by Maria Majewska

Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2018 film Cold War is a profound account of Polish identity, cultural homogenisation, politicisation of folklore and the trauma of migration from the Soviet bloc. As a Polish migrant with a deep connection to this story, I was keen to see how this masterful, nuanced film would translate to the stage. Tragically, the Almeida’s production is an insulting missed opportunity. 

A reverential, faithful representation was clearly not the production’s objective, and much has already been said about its exclusion of first-generation Polish migrant actors and creatives. However, lack of representation is not the full extent of the problem. Inevitably, a flat, lifeless play emerges from a core creative team who have no lived experience of the source material, which they disregard to an insulting extent. Due to the story’s serious subject matter the production’s shortcomings are all the more serious. It leaves me wondering why the film was employed as source material at all. 

Set to the backdrop of a folk music ensemble, regional (and later nationalised) Polish folk music is at the heart of the story. In the first act, we are meant to empathise with Irena, an ethnomusicologist outraged by the Soviet appropriation of the folk music she has worked so hard to preserve. Yet the play engages in the very thing it criticises: self-serving erasure of the cultural heritage it should celebrate. 

The play starts with traditional songs clumsily sung in incomprehensible ‘Polish’, revealing a shocking absence of native Polish speakers in the cast. The original music that follows is banal and has virtually no relation to the rich musical heritage that could have inspired it. Why base a play on a film about folklore, only to circumvent it? Translation, adaptation, arrangement, and even original music would not have necessarily hindered the production, were the source material approached with reverence, but this was not the case. 

The production does not grant even the smallest gesture of respect towards Polish culture. I assume the language and music consultants were a tick-box exercise, as their work has no discernible impact. Beyond the inappropriate music, and place and character names being near-constantly mispronounced, the play openly mocks the culture it should honour. It exploits it for cheap laughs, such as when a character suggests that all Polish folk songs are about love, the devil, or singing pigs. It is alienating and patronising for Polish people to see our heritage presented this way. 

The play disregards not only Polish culture but the film itself by failing to explore key themes such as the erasure of diversity within Eastern Europe or the characters’ complex attitude towards migration and their identity. Why base a play on a film about migration only to exclude migrant voices from the creative process, and therefore erase our experience?  Because the creative team lacks the lived experience, cultural knowledge, reverence and humility required for working with this nuanced story, the play retains only its most superficial aspects. It is nothing but an anti-communism love story.

Pawlikowski’s Cold War has limited dialogue masterfully crafted to leave us second-guessing the characters’ interactions. What isn’t being said holds much more weight than what is. In contrast, the play’s dialogue is literal and unimaginative. There  is a failed attempt at adding depth to poorly-written characters by artificially injecting utterly unnecessary backstories. The production misses the point of the film almost entirely, yet doesn’t replace it with anything equally  impactful.

The creative team fail to understand that the events and mentality the film portrays are not merely historical; they impact the lives of Polish people today. They rid this important story of its dignity and exploited our culture, history and collective struggle. If the play refuses to celebrate the source material and the people it represents, what, or who, is being celebrated? 

The issue is not that this production is unfaithful to the source material. There was scope for an original adaptation that used the film’s plot to express something new, perhaps related to current events. However, it is neither faithful nor relevant. 

Migrants deserve better. While this play concerns Polish migrants specifically, the ignorant, arrogant and disrespectful approach is emblematic of the way UK theatres approach ‘foreign’ stories. Creatives of this stature should be more responsible. As audience members, it is generally not easy to notice when productions engage in cultural contempt when the culture in question is not our own. The issues surrounding this production therefore highlight why it is so important to listen to minority voices when they are not allowed a seat at the table, when their stories are told for them. The response of the group being represented should matter, it should not be dismissed in the way that the discourse surrounding this play has been.

Time and again, it seems that the only thing left for migrant creatives to do is create our own work, tell our own stories, represent our own cultures – and, against our better judgement, hope that one day someone will listen.

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