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1
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Teatrologia jako nauka o widowiskach. Rozważania wstępne

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Kencki P.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 1(253)
97-107
EN
The text elaborates on the postulate that theatrology turn into the study of spectacles. The author names three reasons for effecting such a change. The first is that the scope of theatre studies has already expanded to include not only theatre performances but some other kinds of spectacle as well. The second reason involves the strategy of academic research development. The strong position of performance studies – a discipline covering a larger group of spectacles – seems to be a threat for traditionally understood theatrology. One way of saving itself from this plight would be for theatrology to expand its area of research to encompass an even wider sphere of spectacle phenomena so that performance studies would function as its subdivision. The third reason, finally, has to do with etymology and the Greek concept of theatron, which, among other things, refers to spectacle. The argument involves an account of how theatrology and related studies have evolved and developed. The anthropological turn and new historicism are cited as examples of the expanding purview of theatre scholars. Then, the development of Polish performance studies is discussed. While discussing etymological issues, the 12th-century thinker Hugh of St Victor and his concept of “theatrics” is mentioned. The author of the article believes that as the Medieval “theatrics” was a practical knowledge of how to organise spectacles, today’s theatrology should become the theoretical study of phenomena that, apart from spectacles, would include performances and instances of simulation. It is, thus, the author’s belief that a broadly understood theatrology might become a discussion platform for researchers of various specialisations.
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Recenzja książki Mirosława Kocura, Źródła teatru (Wrocław 2013)

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Steiner M.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 1(253)
156-160
EN
The book Źródła teatru (‘Sources of Theatre’) by Mirosław Kocur is a good example of how findings of performance studies can be put to use. The tome begins and closes with case stud-ies on contemporary liturgical performances on Bali and in Tibet, and within this frame, large-format, diachronic chapters that amass multicultural material in explaining the origins of the performer, theatre house, or drama have been placed. In his quick-paced and exceptionally interesting narration, the author posits questions about what and how happened without insisting on seeking meanings at any price, because performance studies enables one to tackle visualness in terms of a unique event which is irre-ducible to theatrical script. Perhaps the part concerning performances in Palaeolithic caves seems to be the most valuable one. Instead of speculating what the famous cave paintings depicting men-beasts mean, as theatre historians usually do, Kocur proposes to conceive the cave itself as periper-sonal space. Such phenomena as neural plasticity and neural mirroring made it possible for John Onians to interpret cave paintings as ways in which Palaeolithic hunters imitated their game. Kocur is fascinated with this conception and develops it further quite creatively. To him, Palaeoperformances are “transformances” as well. The use of the latest international literature, interdisciplinary character and breadth of the studies conducted by the author may be cited as other substantial advantages of the book.
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Siedem życzeń Głos do dyskusji o strategiach badań teatrologicznych w Polsce i nie tylko

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Wołowski W.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 1(253)
77-96
EN
The present article is intended as an expression of the author’s subjective opinions in a wider-ranging debate concerning the current state of Polish drama and theatre studies and their fu-ture prospects. While formulating his “local” diagnoses (in comparison with what is going on abroad) and advancing some critical comments regarding some research paradigms and tendencies, the author (a Romance scholar and theatrologist) takes the position of “semio-structuralism” and, as far as ideology goes, champions a conservative conception of man, the world, and scientific activity (taking into account all aspects of the human condition: the spir-itual, the psychological, and the socio-material). The article contains – as indicated by its title – seven principal postulates whose aim is to improve the condition of Polish theatre studies: 1) to eschew pseudo-philosophy and con-fusions generated in the context of the performance-studies turn in the humanities (equating science with ideology and fiction with reality, disregard for theory and systematisation); 2) to make do with ephemeral academic fashions and to focus on realising key local research tasks instead; 3) to revitalise Polish theoretical thought and to boost methodological reflexion in historical studies; 4) to switch from “inward transmission” to “outward transmission”, i.e. from translating foreign works into Polish (to be collectively mesmerised by them later on) to translating Polish works into other languages; 5) to create and popularise interdisciplinary re-search tools (the article includes a table that contains a grid of analytical concepts and criteria proposed for multi-aspectual study of spectacles); 6) to carry on axiological reflexion and to make efforts to redefine the concepts of art and theatricality in the face of the current aesthet-ic and ethical degeneration; 7) to institute a “new” kind of theatre criticism that would focus on promoting works of high artistic and ethical merit.
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Recenzja książki Jean Marie Pradiera Ciało widowiskowe. Etnoscenologia sztuk widowiskowych, przekł. Kinga Bierwiaczonek, (Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2012)

