Nothing Twice

Cezary Tomaszewski is a director, choreographer and performer. He works for drama, musical and opera theatres. As a child, he sang in the choir at the Grand Theatre; he graduated from music school, studied Theatre Studies at the Warsaw Theatre Academy and dance at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, and then spent several years working with artists associated with Tanzquartier in Vienna. Upon his return to Poland, he joined Capella Cracoviensis, with whom he staged several musical performances in unusual settings – Monteverdi’s madrigals in a milk bar in Kraków’s Old Town with singers dressed as pierogi (‘Bar.okowa uczta’ was recently revived 14 years after its premiere), Mendelssohn’s song cycle “Lieder im Freien zu singen” in the form of a walk through Wolski Forest (“Naturzyści”), and he adapted Mozart’s “Requiem” into a karaoke format. 
He made his debut in serious theatre in 2015 with Wyspiański’s “Wesele” (“Wesele na podstawie Wesela”, Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole). From his very first production, it was clear that the artist does not simply adapt the classics, but reworks them in his own way. Grotesque, absurd humour, surrealism, and the clash of so-called high art with pop culture are the hallmarks of Tomaszewski’s style.
“In my work, I mix different musical styles, themes and genres not only to prove that each of them is interesting and significant, but also as an expression of rebellion against the elitism of art. “In defiance of the snobbery that dictates what is good and what is bad, and for whom,” he told Marcin Miętus in 2024 in an interview for *Teatr*.
In 2017, at the Komuna Warszawa Theatre, as part of a series dedicated to war, he staged the play “Cezary Goes to War”, which earned him a nomination for the “POLITYKA” Passports and nationwide acclaim. In 2025, it was adapted for Teatr Telewizji, and the monthly magazine “Teatr” ranked it among the most important productions of the last 25 years. In it, the artist tackled the themes of masculinity and patriotism, combining Moniuszko’s patriotic songs with his personal experience of being rejected by the military commission.
In the interview mentioned above, he explains: “Some people do indeed think I’m a bit mad when they hear my ideas for a particular production. Besides, I don’t like literalism, so I prefer to construct theatrical works in a non-autological way. That’s why I don’t go to church – I don’t like it when someone preaches to me from the pulpit. I’m also not interested in theatre that tells me what’s right and what’s wrong, reducing me to one group or another. I don’t like talking about sadness in a sad way. Life isn’t like that; it’s more like a fart in a church. That’s the strange paradox of it.”