The emigrants

The play “The Emigrants” was published in 1974 and is one of the most famous writings of Sławomir Mrożek. The story takes place on New Year’s Eve, in the basement where two emigrants live: an exiled pseudointellectual and a construction worker. The first wishes to write a book, while the second saves money with the hope of returning home and building his family a house. The main idea of “The Emigrants” is dehumanization. Like a black comedy, the scrip develops within an existential crisis in which the expats lose both the sense of identity, as well as that of humanity.

“The performance is an exercise in revealing a world placed under the tragic of human existence, within the context of contemporary society’s relationships. The performance speaks about man and the human condition, about a world that is a product of poverty, of want and of needs. The fight for existing and surviving wears the strings of a grotesque tragic, which develops between despair and hope, at the meeting between «to be» and «to have».” (Dan Glasu)