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Kencki P.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2012
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vol. 61
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issue 3-4(243-244)
203–214
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O “Pamiętniku Teatralnym”. Rozważania na 60-lecie

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Ratajczak D.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2012
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vol. 61
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issue 1-2(241-242)
5-31
EN
The text is an attempt at recapitulating the sixty-year history of Pamiętnik Teatralny, the first Polish theatrological periodical, and showing its place and role in Polish theatre studies. Through all these years, a lot of things have changed. For one, theatrology, non-existent at the time the periodical was established, has flourished and developed in many directions; universities have formulated curricula for the courses of study in the field; but most of all, as a result of changes affecting the humanities in general, the function and importance of theatre history have changed. It no longer encompasses the whole, extensive field of theatrology, and the tradition and traditional kinds of research are not universally accepted. The situation called for taking a closer look at the periodical which was meant to become the foundation Polish theatre studies, starting with its tell-tale title. Its significance was paramount, since it enabled the founders to define the horizon of the periodical, its field of research, and to determine the norm and research formula which made Pamiętnik Teatralny a kind of “external memory” not for the theatre medium but rather for theatre art. The article recounts actions of three consecutive editorial boards focusing mostly on programmatic enunciations of the editors in chief: Leon Schiller, the tandem of Bohdan Korzeniewski and Zbigniew Raszewski, and Edward Krasiński. The periodical’s programme stemmed from the modernist traditions and visions of the interwar period. The founding myth of Pamiętnik Teatralny and of the Polish theatre studies as well, comes from Leon Schiller, and his successors have remained faithful to that myth. Schiller envisaged a highly modernist formula of theatre history as an autonomous inquiry, devoted to research on great auratic art created in institutional theatre. The major goal was to prepare a synthetic history of the Polish stage, and all individual issues, whether of monographic or review character, were to serve that purpose. Thanks to the canon of values, research approaches, subjects and problems, the artistic phenomena and artists that became “heroes” of the monographic issues, Pamiętnik Teatralny has become a solid, uniform periodical of almost monolithic dimensions, untouched by some exceptions that appeared along the way. Despite the fact that the whole system worked well in the previous years, it seems that it now needs rethinking. The sixtieth anniversary is an excellent occasion to make such an effort.
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Pamięć roku 1765

