Teresa & Andrzej Welminski, The Comet, The Print Room

Vaudeville, physical comedy, puppets and no small measure of surrealist stagecraft combine in The Comet, which has its UK premiere at the Print Room at the Coronet in March.

The acclaimed Polish duo Teresa and Andrzej Welminski sought inspiration in the works of Bruno Schulz, one of the great Polish-language writers of the 20th century, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1942, but whose influence transcends geography and times. Among the contemporary writers whose works reference or draw on Bruno Schulz are Robert Bolaño, China Miéville and Jonathan Safran Foer.

The plot of The Comet centres on the news that a fatal comet is about to hit the earth. Rather than panicking, though, the townspeople treat the upcoming catastrophe as a cause for excited festivities.

Only one man, newcomer Uncle Edward, is prepared to sound the alarm…

A zany, absurd, yet terrifying theatre production, The Comet is an impressionist portrait of the author, as well as a cutting commentary on our times.

The Comet is performed in English and Polish with English surtitles, and is a tie in with the 16th Kinoteka Film Festival in London.

There will be a pre-show screening of the Quay Brothers animated short film Street of Crocodiles, based on a Bruno Schulz short story (which, incidentally, formed the basis for Jonathan Safran Foer’s collage text, Tree of Codes).