By Jonathan Grant

“Thirty going on thirteen” – an oft-used criticism of many a modern-day man – is the scenario being explored in the high-tempo adaptation of Gombozicz’s classic 1937 novel Ferdydurke by the radical Polish theatre Teatr Provisorium at the Bloomsbury Theatre.

Our central character, Joey, is sent back as an adult to re-experience his school days in 1930s Poland. Awoken on a Tuesday morning, classical music filling the stage and flanked by a four-posted cage symbolising his new bounded reality, our protagonist finds himself re-living his right of passage to adulthood.

Beginning his new-found immaturity in a militaristic Soviet school, being taught “enrapturing” literature ad nauseam by the buffoonish Professor FIlidor, Joey, like all his contemporaries, shows only an interest in the elemental questions of life, death and topics of a sexual nature.

This frustration at the obligatory repression served to all minors on the battleground of the intergenerational war, festers within him until the energy typical of teenage boys erupts in a highly energetic and expressionist style.

The energy continues to flow through Janusz Oprynski and Witold Mazurkiewicz’s production at each stage of Joey’s path to adulthood as each scene, each life chapter, is separated by a confused melee and transition to greater sexual consciousness and self-awareness. And, as Joey ages, he continues to bring to the audience’s attention the absurdity of society’s imposed expectations on the lives of individuals and the fundamental baseness of humanity by unifying castes under the banner of sexual promiscuity.

Extracting these concepts and illustrating them on stage to their fullest, the audience are treated to many a funny moment by the ensemble. Particular highlights included Professor Filidor’s insistence that his pupils be “enraptured” by the Polish authors they were studying, the tit-for-tat criticism of childish “googoo eyes at idealism”, and the homo-erotic hunt for stable boys and its hypocritical reaction from the landed gentry whom were also doing their best to imitate Lady Chatterley and mounting the hired help.

Yet, no scene was without fault either. Fart jokes that seemed to go on too long, even for adolescent boys, and language that seemed too adapted for the American-speaking market took the shine off a little.

Ferdydurke, itself a nonsense word, is a nonsense and absurd play and the spirit of the performance by Joey and his fellow life-adventurers (played by Jacek Brzezinski, Witold Mazurkiewicz, Jaroslaw Tomica and Michal Zgiet) captures, in an almost circus-like manner, the spirit of absurdity with a gusto that belies their new-found youth.

Similarly, the simplicity of the stage and lighting echoes the baseness of humanity that Gombrowicz so obviously satirises, whilst the symmetry of the set and the movements of our characters conjure up the dream-like state of which this story alludes.

Exhaustingly performed with some very funny, and often very crude, moments punctuating the 80 or so minutes of this performance, Ferdydurke will leave a satisfactory smile on the face as its many awards, including a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival, will attest. However, it is not the easiest of plots to grasp, as there is modest signposting within the play, often leaving the audience head scratching until the next energetic high is unleashed. Unfortunately, these sporadic bursts were too infrequent to appease all theatre-goers and, for that reason, this is not an obvious crowd-pleaser but enjoyable and thought-provoking nonetheless.