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Kuligowska-Korzeniewska A.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 3-4(255-256)
313-329
EN
The birth of the National Theatre in 1765 has a permanent place in the history of the Polish theatre and Poland as such. Wojciech Bogusławski, who had debuted as an actor, singer and author in 1778, but due to his great contributions was called “the father of the national stage,” reminded the date to his readers in Dzieje Teatru Narodowego (‘A History of the National Theatre’) published in 1820, when he wrote that “the first inauguration of the national stage was initiated” by King Stanislaw August. A copy of the book was set in the foundation of a new national theatre house at Marywil in Warsaw (the Teatralny Square) on 19 November 1825, on the 60th anniversary of the first Polish public comedy (Natręci by Józef Bielawski). After the collapse of the November Uprising, the memory of 1765 was kept up mostly by theatre historians, critics and dramatists (Karol Estreicher, Władysław Bogusławski, Wincenty Rapacki, among others). Actors of the Warsaw Government Theatres referred with great passion to the beginnings of the national stage when they were on strike in November 1905 demanding that the theatre be “nationalised” and its administration passed over to the municipal government and the Civil Committee. After Poland regained independence—with development of historical studies—the memorable date of 19 November 1765, along with the figure of the many-year manager of the National Theatre, gained a permanent place in the collective consciousness of the nation. In 1936 a statue of Wojciech Bogusławski, completed by Jan Szczepkowski, was unveiled on the Teatralny Square. During the Second World War, the statue, as well as the whole building, was destroyed by the Germans. The right wing of the building, which housed the Narodowy Theatre, was rebuilt in 1949, and the Wielki Theatre was reopened in 1965, on the 200th anniversary of the National Stage. The anniversary was officially celebrated by the state and brought about a substantial body of academic and artistic achievements. The manager of the Narodowy Theatre at the time, Kazimierz Dejmek, initiated a Programmatic Declaration for the stage, proposing an “iron-cast repertory” that encompassed the pieces by such authors as Jan Kochanowski and Sławomir Mrożek. A commemorative stone with a suitable inscription to that effect was put at the junction of the Marszałkowska and Królewska Streets, where the Opernhaus (Operalnia), a home to the first National Theatre, used to stand. The opening of the Wielki Theatre was celebrated with a performance of Straszny Dwór (‘The Haunted Manor’) by Stanisław Moniuszko. The Narodowy put on Kordian by Juliusz Słowacki (dir. by Dejmek). Moreover, on 19 November 1965, theatres across Poland premiered Polish plays. The academic output of the celebrations (conferences, publications) was impressive as well. The 240th anniversary of the National Theatre was not that grand, although it was commemorated by the conference “Teatr narodowy w służbie publicznej. Marzenia i rzeczywistość” (‘The National Theatre in Public Service. Dreams and Reality’), held in the Redutowe Rooms of the Wielki Theatre. The 250th anniversary, commemorated by a special resolution passed by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, is still waiting for its chronicler.
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Między dramatem a widowiskiem. Nie tylko Juliana Lewańskiego zmagania z teatralnością

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Morawski P.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2013
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vol. 62
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issue 2(246)
19-37
EN
The text constitutes an attempt at looking at Julian Lewański’s “Dramat i teatr średniowiecza i renesansu w Polsce” from the perspective of historiography’s entanglement in categories contemporary to the historian. Thus, it addresses the question of whether it is justified to apply terms like “theatre” or “drama,” as well as the criteria of artistry or work of art, to Renaissance and especially medieval culture. I try toshow that there is, indeed, some correlation between what Lewański was writing about and what theatre he had been watching and that it coloured the glasses through which he viewed the reality of spectacles in medieval and Renaissance Poland. I also try to show how the conceptual framework of literary criticism determined the image of theatricality emerging from the book. Finally, I try to put Julian Lewański’s research practice in a broader perspective of twentieth-century medieval theatre studies. As it happens, the history of research on spectacles of medieval Europe is a history of struggles with the theatre contemporary to the researchers, a history of how modern categories, e.g. drama or theatre, have been projected onto a completely different cultural formation.
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Aktor w rekonstrukcjach dramatu liturgicznego

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Kornaś T.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2013
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vol. 62
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issue 2(246)
117-133
EN
For almost twenty years now, Schola of the Wegajty Theatre has been presenting reconstructions of medieval liturgical plays trying to reinstate them as part of celebrations of the Catholic Church. Some of the prepared performances were Ordo Stellae according to the 12th-century Fleury Playbook manuscript, another 12th-century play Ludus Danielis from the same Fleury compilation, a 13th-century Ludus Passionis from the Carmina Burana code, or Ludus Paschalis comprising plays and dramatised liturgies of Easter (mostly after Polish sources). But is the return of such plays to the liturgy (today’s liturgy) possible? Comparing the medieval performing practice (or the current views on what itcould have looked like) with artistic actions of Schola the article traces possible similarities and differences between them. Schola of the Węgajty Theatre is made up of laypersons, including women. How does this situation influence the characterof liturgical plays? A priest always participates in these “reconstructions”... Towhat extent is his presence liturgical and to what extent is it theatrical? How tofind a place for a liturgical play in a church? What costumes to use? How to reconstruct gesture? How to decipher and sing neumes? These are just a few of dozens of questions coming to mind that this text attempts to examine.
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Teatr Narodowy Jerzego Grzegorzewskiego

