Poles flock to see play about Pope's last days

[emad]

Telegraph
By Kate Connolly in Berlin
(Filed: 15/02/2005)

The Pope is planning to spend his final days in a provincial Polish mountain resort that boasts clean air and some of the best skiing facilities in eastern Europe, at least according to a sell-out play at Warsaw's National Theatre.

The Holy Father's Skis dares to draw on what until now has been a virtual taboo in Poland, namely talk of life after the Vatican for the 84-year-old Pope.

It also reflects, and satirises, the desire of many Poles that their most famous son returns home for his final days. The show has been given extra currency by the pontiff's recent nine-day hospitalisation in Rome with flu and breathing difficulties, prompting prayers and candle-lit vigils for his recovery across the country.

"Poles don't like to think that his days as Pope are numbered, let alone that he will die," said Pawel Ploski, a writer at the National Theatre. "We like to imagine that he will be Pope for many years to come."

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