Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik. Photo from filmpolski.pl
A graduate of the Ludwik Solski State Theatre School in acting. She worked at the Stary Theatre in Kraków. She made her theatre debut in Michel de Ghelderode's The Sun Sets staged at the Groteska Puppet and Mask Theatre. However, it was Krystian Lupa who discovered the actress. The theatre director cast the young actress as Mother in Rainer in Maria Rilke's Malte or... performed at the Stary Theatre in Kraków. Hajewska has played in a majority of Lupa's productions in Kraków such as Thomas Bernhard's Das Kalkwerk / The Lime Works; Broch's The Sleepwalkers; Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, or Bernhard's Ritter, Dene, Voss.
Aside from Lupa, Hajewska's acting style was also developed by such outstanding directors as Jerzy Jarocki (Grzebanie / Burial based on Witkacy's work), Jerzy Grzegorzewski (Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady - dwanaście improwizacji / The Forefathers – Twelve Improvisations) or Andrzej Wajda (Eugene Labiche's An Italian Straw Hat).
Hajewska is highly focused on stage and achieves the maximum theatrical effect with the minimum of acting techniques. She knows how to show the complexity of a played character. The actress appears to be tiny and delicate and as such she is mainly cast in roles of psychologically complicated over-sensitive persons. However, she performs equally well as indifferent or ruthless characters.
In Kraków, I really like the actress who used to smoke all the time. (…) I think she is great: full of dramatic expression and mystery. Not that her partner was a bad actor, but her performance was truly outstanding. There are excellent actors in Europe after all, Giorgio Strehler commented on Hajewska's performance in Ritter, Dene, Voss.
Her role as Agave in Euripides's The Bacchantes directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw also gained the critics' acclaim. Even though the actress appears on the stage during the very last minutes of the performance, it is her role as Mother, who suddenly regains consciousness and realises that it is not a lion's head she is carrying but that of her own son whom she murdered and starts to reproach gods with cruelty, which embeds into the audience's memory.
Hajewska is a multi-talented actress. She displays her unique dramatic skills not only on theatre stage but also on the big screen. She played in Wojciech Nowak's Śmierć dziecioroba / Death of a Childmaker, Dorota Kędzierzawska's Wrony / Crows and Małgorzata Szumowska's Szczęśliwy człowiek / Happy Man. Her potential as a comedian was first discovered by Lupa in The Sleepwalkers. Jerzy Stuhr followed in Lupa's footsteps and cast Hajewska as a Woman in Glasses in his film debut Spis cudzołożnic / List of Adulteresses and Sławomir Mrożek's Wielebni / The Reverends staged at the Stary Theatre in Kraków.
Selected awards:
- 1988 - Distinction for a debut for the role of Queen Margaret in Witold Gombrowicz's Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda / Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy directed by Jerzy Stuhr at the Theatre Academy in Kraków awarded at the 14th Theatre Confrontations Klasyka Polska / Polish Classics in Opole; Award for the role of Queen Margaret in Witold Gombrowicz's Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda / Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy directed by Jerzy Stuhr at the Theatre Academy in Kraków won at the 6th Review of the Theatre Academies' Diploma Performances in Łódź;
- 1994 - Award of the Polish Culture Foundation, Kraków branch.
- 1998 - Grand Prix for the role of Konrad's wife in Thomas Bernhard's Das Kalkwerk / The Lime Works at Stary Theatre in Kraków at the 38th Theatre Meetings in Kalisz;
- 2001 - Warsaw Felix Award for best supporting actress in the 2000/2001 season for the role of Agave in Euripides's The Bacchantes directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw;
- 2004 - Ludwik Award of the Kraków theatre circle for the role Konrad’s wife in Thomas Bernhard’s Das Kalkwerk / The Lime Works at Stary Theatre in Kraków;
- 2005 - Warszawski Feliks Award for best supporting actress for the role of Dupa in Hanoch Levin's Krum directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski (Rozmaitości Theatre Warsaw / Stary Theatre in Kraków);
- 2008 - Award for best supporting actress for the role of Barbara Rostawicka in Małgorzata Szumowska's film 33 sceny z życia / 33 Scenes from Life at the 33rd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia;
- 2009 - Distinction for the role of Niobe Queck in Bertolt Brecht's The Bakery directed by Wojtek Klemm at Stary Theatre in Kraków at the 4th Polish National Competition for Theatre Productions of Old Works of European Literature in Warsaw.
Updated by: Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora, November 2009.