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Kuźnicka D.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 3-4(255-256)
338-359
EN
Jerzy Grzegorzewski took over the management of the Narodowy Theatre in Warsaw on 1 January 1997, when the building was re-built after the 1985 fire. He took this post as an outstanding artistic personality that had been exciting the imagination of theatre audiences with his novel staging formulas that conveyed the message of cultural breakdown, disintegration of the individual and the crisis of values. Working out a theatrical language that would adequately express these ideas meant that certain conventions had to be negated and many widely accepted models cast away, which caused numerous interpretational difficulties and misunderstandings, and the audiences sometimes rejected his productions for this reason. Before Grzegorzewski became head of the Narodowy Theatre, the artistic community had debated about what the future of the special stage that was being rebuilt should be. Presenting his programme, Grzegorzewski harked back to Stanisław Wyspiański. He wanted a theatre whose essential features would be art, metaphysics and tradition. The premiere of Noc listopadowa (‘The November Night’) in 1997 stirred a discussion in which Grzegorzewski’s supporters voiced their approval for the revision of stereotypical notions about national myths while his critics considered it to be a treasonous attack on the national culture. The production additionally sparked a more general debate concerning the role of classical theatre repertory. Grzegorzewski was the artistic manager of the Narodowy Theatre for six seasons, from 1 January 1997 until the end of the 2002/2003 Season. He resigned before his term of office ended. In this period, the theatre gave 29 premieres on two stages: the big Bogusławski Stage, and the small one of the Sala przy Wierzbowej. Grzegorzewski himself prepared 11 productions at the time, i.e. from one to three premieres per season. In creating a unique stage idiom, sometimes based on traditional conventions and sometimes going against them, Grzegorzewski worked within a sphere of contradictions between a need for developing his own language and a need to communicate with his audience. He attacked emotions and the intellect, demonstrated possibilities of looking at the reality from various points of view, and strived to compel his audiences to get a different perspective on some generally accepted beliefs. He analysed the common horizon of awareness stressing what was open and liberating in the Polish culture and urging to open one’s eyes to modernity. During his term at the Narodowy Theatre, the postulates that theatre be more in touch with the rapidly changing reality were being formulated with increasing force and clarity. There appeared directors and companies that satisfied these expectations. In comparison with their accomplishments, the wise, aesthetically refined theatre by Grzegorzewski seemed cool and aloof, while Grzegorzewski himself came to be viewed as a classic rather than as an avant-gardist. The multitude of artistic and ideological issues revealed through Grzegorzewski’s creative work at the Narodowy usually overshadowed the accomplishments of his organisational talents.
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Gdzie był teatr narodowy w II Rzeczypospolitej?

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Dudzik W.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 3-4(255-256)
330-337
EN
The question posed in the title refers to the title of the Second Congress of Polskie Towarzystwo Badań Teatralnych (the Polish Society for Theatre Research) held in Bydgoszcz in September 2015: “Gdzie jest teatr?” (‘Where Is Theatre?’) The participants of the Congress discussed such issues as the place of contemporary theatre in society and in the sphere of public life, the major goals of today’s theatre, its institutional and organisational forms. The author transposes these questions by positing them in reference to the national theatre, understood both as a general idea and as the public institution of the Narodowy Theatre revived in 1924. The author recounts programmatic debates on these issues that went on in the press of the interwar period and then gives a critical appraisal of the artistic attempts to put the theories into practice. The Narodowy Theatre failed to develop its own production style and could not find an appropriate stage form for the great Romantic canon; the only promise on which it managed to deliver was the high quality of acting, the fact driven home especially when it came to playing Fredro. The idea of national theatre, however, found its embodiments on the stages of other theatres, e.g. at the Bogusławski and Reduta in Warsaw, in the Lvov of the 1930s, in Cracow or in Vilnius. Finally, the author considers whether it is possible to ask again today, where the national theatre is (or should be).
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Połknięty czas. Stare kobiety w dramatach Tadeusza Różewicza

