SCENE 1 – THE LECTURE
The Fourth National Congress of Genetics takes place in Wrocław. The final lecture is delivered by the world-renowned geneticist Professor Teodor Zaks, who after many years returns to the city where his academic career began. He is introduced by his son, Adam, who chairs a genetics society for doctoral students. Teodor discusses the links between genetics and music, explaining how particular combinations of genes may influence human abilities and sensitivity. The professor arrives at the controversial question of whether, if exceptional combinations can be identified and measured, they can also be predicted and deliberately brought together. He suggests a possibility that many find deeply troubling: creating a genetic combination as close to perfection as possible by uniting “the purest with the purest”.
SCENE 2 – THE BANQUET
During the banquet, professors and students discuss heredity. Together, their voices express the belief that, from the moment of birth, every human being is endowed with certain predispositions, abilities and limitations. Adam tries to challenge this determinism, pointing to the possibility of changes brought about by various therapies. However, his argument is rejected: even what has been silenced can never disappear entirely.
Gregor, the university’s rector and Teodor’s former friend, reminds them that a person inherits their beginnings but not the path they will follow and that even within an enslaved body, freedom of thought remains. Gregor therefore proposes a toast “to life” but Teodor disagrees and raises his glass “to perfection”. The banquet ends on a note of unease.
SCENE 3 – ADAM
Teodor conducts research in his office when Adam comes to see him. The son wants to find a way of reaching a father he hardly knows. He speaks of his struggle to define his own identity and of how difficult it is to separate what he has inherited from his father from what is truly his own. Teodor, however, remains absorbed in his work and is unable even to listen to the son he has not seen for many years. To him, Adam represents the failure of his former hopes: he was meant to be the work that would complete everything Teodor himself had been unable to achieve.
SCENE 4 – TEODOR
Teodor becomes increasingly conscious of his own sense of incompleteness. He feels that a single lifetime is not enough to fulfil all his ambitions. He recalls his former dream of creating a masterpiece from “the perfection of two”. That masterpiece was to have been his son but Adam failed to live up to his expectations. Teodor concludes that he may be able to achieve his goal in another way. He resolves to create an ideal genome: one that will combine the desired traits and enable him to pass on everything he himself has been unable to accomplish. He begins working on it. Adam watches it all and, after his father leaves, takes the evidence of the experiments.
SCENE 5 – IZABELA
Teodor returns home, where his partner Izabela waits for him. Suddenly, his satisfaction gives way to pain: once again, he hears a melody in his head that prevents him from functioning normally. Izabela knows that it is longing: the voice of what Teodor abandoned and what now demands his attention. When despondent Teodor says that he will be unable to sleep again, Izabela sings him a lullaby and he falls asleep.
SCENE 6 – THE TRIAL
Three women connected with Teodor’s life appear in his dream: Izabela, his Mother and Cecylia, Teodor’s first love and Adam’s mother. They become both witnesses to and judges of his past. They begin to speak of a longing that cannot be silenced.
The women return to Teodor’s childhood in Wrocław and to the home where science and art came together. His Mother recalls his first encounter with music, his piano lessons and his subsequent studies in biology and composition. Cecylia recounts their meeting and their love. Teodor tried to unite both worlds but, over time, he increasingly submitted to science and to his father’s expectations. He abandoned music and embarked on a brilliant scientific career. When Cecylia became pregnant, Teodor placed great hopes in the birth of their son. He wanted Adam to become a composer and complete the works he had begun. The boy, however, had no interest in music and Teodor’s attempts to force it upon him led to an escalating conflict. Eventually, Teodor left his family and moved to the United States, where he devoted himself to his scientific career.
SCENE 7 – CECYLIA
Cecylia returns to the memory of their former intimacy and asks Teodor why he rejected what had been genuine between them. Her words also revive the question of the body: can a human being be reduced to their biological matter? At the climax, Adam appears as a young boy, evoking the most important bond that Teodor was unable to preserve.
SCENE 8 – THREADS
In this musical scene, Teodor becomes entangled in threads. He tries to break free but only becomes more ensnared. Trapped, he cannot find a way out of the tangled web of his own past, which he is unable to confront.
SCENE 9 – THE DREAM OF GREATNESS
Teodor sinks into a dream of his own power. He believes that knowledge and science will enable him to transcend the limitations of nature and create perfect life himself. He treats the genome as material that can be shaped like a musical composition, with its elements selected, combined and arranged. His project becomes an attempt to create a work free from error and imperfection. Teodor is convinced that he draws closer to his goal.
SCENE 10 – GREGOR
Teodor’s visionary rapture is interrupted by Gregor, who brings evidence of the professor’s unethical genetic experiments. He confronts Teodor with the consequences of his actions and forces him to see them not as a scientific experiment but as the crossing of an ethical boundary. Teodor loses everything that gave him a sense of power and importance as a professor. The life he has known falls apart. As he loses his position and former identity, a human being begins to emerge: one who must face his own mistakes and limitations as well as a life that cannot be designed. Teodor undergoes a transformation: symbolically, the scientist dies and a man who embraces life in all its fullness is born.
SCENE 11 – FAREWELLS
Teodor meets Izabela. Their conversation becomes a farewell to the life he has led until now. Izabela reminds him of everything he abandoned over the years: intimacy, the simple experience of being alive and, above all, the music he once loved and later abandoned. For the first time, Teodor must look at his life not from the perspective of his achievements but through everything he has lost. Izabela leaves and their encounter offers Teodor the possibility of beginning again.
SCENE 12
Teodor begins to play the piano and a familiar melody summons Adam. Their conversation returns to their former attempt to find a path towards each other as father and son. This time, Teodor listens.
They both acknowledge that, despite everything that has happened between them, they are inextricably linked. Their bond is like a thread that cannot be severed. This does not mean, however, that they must follow the same path. Adam chooses his place and Teodor chooses his.
They therefore depart in opposite directions: towards light and shadow, towards what is known and what remains a mystery. This is no longer a father’s struggle to create the perfect son. It is an encounter between two human beings who can remain true to themselves while acknowledging the bond that unites them.
