Theatre of Invisible Children

Theatre of Invisible Children is a story for young people by Marcin Szczygielski, published by Latarnik Publishing Institute in 2016.

Life is not a theatre, let’s not kid ourselves. Especially when you’re a child, living in an orphanage, and a Great History is sweeping over your head. The book’s narrator, eleven-year-old Michał, is a child familiar with the world of orphanages and the rules governing them. Describing the story of his life, he takes us on a tour of several orphanages and shows their different faces. He perfectly characterises both the inhabitants and staff. With infantile naivety and simplicity, she tells us about childhood traumas, feelings and expectations. And about survival techniques: about pretending, dreaming and reinventing oneself. Simply about playing theatre.

In his book, Theatre of Invisible Children, Szczygielski runs a two-track narrative, showing the reality of life in orphanages and in communist Poland. And it is not without reason that he juxtaposes these two images, pointing to their uncanny similarity. But it is something else that is the main theme of the book and simultaneously, the clasp linking these two threads. The author makes us aware of the basic need that determines our lives on various levels, from individual experience to the national experience. It is the need for catharsis.

Perhaps for such a purification it is worth letting oneself be enchanted?

Currently the book is only available in Polish under the name Teatr niewidzialnych dzieci.

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