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Guderian-Czaplińska E.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2013
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vol. 62
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issue 3-4(247-248)
105-118
EN
The article is an overview of old women portrayals in dramas by Tadeusz Różewicz with the intent of establishing how the image of the title character of "The Old Woman Broods", considered to be the turning point in the playwright’s oeuvre in respect of this motif, was shaped. In earlier plays, old women are mostly housewives, functioning as substitute mothers and feeders who affirmatively support other people’s lives. Gradually, however, images of old age systematically pushed away from the social field of vision begin to appear ("Gone Out" and "The Little Garden of Eden"), emphasised by their subversive variants that portray oldwomen as paradoxically powerful, as in "Metamorphoses". In his subsequent works, Różewicz abandons stereotypical images of womanhood in favour of the increasing independence of female characters, and the Old Woman constitutes their mostradical variant as she is, unexpectedly, the one most fiercely attached to the fullness of being. References to Gaia, the primal goddess, have been made clear byhow the inside and the outside, absorbing and discharging (giving birth), and the qualities of youth and old age are combined and mixed in her resulting in a vision of a peculiar monster who – for her exceptionality and ability to set her own rules against all established norms (which are abided by the other characters even in the face of the imminent end of the world) – is the hope for new life. Finally, however, the Old Woman’s body becomes a sign of degeneration, signifying the end of civilisation and culture: on Różewicz’s diagnosis, despair and death turn out to be stronger then the urge to live and breed.
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Dyscyplina po przejściach. O strategiach badań teatrologicznych

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Wachowski J.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2014
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vol. 63
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issue 1-2(249-250)
65-76
EN
New challenges that theatre studies had to face in the last decades inspire one to ponder on some basic questions: What is the contemporary theatre? And in what directions is today’s acting heading? But also: How has the status of the theatre performance changed under the influence of new technologies (most notably by the means of its recording and transmission, and their presence within the performances themselves)? The answers to these (and other) questions provided by theatre scholars lead to the conclusion that we can talk about at least four distinct ways – epistemic paradigms, as it were – of tackling such issues within the discourse of theatre studies. The first may be called inclusive theatrology. Its source is the belief that everything is theatre and theatre is everywhere. The second position may be called exclusive theatrology. It originates in understanding theatre in a narrow sense, which enables one to discriminate between theatre and other spectacles (and exclude theatre from the discourse about them). The third way is of interdisciplinary character (it means constructing a discourse that is a confluence of disciplines, or to be more exact, methodological positions; there can, obviously, be several of them). The fourth, trans-disciplinary, stance seeks out narratives summaries breaking away from the customary theatrocentrism of the scholars (and readers). It is aimed at supporting independent methods of inquiry, i.e. those devoid of any methodological (often dogmatic and a priori) assumptions. Its aim is not to produce methodological-and-epistemic contaminations, but to broaden the scope of research by shedding multi-disciplinary bands of light to see the things “caughtin-between” that would otherwise go unnoticed. It seems that it is this trans-disciplinary approach that holds the most promise for theatre studies not only because it is a breeze of fresh air that broadens the scope of theatrological research and renews the discourse, but also because it brings about a change in what is meant by criteria for academic scholarship. It redefines old concepts and customary notions (relating to the scope of research and its tools), replacing them with new methodological categories. It aims at a discourse open to cognitive inspiration and responding to challenges resulting from the developments in the humanities of today.
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„Nic do patrzenia”? Odys i inni

