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Performance Review: Exhumation [Grzebanie], and: Forefathers' Eve: Twelve Improvisations [Dziady: Dwanascie Improwizacji]

1996; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 48; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tj.1996.0093

1086-332X

Wojciech Szulczynski,

Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies

Reviewed by: Exhumation [Grzebanie] by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, and: Forefathers’ Eve: Twelve Improvisations [Dziady: Dwanascie Improwizacji] by Adam Mickiewicz Wojciech Szulczynski Translated by Allen J. Kuharski Exhumation [Grzebanie]. Based on the life and writings of Witkacy (Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz). Stary Teatr, Cracow. Premiere 3 January 1996. Forefathers’ Eve: Twelve Improvisations [Dziady: Dwanascie Improwizacji]. By Adam Mickiewicz. Stary Teatr, Cracow. Premiere 24 June 1995. As a result of Solidarity, the communist regime in Poland was emphatically overthrown. Observing a somewhat earlier revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that such acute social changes always make their way onto the stage. He went on to contrast sharply the “aristocratic” theatre from its “democratic” counterpart. In the aristocratic theatre, according to de Tocqueville, carefully chosen problems are presented within defined social conditions. Scrupulously selected themes touch only on certain attributes of human nature, omitting others. Similar restrictions apply to the question of style. Refined and erudite forms are preferred, and are enforced so that these conventions become obligatory, displacing others that are more direct. Communist regimes diligently reproduced a system of feudal dependency typical of the “aristocratic” social systems about which de Tocqueville wrote, and Polish theatre as a whole represented such a culture well. The communists privileged the Polish theatre, never stinting it money or other means. In the 1970s, these efforts bore fruit: the Polish theatre won world renown through Tadeusz Kantor’s Teatr Cricot-2, Jerzy Grotowski’s Polish Laboratory Theatre, and the work of various directors at Cracow’s Stary Teatr. [End Page 499] On the stage of the Stary Teatr, productions of directors such as Konrad Swinarski (particularly his stagings of Adam Mickiewicz and Stanislaw Wyspianski) and Jerzy Jarocki (who specialized in Witkacy and Tadeusz Rszewicz) established a readily recognizable theatrical style, one that combined irony and perspicacity in its criticism of contemporary reality with the full range of devices of modern staging. Political lucidity and poetic metaphor flourished, with the support of outstanding actors and innovative scenography. In the 1980s, martial law provoked a boycott of television, while financial restrictions caused a significant standstill in the development of the theatre. The resulting lack of an upcoming generation of artists has reinforced the position of older directors. Their productions—often outstanding—over the course of time have taken on a seemingly decadent character. Past motifs, symbols, and plots returned. The most accomplished have attempted repeatedly to discount their own successes over the years. In harmony with these trends has been a postmodern atmosphere in Polish arts and academia. Since the 1980s, productions have gradually become less and less literary, and “greatest hits” productions of classics directed by actors along with boulevard sensations have earned a significant popularity. Today the Cricot-2 and the Polish Laboratory are no more; in their place are archives working to organize their remaining artifacts. On the other hand, the Stary Teatr carries the burden of its splendid past with increasing strain. After the 1989 revolution, the Stary Teatr was one of the small number of theatres that continued to be supported by the central Ministry of Culture. It is chiefly in such centrally subsidized venues that the Polish theatre has continued to nurture its distinctive styles and conventions, those that once accounted for its greatest successes. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Hilda (Katarzyna Gniewkowska), Angels I and II (Dorota Segda and Beata Fudalej) and Stanislaw Ignacy (Pawel Tolwinski) in the Stary Teatr production of Exhumation, based on the life and writings of Witkacy, scenario and direction by Jerzy Jarocki. Photo: Stefan Okolowicz. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Beelzebub (Krysztof Globisz), Devil II (Jacek Poniedzalek), Devil I (Jan Monczka), Lady I (Maria Zajacówna-Radwan), Pelikan (Andrzej Kozak), Doctor (Jan Krzyzanowski), the Daughter (Beata Malczewska), the Senator (Jan Peszek), Mrs. Rollison (Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik), and Father Peter (Jan Frycz) in the Stary Teatr production of Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefather’s Eve: Twelve Improvisations, directed by Jerzy Grzegorzewksi. Photo: Wojciech Plewinski. Both Jarocki’s Exhumation and Jerzy Grzegorzewski’s staging of Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve: Twelve Improvisations are productions emblematic of the present state of the Polish theatre. Both productions are by renowned directors working with the country’s...