A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians

Published Friday 7 March 2008 at 16:45 by Nuala Calvi

Celebrated young Polish author Dorota Maslowska’s first play is a drug-addled roller-coaster of a story that takes the road trip genre to new heights of debauchery.

In grubby sportswear, their teeth blacked-out, a young man with a foul mouth and a chain-smoking pregnant woman attempt to beg and steal their way across Poland, claiming to be impoverished Romanians.

Their first victim is a staid, middle-aged man whose car they commandeer and whose sanity they stretch to breaking point with their vulgarity and vague threats of violence. It’s only when they leave him £5,000 and an MP3 player richer that we start to realise the pair are not what they seem.

Driven by a combination of drink, drugs and a desire to escape from their stifling lives, Maslowska’s characters toy with Polish society’s reactions to the poor and excluded within its midst, their behaviour making uncomfortable viewing for any Briton who has ever used the term ‘chav’ or put on ‘bling’ for a fancy dress party.

That this is Poland - a country whose nationals currently feed Britain’s appetite for cheap labour - adds a further layer of irony to proceedings.

Maslowska’s style is by turns blunt, violent, hilarious and strangely poetic, the surreal nature of her narrative reflected in a dream-like story-telling technique which frequently meanders into direct audience address and stream of consciousness.

Andrea Riseborough gives a stunning performance as the dissolute Dzina, matched only by a terrifying turn from Ishia Bennison as a vengeful, drunken wife behind the wheel - adding much-needed light relief to this dark tale of lost souls.