Filip Pawlak - Can You Help Me?

After all, we deserve it, don't we? We've earned it with our hard work. Our dreams were not exorbitant, just to always have something to put in the pot, to have enough money to regularly change the bedding in which we sleep with someone close to us, to get a job that allows us to fulfil our potential. Good job! Well done! I am proud of you!  

Can we recall our first successes and failures? Our first steps, tying our own shoes, a memorised rhyme memorised in kindergarten? What is left of them in us? In the performance Can you help me?, Filip Pawlak will ask about the qualifying skills necessary for a happy life and what we think about when we sigh deeply when tired after a day's work. 

Within the framework of his work, he tries to distance himself from his own biography, while at the same time attempting to notice, from a distance, the symbolic moments that have conditioned his perception of disability, his east European working-class background, his non-heteronormative identity, but also the hope that he holds for art making.

Partner: Skånes Dansteater

Showings

Friday 9 May 19:00
Saturday 10 May 17:00

Estimated duration: ca 60 minutes
Location: Studio B at Malmö Theatre Academy, Bergsgatan 31
Tickets: free admission, book your tickets at tickets at Billetto

Accessibility: The Theatre Academy is wheelchair accessible. Studio A and Studio B are located on the ground floor. At Bryggeriteatern all floors are accessible by elevator. Our premises are threshold-free with adapted toilets.

There is plenty of space in our auditoriums for wheelchairs and other needs. The first row of seats is usually placed directly on the floor. Please note that the number of seats may vary. Companions go free of charge even at paid events but need to reserve a seat.

Please contact us in advance at biljettbokning [at] thm [dot] lu [dot] se (biljettbokning[at]thm[dot]lu[dot]se) to reserve seats for wheelchairs and companions.

Credits 

Concept, script, performance: Filip Pawlak  
Supporting actor: Malte Munkesjö (SE) / Michał Tokarski (PL) 
Music: Avtomat  
Costume: Eva Hedblom  

Artistic advice: Wojtek Ziemilski, Erik Pold, Edit Kaldor  

Production:  Malmö Theatre Academy / Lund University; Filip Pawlak 
Production support: Theatre21 / Center for Inclusive Art (PL), Komuna Warszawa (PL) 

Polish premiere: 13 June 2025 – Scena Robocza, Poznan 

Research is conducted thanks to funding from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the “Młoda Polska/Young Poland” scholarship programme 2024. Developed during artistic residences in: Hellerau – European Center for Arts (DE), Komuna/Warszawa (PL) Skånes Dansteater (SE). 

Used fragment of video recording: Maurice Ravel: Piano concerto for the left hand performed by Orchestra of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar (Conductor: Prof. Nicolás Pasquet; Hélène Tysman, piano) courtesy of University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar  
 
Film used under citation rights: Chce się żyć. (2013). Director: Pieprzyca, Maciej. Prod: Studio Filmowe Tramway; distribution: Kino Świat 

This is a graduation work within the Masters Performing Arts as Critical Practice at Malmö Theatre Academy.