A TOUGH JOB
(Ostatnia Wola Papy)
UA Teatr Plejada, Krakow 2017
Characters
Bogus – Beekeeper, 48
Bronka – his sister, 45 years old
Christoph Tetzlaf – late forties
Location: Masuria. A small village by the lake.
ACTION
From the publisher's announcement:
Bronislawa and Boguslaw – half-siblings, both around forty. Their father was German. His father was a Polish Jew.
They are fighting for their precarious existence in a dilapidated house in the countryside.
Bronislawa has a dream: she wants to renovate the house so she can attract foreign guests to this beautiful landscape. Her brother, a xenophobic idiot, wants to expand his small beekeeping operation into a large-scale business to escape his financial difficulties.
The two are arguing over the use of the property. Into this dispute, Christoph, a German architect, knocks on their door and reveals that his grandparents are buried in the garden, having been shot by Russian soldiers in front of their house in 1945.
As the executor of his father's last will, he wanted to ask if they would consent to having a proper grave built for his grandparents in the garden. In return, they were offered generous compensation. Boguslaw, who hates everything German, initially spews venom, but is then calmed down by his sister and agrees to the deal because of the money. The exhumation is to begin the next day. However—and this is something only Boguslaw knows—years ago, while clearing the apple trees, he had already found bones and disposed of them in the trash. To still get his hands on the money, Boguslaw is plotting a solution.
That night, he sneaks into the village to get replacement bones, causing a scandal that rocks the entire community. Things spiral out of control, and the nightmarish past between Germans and Poles is explored through witty, artful dialogue and hilariously funny situations.
REVIEWS
Fred Apke has written a gripping story full of emotion, humor, and warmth, which, despite all the comedy, respectfully deals with the wounds of the past. It's so wonderfully darkly humorous, full of black wit, and so fantastically politically incorrect – the comedy "A Hard Job," which celebrated its acclaimed premiere at the Uckermark Stages this past weekend.
(Matthias Bruck, Nordkurier)
The author Apke distributes the polarization of the Polish worldview so wonderfully across his stage characters that it simply has to be a blast.
The play is steeped in dark humor. It is not a playground for superficially sensitive representatives of political correctness.
All the more so for people who want to gain a focus on what's essential. God wants stew, says Rosinski as Christopher at the end. God wants to mix.
Director André Nicke stages the comedy at a fast pace, sometimes breathlessly, but with depth and wonderfully comical effects. A "tough job" works perfectly incorrectly .
(Dietmar Rietz – Märkische Oderzeitung)