Dybbuk

Inner demons are the focus of Polish powerhouse TR Warszawa’s double bill at the International Festival this year, incarnated as mental illness in 4.48 Psychosis and as a parasitic ancestral spirit in Dybbuk. Both plays are driven by great attention to style, and an effervescent Magdalena Cielecka links the two productions, playing a possessed and tormented bride-to-be in Dybbuk and a troubled depressive on the brink of suicide in 4.48 Psychosis.

If David Lynch were given the reins for Macbeth, he might come up with a product similar in tone to Dybbuk. What is essentially a theological meditation on our passions, drawn out through two parallel stories of a Polish bride and an American academic accepting their dybbuks, is a harshly solemn affair.

Muted discussions segue capriciously into enigmatic visual metaphors that rely too heavily on our familiarity with the source materials (Szymon Anski’s 1914 play and a modern short story by Hannah Krall, both of the same title), and unannounced insertions of back story segments confuse the play's timescale. There is little movement in terms of plot, and engaging with the lacklustre, jargon-heavy conversations requires significant mental stamina, especially for the non Polish among us who must constantly divert our attention from the action to read the supertitle translations.

This is an incredibly difficult and draining play that thrives on sombre tones and torments those unaccustomed to Jewish folklore and the Polish language.