Review: COUGAR, THE MUSICAL at The Kujawsko-Pomorski Music Theatre, Torun

This theater is different, founded 10 years ago, and offers a small, intimate, and friendly ambiance. With 150 seats on the top floor of an old building in a charming old town, it creates an atmosphere of a welcoming and safe space where laughter is normal, the actors are close not only in their physical dimension. As far as I know, the repertoire is tailored to the off-broadway model and to be frank, I can't wait to explore more.

What struck me from the first moment of the show was the flow of the audience, warmed up and interacted vividly with everything happening on stage. After a while, you feel like you're not at the theater but at a dinner party with old friends telling you their hilarious stories. I admit that I don't have any friends who add musical numbers to their stories but now I think I really should!

Cougar, The Musical is about the courage to live according to your own rules and not according to the paths of society. The original was created in 2012 in the USA by Donna Moore, but I really believe that only now is the right time to show it in Poland. We are adult enough to swallow it, both women and men.

Three ladies over 40 are seen at different points in their lives, a newly divorced woman, an emancipated rocket girl, a corporate superwoman who left her job to help other women, plus two musicians, a man playing two hundred roles, and another who plays only one: to entertain with his perfect young body and his acrobatic figures. All clichés. That’s the trick and no one really cares. Harsh level of objectification with which the director, Agnieszka Ploszajska, turns around, turns upside down, and has fun playing with it for the entertainment of the audience and says some important things.

You love all the characters from the first moment; the energetic torpedo of the current, unapologetic and fearless, Magdalena Smuk; tough as steel, knowing her values ​​and playing by her rules, Renia Goslawska; like a blooming flower in Spring, transforming and redefining her new self that was there all along, Anna Sztejner. I bet every woman in the audience wanted to hug them and be their 4th person to play bridge with. And then there are Filip Bielinski and Wiktor Kwiatkowski who balance them out, the first is filling in all the male and one female (sic!) characters of the plot with ease and a comic touch. He adjusts, changes, and fills the plot with great modality and agility, and he’s super funny. The second is there for our pure entertainment and so that we can enjoy his youth and his body. That being said in a context of men and not women, it’s really refreshing.

The show is really funny, honest, and important. Alongside everything else in this puzzle: costumes (by Aleksandra Harasimowicz) that perfectly match the actors' characters, and set design (by Wojciech Stefaniak) that can be metaphorically linked to a world where you choose only certain pieces, and by moving them, you make a scene more suited to your needs. Brilliant! That’s the essence of this show: the ability to construct a world that meets your needs.

The finale (I love spoilers!) is like something taken out of a Disney movie but for mature individuals after therapy and affirmations. The three princesses find love, but it's not what you might expect, and it's the kind of happy ending that isn't annoying and doesn't make you roll your eyes. And you know what? Each and every one of us deserves a piece of this pie! Go and see it, it is totally worth it!

Photo Krzysztof Citak

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