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Stacewicz-Podlipska J.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 3-4(255-256)
220-257
EN
The term “visual theatre” is one of the most problematic words in the vocabulary of Polish stage actions. Before the Second World War, it was clearly set in opposition to the traditional 19th-century bourgeois theatre of the literary and psychological kind. Even right after the War, the term was still restricted to a small group of high-quality, and often hermetic, artistic projects, and it did not raise too many objections. Yet with time, as stage experiments stemming from the ground prepared by the pre-war avant-garde masters were gaining new aspects and the term was used in reference to an increasing number of sometimes very varied artistic projects, the definition of the phenomenon became fuzzy. The post-war generation were fighting on a whole new front; the objectives and arms of the offensive changed; the former pioneers became classics, and audacious attacks on the status quo became part of the canon. Stage designing had emancipated itself in the course of the Great Theatre Reform, and individual contributions made by visual artists to the productions they worked on with directors no longer raised any eyebrows. Struggle for an autonomous space of artistic expression was no longer fought by artistic movements, but by individuals whose artistic visions, inextricably bound with their experience of war, led to a whole new formula for creating on-stage worlds. The imprecise and confusing name, indicating profusion of the visual aspect of the theatre production as the genre qualifier for certain artistic actions, led to an increasing opposition against the term. Associations with an excessive emphasis on the visual side of the performance and qualitative results of such practices as well as false assumptions that suggested a programmatic demand that the visual aspect of the spectacle be emancipated generated increasing opposition and irritation. In time, even some artists whose art, like the work by Kantor and Grzegorzewski, could be classified almost mechanically as “visual theatre” started objecting to the label. The term in question came under careful scrutiny of theatre theoreticians and scholars who undertook numerous attempts to confront it with the reality on stage. Today it may seem that the problems caused by its usage and doubts as to how justified it is to apply the popular term in reference to numerous on-stage worlds are just consequences of several terminological conflations. In principle, the underlying fact is that the same name has been used in reference to practices of different origins, emerging in different contexts, channelling different creative forces, and, finally, representing varied artistic qualities. One needs to discriminate, however, between the critique of the term, its accuracy, semantic capaciousness and justifiability of its usage on the one hand and an obvious statement that some artists have at their disposal some visual tools that make their work stand out in this respect. Wyspiański, who must be deemed a champion of “visually sensitive” works of Polish theatre, wrote that there are individuals who “see things differently” in contrast to those with “untrained eyesight.” In the case of Kantor, Grzegorzewski and other “directors-and-painters” the role that this exceptional eyesight played in the process of composing the activity onstage was undeniably substantial. This unique, because reserved for trained visual artists, sensitivity to non-verbal, multisensory modes of communication made the building material of their on-stage worlds absorb more non-textual layers of meaning than was usually the case. This sensitivity became especially pronounced in the respective productions of Powrót Odysa (The Return of Odysseus) prepared by Kantor and Grzegorzewski; the productions based on Wyspiański’s text became idiomatic for the artistic languages of these theatre artists.
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W kręgu awangardy. Kantor nie był osamotniony…

