„iGranie z Potworami (Playing with Monsters) is an opera featuring music by Mateusz Ryczek and a libretto by Justyna Skoczek. The work is steeped in night—both literally and metaphorically—where the quiet of a domestic evening gives way to digital darkness, and the boundary between a child’s bed and a computer monitor proves remarkably thin. In this opera, the real and virtual worlds do not stand in opposition; they interpenetrate. The piece avoids moralizing. The father is not a caricature of a gaming addict but a tender, fragile figure caught in a cycle of escapism; the girls are not naive fairy-tale heroines but represent two stages of maturation: childhood imagination and teenage rebellion.

Visually, the production eschews mere illustration. The monsters are not costumed beasts; instead, they emerge from movement, light, voice, and projection. The performance aligns more closely with the contemporary digital imagination than with traditional fairy tales. iGranie z Potworami is a show about transition—from childhood to adolescence, from myth to technology, from gaming to responsibility. It is theatre that trusts its young audience and refuses to simplify the world. Rather than a fairy tale, it offers an experience—one that is dark, beautiful, and unsettlingly close to home”(Wrocław Opera)

„I love the great operas of the „standard” repertoire, yet I am convinced of the necessity for entirely new operas to be created—works that address contemporary themes and employ innovative approaches to composition and sound creation.
We have just been photographing iGranie z Potworami (Playing with Monsters) at the Wrocław Opera; I wonder if there is another opera about computer games anywhere else in the world, or if this one is unique?
The libretto is written with young audiences in mind, while the music appeals to everyone.
When I asked composer Mateusz Ryczek about his favorite composers during a fascinating talk, he replied:
Witold Lutosławski, Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Guillaume de Machaut, and… well, Frédéric Chopin too.
I admit I am unfamiliar with the three in the middle, so I am off to look them up and have a listen” Kinga Karpati.