On a December evening (last year), despite the gusty wind and rain, I went to Bolesławiec’s “OLD THEATRE” to see a monodrama based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Meek One.” Even before the performance began, it was already clear that the production by Ewa Zbroja (director) and Katarzyna Matla (script and performance) was an event—cultural and social, because despite the exceptionally dreadful weather, the auditorium was filled. That was a success. But does the performance owe its success solely to the drought in the local cultural offering? I claim that it does not.The attempt to bring “The Meek One” to the stage is not an easy task. Both Dostoyevsky and the form of the monodrama are “difficult.” Nevertheless, the adaptation concept and its execution should be considered successful. In the performance, the pawnbroker’s monologue is replaced by a few words. The maid, played by Katarzyna Matla, is real. Her monologue conveys the plot, creates the mood and establishes reflective punch lines. The actress’s portrayal of Lukerya’s suffering is restrained, and her acting technique economical. The character’s actions are limited to activities that can genuinely be performed almost unconsciously, even in a state of intense agitation. That is why the scenes of Lukerya getting dressed (the successful effect of the shoelaces being tied over an “extended” period of time) and sewing, which occupies the character, are so suggestive and psychologically justified. It is precisely this moderation in the use of the elements of theatrical material (beginning with acting, through the economy of the script’s words, to the ascetic stage design) that characterizes this performance. It is a considered and consistently implemented directorial device—appropriate for a monodrama. The creators of “The Meek One” remind us that only in theatre can an actor be simultaneously the creator, the instrument, the material and the work!I am writing this text several weeks after the premiere of “The Meek One,” because I learned that Ewa Zbroja (associated with the theatre studio of the Youth Cultural Centre in Bolesławiec) is working on another production. I—as “a resident of Bolesławiec” and a Polish philologist—support this idea.How wrong Dostoyevsky was—in this case—when he wrote: “Women lack originality; that is an axiom.”