Jerzy Grotowski – Zbigniew Raszewski: W poszukiwaniu “istotnego dialogu”

• Authors: Zbigniew Osiński

Title variants

EN

Jerzy Grotowski and Zbigniew Raszewski: In Search of the “Essential Dialogue”

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The relations between Jerzy Grotowski and Zbigniew Raszewski have not yet been a topic of any deeper reflexion. It seems that everyone has been satisfied with rather general opinions, whether they be apologetic (Raszewski as a defender of the Laboratorium Theatre at the dangerous beginning of the 1960s) or suggesting that in reality the two of them could not have had anything in common. At the same time, in Poland the problem resembles treading on thin ice because of oversensitivity of some of Raszewski’s students, whereas outside the Polish-speaking cultural life it becomes exotic due to the fact that the author of Krótka historia teatru polskiego (The Short History of Polish Theatre) is unfortunately little known abroad. They first met through Eugenio Barba. The opinion about Barba as „that Italian who’s crazy about Grotowski” is reflected in one of recently published letters written by Stanisław Lem to Sławomir Mrożek. Soon after their first meeting in Opole in March 1963, Grotowski assured Raszewski: “The relations with you and the people of Pamiętnik Teatralny, the relations that you write about, being long-term and lasting for years, are quite important to us”. There are fifteen letters and three telegrams sent by Grotowski in 1963–1989 that we know about (three of the letters were signed by Ludwik Flaszen as well). In the archive left after the Laboratorium Theatre in Wrocław, there are no letters written by Raszewski in 1963–1968; there are only two letters dated 1972 and 1980. Raszewski is also the author of the important text Teatr 13 Rzędów (The 13 Rows Theatre, Pamiętnik Teatralny, 1964, vol. 3) and a priceless account of his meeting with Grotowski on 18 January 1969, which appeared in print after the author’s death but when Grotowski was still alive. Before Grotowski embraced the concept of the „complete” or „whole man” taken from Mickiewicz, and that of „the complete actor”, whose most believable and compelling embodiment has been Ryszard Cieślak in Książę Niezłomny (The Constant Prince, 1965), there was the so-called Warsaw School of Historians of Ideas that Grotowski had taken great interest in and counted on their visit in Opole. Despite some biographical parallels (Raszewski was the same age as Zygmunt Bauman, being a year younger than Bronisław Baczko, two years older than Leszek Kołakowski, four years older than Jerzy Szacki, and five years Andrzej Walicki’ senior), the theatre historian’s views and interests had been quite different from those propounded by the Warsaw historians of ideas. Grotowski shared with the Warsaw philosophers the attitude of heresy and blasphemy combined with a deep distrust of the so-called traditional Polish values. Such an attitude seemed utterly alien to Raszewski. Raszewski’s reaction to Apocalypsis Cum Figuris, which he saw in November 1970, was very negative. He wrote it down many years later, on 12 September 1991: “In Wrocław, the sectarian tendencies overcame everything else. While at Opole Grotowski still had a theatre – which was mad, crazy but at the same time interesting – in Wrocław he ended up with some delirium and black Mass. He called it Apocalypsis Cum Figuris. It was his last production. I watched it and right after the performance I told him that it was beyond my threshold of tolerance, which he took calmly, as he did all my enunciations”. On 20 September 1972, Grotowski thanked Raszewski for his letter of congratulations on the occasion of awarding him “an individual state award of the first degree in the field of arts and culture for his creative work in the Laboratorium Theatre within the scope of theatre production and research on the art of acting, with special emphasis on Apocalypsis Cum Figuris, received on the national Holiday of the Revival of Poland, on 22 July, 1972”. On 14 April 1980, ending an extensive answer to Raszewski’s questions, Grotowski wrote: „Thank you that you told me directly and openly what you considered to be unjust and wrong in my work. Your honesty and your friendship are very important to me”. After 1981, it did not take Grotowski long to understand that the nationalistic Polonocentrism which was growing in strength almost day by day, along with the omnipotent power of the Catholic church was limiting his creative potential. On 22 December 1989, Jerzy Grotowski sent a telegram from Pontedera, which became the permanent place of operations for the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski in 1985; he sent Raszewski his best regards on the fortieth anniversary of Raszewski’s academic work: „Congratulations and assurances of faithful memory friendship and respect...” The friendly dialogue between the artist and the theatre historian lasted for almost three decades. The last note by Raszewski comes from 12 November 1991. And let’s not forget that he is the author of one of the most important sentences ever written about Grotowski’s work: “When someone works with such fury and as selflessly as the 13 Rzędów Theatre, when one is so interested in life and so sensitive, it is only a matter of time before they achieve something extraordinary”. This does not change the fact that Raszewski did not publish any text about Grotowski and his theatre in Pamiętnik Teatralny after 1964. Thus one must pose a difficult question: Did Raszewski’s famous „objectivism” and „impartiality” end just where they ran into conflict with his own tastes and beliefs?

Keywords

EN

Polish theatre; theatre studies; Jerzy Grotowski; Zbigniew Raszewski

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Sztuki PAN
• Journal: Pamiętnik Teatralny
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 1-2(241-242)
• Pages: 59-88

Contributors

author

Zbigniew Osiński

• Akademia Teatralna im. Aleksandra Zelwerowicza w Warszawie

References

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