Wojtek Ziemilski won renown thanks to the lecture-performance titled “Small Narration” telling the story of his grandfather, Wojciech Dzieduszycki, and the controversy surrounding the disclosure of his cooperation with the Security Service (i.e. Secret Police) by the Institute of National Remembrance. “Ode to Joy” is the third, after “Small Narration” (2010) and “Come Together” (2017) play by Ziemilski in Studio Theatre. This acclaimed director, author and creator of performative installations in which conceptual thinking, reflection on language, community and stage fiction play a critical role, in his latest play returns to the subject of legacy and heritage.

I have a cousin. Her name is Anna Dzieduszycka. She is a distant cousin and I don’t know her well. Supposedly she visited with us when I was small. Anna is an actress – she played in several productions on Polish stages (including Powszechny Theatre), and for her role in the short film “Dress” (2020) she was awarded as the best actress at the Rhode Island Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Oscar.

I remember her parents: the father is a religious traditionalist, and the mother – an atheist and rationalist.

Describing all that I’m thinking about the problem I have been facing for a long time: it’s legacy. Inheriting objects, noses, hands, features, values. It’s the problem of noble faces and behaviours, good and bad homes.

I’d like Anna to talk to me about that.

Anna is a person of short stature. Although she hates this term. She calls herself a midget woman.

It will be a play about what connects us, what we get as inheritance, from what we liberate ourselves, and what remains within us. About models – of beauty, behaviour, “personal culture”. About building our world.

In her story, Anna will be accompanied by three actors from Studio Theatre.

All four of them underwent detailed genetic testing, especially for this production.