Opening Night: 22 November 2025
Author: Tadeusz Miciński
Title: The Polish Thermopylae
Original Title: Termopile polskie
Stage adaptation and direction: Jan Klata

Auditorium: Boguslawski Hall
Running time: 3 hours 10 min inculding one interval

Tickets | more info →

full-price tickets:
zone I: 140 PLN
zone II: 130 PLN
zone III: 110 PLN | since February 1, 2026 – 120 PLN

discount tickets:
zone I: 95 PLN
zone II: 85 PLN
zone III: 75 PLN

rush ticket: 
50 PLN | since February 1, 2026 – 55 PLN

students at state-run art schools: 
15 PLN 

email: 

The Polish Thermopylae

In his first play at the National Theatre, director Jan Klata has opted for Tadeusz Miciński's The Polish Thermopylae. As he announces in his programme notes, it is "a phantasmagoria about the cursed fate […] of our corner of Europe. About Poland, Russia, Ukraine, about the shadow that Fate has cast on successive generations of History's cannon fodder."

But why is this director, known for his bold interpretations of literary classics, returning to this text today? What can we learn from its original creator, a poet of stars and darkness, an author of mystical novels who died in 1918 ? Is History really the teacher of life?

In 1997, at the National Theatre following its rebuild after a fire, Jerzy Grzegorzewski opened his directorship with Stanisław Wyspiański's November Night. It dealt with the tradition of Polish uprisings and the painful dilemma: "To fight or not to fight?" This question is once again raising its ugly head in the "pre-war period" in which we are currently living. How will the National Theatre ensemble, led by Jan Klata, respond?

The premiere of The Polish Thermopylae will take place on November 22, 2025, to mark the 260th anniversary of the National Theatre.

Show recommended for ages 16+.
Please mind: this production contains elements that may cause discomfort: very loud music and sounds (earplugs are available), intense flashing lights, cigarette smoke, gunfire sounds, intense choreography. The performance addresses issues such as physical and sexual violence, torture, war, and death. The play contains profanity in the Russian language.


direction, stage adaptation and musical arrangements: Jan Klata
set and lighting design: Justyna Łagowska
costume design: Mirek Kaczmarek
dramaturgy: Miłosz Markiewicz
choreography: Maćko Prusak
video: Natan Berkowicz
live music: Gruzja / Artur Rumiński – guitar/electronics, Bartosz Lichołap – drums, Patryk Rzeszutek – vocals/synthesizer, Mateusz Maryjka / Kamil Staszałek / Piotr Gruenpeter – bass
director's assistant, prompter: Magdalena Markowska
costume design assistant: Maria Mordarska
vocal preparation: Mariusz Chojecki
stage manager: Krzysztof Kuszczyk

The following musical works were used in the performance: Brutalismus 3000 alleswirdgut, Brutalismus 3000 Europaträume, Gruzja Aleksandria, Gruzja Jeszcze nie mamy na was pomysłu III, Gruzja Kamera Dionizosa, Gruzja Manam, Gruzja Niedostatkiem w piękny rejs, Gruzja Ratyzbona, K Foundation (The KLF) K Cera Cera (War Is Over If You Want It), William Onyeabor Better Change Your Mind, Chris Watson El Tren Fantasma 10 Veracruz.

Cast

and

Marek Burzyński, Jacek Czuba, Rafał Karasiński, Patryk Koch, Waldemar Kowalski, Sławomir Łoszewski, Maciej Łukaszek, Mateusz Mainhart, Stefan Michalski, Krzysztof Nowicki, Dariusz Osiadacz, Roman Rakowski, Michał Suska, Łukasz Szczotkarz, Bartłomiej Szymański, Michał Ulejczyk, Wojciech Wawer, Mansour Zare, Tomasz Zawadzki

 

Production team

  • lighting technicians: Bartłomiej Kaczalski, Krzysztof Łukasz Stefan, Zbigniew Szulim
  •   
  • sound technicians: Hubert Majewski, Mariusz Maszewski, Marek Szymański

     
  • video projections: Mariusz Chałubek, Paweł Woźniak

Licence for this stage production was granted by the Society of Authors – ZAiKS.

Gallery

  • ←
  • →

Anna Grycewicz (Wita), Arkadiusz Pyć (Witold), Paweł Paprocki (Officer). Phot. Karolina Jóźwiak

Plakat TERMOPIL POLSKICH Tadeusza Micińskiego w reż. Jana Klaty, projekt: Bartłomiej Kiełbowicz, opracowanie: Elipsy / Archiwum Artystyczne teatru Narodowego | Wykorzystano przetworzoną wersję plakatu Yoko Ono i Johna Lennona War is Over, CC BY-NC 2.0
Poster design: Bartłomiej Kiełbowicz 
Developed by: Elipsy
Used: a modified version of the Yoko Ono and John Lennon War is Over poster, CC BY-NC 2.0

  • THE POLISH THERMOPYLAE

    In his first play at the National Theatre, director Jan Klata has opted for Tadeusz Miciński's The Polish Thermopylae. 

