"Down in the Dumps" attracts critics' and audience's attention mostly as the adaptation of Sławomir Shuty's novel.

The novel of the young author (born in 1973), published in 2004, had repercussions throughout the country this year when it received a prestigious award: Paszport Polityki. The action of "Down in the Dumps" is set in the world of multinational corporations, their hebitating job interviews and integration "rituals", specialists in work atmosphere and supervisors, who motivate employers to hard work by provoking fear of unemployement. Characters are frustrated; they work at a bank or queue to collect dole. The space in the performance directed by Emilia Sadowska is metaphorical. The set designer, Katarzyna Stochalska, has used hypermarket trolleys to designate computers, television sets, motorcycles, sofas and bank counters. According to Błażej Kusztelski from "Gazeta Poznańska"(no. 61), the director, using the trolleys this way, scoffs at the belief, rooted in the Polish society, that banks and hypermarkets are symbols of civilization progress and prosperity. Łukasz Drewniak ("Pr