'S EVE

    Mickiewicz's poetic drama interpreted by Lithuanian Master Eimuntas Nekrošius — theatre visionary known for his unique theatrical language.


  • KORDIAN

    The Polish nation's tragic choice: to die heroically in the name of a noble idea or live a life "making shoes for dogs"? — the alternative presented to Kordian in two parables.

  • FLEA THE SWINDLER

    Tremendous fun and great laughs – not just for kids. The antics of the Flea are directed by Anna Seniuk with the music composed by Maciej Małecki.


By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies. You can adjust cookies settings via your internet browser. Review our cookies policy here.

You can adjust your cookies settings below:

  Allow storing advertising data.

  Allow storing user data.

  Allow personalized ads.

  Allow storing analytical data.