  • INFINITE JEST

    Premiere staged by Kamil Białaszek. His work intersects with a legend of postmodernism, David Foster Wallace. 

  • CHARLATANS

    “When I’m not acting, life is black and white,” says the heroine of Pablo Remón’s play. Charlatans directed by Grzegorz Małecki 

  • HAMLET

    Jan Englert crowns his twenty-eight seasons of artistic work at the National Theatre with a performance of Hamlet.

  • HEAVEN AND HELL

    Although Maria Wojtyszko's play touches upon the painful subject of losing loved ones, Jakub Krofta's deft staging provides light entertainment for the whole family. 

  • OTHER DELIGHTS

    This adaptation of the novel Other Delights is the second staging of one of Jerzy Pilch's works at the National Theatre, following The Holy Father's Skis.  

  • FAUST

    Faust is a story based on an ancient legend of a scholar who yearns so much for just a moment of happiness that he makes a pact with the devil. 

  • A DREAM PLAY

    After the well-received Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Sławomir Narloch returned to the National Theatre with another premiere – A Dream Play by Strindberg.

     

  • KING LEAR

    King Lear may be Shakespeare's boldest examination of human nature. Jan Englert will play the title role in the National Theatre's production.

  • WAITING FOR GODOT

    "What do we do now? Wait. [...] We're waiting for Godot". Piotr Cieplak directs Waiting for Godot by Beckett. Is this a classic yet? Does it still have its avant-garde power?

  • FREDRO: THE JUBILEE YEAR

    To celebrate 230 years since Aleksander Fredro's birth, the National Theatre invites you to an evening dedicated to the life and works of Poland’s greatest comedy writer. 

  • TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS

    Małgorzata Bogajewska directs for the second time at the National Theatre. This time she draws on Ödön von Horváth's 1931 drama.

  • THE THEATRE MAKER

    The play by Thomas Bernhard, one of the most outstanding playwrights of the second half of the 20th century. In the title role – Jerzy Radziwiłowicz. 

  • ALICE'S WONDERLAND

    Have you ever quarreled with the Time or visited a forest where things have no names? Alice’s Wonderland is a musical performance based on the famous novel by Lewis Carroll. 

  • THE MISANTHROPE

    Jan Englert stages a classic play by Molière. What is Alcest's misanthropy: an uncompromising commitment to the truth or a doomed uprising against social conventions?

  • THE DECALOGUE

    A meditation upon the moral foundations of the present – an iconic work of Polish cinema, rethought thirty-five years after its creation by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. 

  • MARY STUART

    Grzegorz Wiśniewski returns to the classic drama about human passions interwoven in a ruthless machinery of history and intrigue.

  • MÜNCHHAUSEN FOR ADULTS

    Baron von Münchhausen lived in the 18th century and told incredible stories about himself. Maciej Wojtyszko directs his own play about the famous adventurer and mystifier.

  • Solidarity with Ukraine | Солідарні з Україною

    The ensemble of the National Theatre stands in solidarity with the Ukrainians who are fighting for the independence of their homeland.

  • PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

    1900. On a hot, stormy day, Mrs Appleyard's boarding school residents go on a picnic near Hanging Rock. The new theatrical version of the Australian prose classics. 

  • SNAKE SKIN

    Artur Urbański directs his own play which main character is Ruth Berlau, one of Bertolt Brecht's closest associates and life companions.

  • AUTUMN SONATA

    A story about the need for love and acceptance, about an inherited emotional coldness, about the psychological costs of creativity. A theatrical version of a film script by Ingmar Bergman. 

  • MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS

    A performance about the need to experience something that surpasses us. In the title role of the prioress – Małgorzata Kożuchowska. 

  • HOW TO BE LOVED

    This is the performance about love and moral responsibility for another person as well as the mechanisms controlling human memory. The dramatisation of the story by Kazimierz Brandys.


  • LUNGS

    Briliant, full of humour and touching love story of a young couple. Breakups and comebacks, passion and sex, the first important decisions and the search for meaning in a complex, modern world.


  • UHLANS

    The Museum of All-Time Polish Uhlans. Exhibits of the national exacerbation. A serious comedy in three acts about the entanglement in myths of Polishness. 


  • THE IMAGE MAKERS

    The truth about the essence of creation and responsibility in art. Director Viktor Sjöström is working on the film The Phantom Carriage, based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf. 

  • FOREFATHER'S EVE

    Mickiewicz's poetic drama interpreted by Lithuanian Master Eimuntas Nekrošius — theatre visionary known for his unique theatrical language.


  • KORDIAN

    The Polish nation's tragic choice: to die heroically in the name of a noble idea or live a life "making shoes for dogs"? — the alternative presented to Kordian in two parables.

  • FLEA THE SWINDLER

    Tremendous fun and great laughs – not just for kids. The antics of the Flea are directed by Anna Seniuk with the music composed by Maciej Małecki.


By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies. You can adjust cookies settings via your internet browser. Review our cookies policy here.

You can adjust your cookies settings below:

  Allow storing advertising data.

  Allow storing user data.

  Allow personalized ads.

  Allow storing analytical data.