Witold Gombrowicz: Ferdydurke

"When I lead you behind the scenes of my being, I will force myself to retreat even deeper."

The situation of an adult man into whose life an authoritative high school professor intrudes, dragging him back into the world of adolescence, embarrassment, awkward intimacy, erotic awakening, compotes and poses. This charming sterility collides with the reality of intellectual snobbery, feigned cultivation and "modernity".

In the jungle of grimaces, pretence and slogans, conditions must be created for one's own authentic expression. Yet these bear elements of intrusive drama - a fly, a cutlet, slippers and a window beyond which lies a deep dark forest. Everything external is deforming. One must face the reality that one cannot become oneself - to be human means to be unnatural. Reality appears in unreality, to which man is condemned.

My clumsy and compromising self, which should have remained hidden, finds its voice in the form of a disharmonious quartet.

This is the first Czech theatrical adaptation of the novel through which Witold Gombrowicz entered the realm of significance.