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Koecher-Hensel A.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 2(254)
14-36
EN
Tadeusz Kantor’s is not the only name to be associated with development of the idea of autonomous theatre; there were other artists who inspired and supported him, and contributed substantially to the creation of the new face of Polish theatre in the 20th century. Most of them worked at professional repertory theatres. At the time when Kantor studied at the academy of art, the centre of avant-garde endeavours in Cracow was the Cricot Artists’ Theatre set up by painter Józef Jarema, which was active in 1933–1939. It grouped artists averse to naturalism and psychologism in theatre; most of them were visual artists, but other members of the company included actors, directors, musicians and versatile artists as well. Józef Jarema drew into the artistic enterprise nearly all of his family – not only his sister Maria, but also his brother Władysław, who, along with his wife Zofia, set up the Groteska Puppet-and-Actor Theatre in Cracow in 1945, thus continuing the search for a theatre that would unite visual art, spoken word, music, and dance. A strong group of stage designers from Kantor’s underground Niezależny Theatre, active in 1942–1944, joined the Groteska theatre; they were Kazimierz Mikulski, Jerzy Skarżyński, Ali Bunsch, and Andrzej Cybulski. Mikulski remained with the Groteska theatre for the rest of his life while working at the Cricot 2 theatre not only as a scenario author, but also as a director and actor. Cricot’s goal was theatralisation of theatre. The visual aspect, spanning the modern mask, costume, new gesture, movement and situation arrangement, played a key role in their performances. It was the place where famous Polish premieres of Śmierć Fauna by Tytus Czyżewski (The Death of a Faun) and Mątwa (Cuttlefish) by Stanisław Ingacy Witkiewicz were put on. The production authored by Henryk Wiciński, Trójkąt i koło (Triangle and Circle, 1939) was the most innovative of their performances as far as form is concerned; it was inspired by constructivist experiments, mostly those of Bauhaus artists. Kantor drew inspiration from the same source when he was producing The Death of Tintagiles by Maeterlinck at the Ephemeral (and Mechanical) Marionette Theatre in 1938. Artists from the company, Jerzy Zitzman and Zenobiusz Zwolski, set up the Banialuka Puppet Theatre in 1947, still active in Bielsko-Biała, which, along with the Groteska theatre, has been one of the most important centres of puppetry in post-war Poland. At the Cricot Theatre, the most interesting, albeit forgotten, individuality was Henryk Wiciński. He was persistent in his struggle to realise the idea of visual theatre in which all elements of the show, i.e. decorations, costume, movement, and spoken word, would play an equally important part in the performance. A few years younger than Józef Jarema, Wiciński belonged to the second wave of the Cracow avant-garde, to a certain extent opposed to its earlier Formist and Futurist tenets. He died in 1943, when Kantor, along with other young artists, continued his experiments at the Niezależny Theatre. In 1932 Wiciński was a co-founder of Grupa Krakowska (the Cracow Group). In 1957 his friends, Maria Jarema, Jonasz Stern and Adam Marczyński along with Kantor and the painters from the Niezależny Theatre formed the Grupa Krakowska 2 Society, which continued to promote the ideas of its namesake and predecessor. One of its major goals was to support the Cricot 2 Theatre.
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Sukces czy niepowodzenie? O francuskiej realizacji Szewców Tadeusza Kantora

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Czerska K.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 2(254)
37-51
EN
The production based on The Shoemakers by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz realised by Tadeusz Kantor at Malakoff near Paris in 1972 was not a success he had expected. This is probably the reason why we know little about it, as it was not received favourably by Parisian theatre critics. Yet it marked a very important phase in the development of Kantor’s theatre, and it had a remarkable influence on his subsequent productions. Both the dramaturgical and visual aspects of The Shoemakers production may serve as a starting point for broader research on Kantor’s theatre oeuvre. It is possible to reconstruct the spectacle based on the surviving photographs, stage designs, notes and reminiscences. Emballages played an important role in the performance as kind of “wrappings” that restricted the actors’ movements. The props, costumes and bio-objects constituted a very interesting visual side of the production, further enhanced by references to the art of painters whom Kantor admired. Visually, then, the production was well thought out, even though Kantor did not manage to realise all of the things he had planned; among other things, he failed to create “folk atmosphere”, to some extent related to his plans for staging The Wedding by Wyspiański.
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"Kartoteka", czyli bohaterka

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Krakowska J.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2013
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vol. 62
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issue 3-4(247-248)
47-78
EN
The premiere of "The Card Index" (26th March 1960) directed by WandaLaskowska is the starting point for the analysis that leads in three directions,the first being a generational narrative that is built into the drama and excludesany feminine experience, the second – a historical narrative of the Polish People’s Republic period in which the presence of female directors seems to nothave been noted sufficiently, and finally the third is the process of introducingvanguard drama onto the Polish stages after 1956, which was not as easy as isgenerally thought. Repertory novelties, from Brecht to Witkacy, were introduced into theatre mostly by female directors, who took the artistic and political risks it involved. The category of “generation” brought up in the context o "fThe Card Index" – a subject of lively discussion provoked by productions of theplay in the next decades as well – prompts one to ask whether Hero could be,or could have been, Heroine instead and how the female subject was portrayedin the arts, cinema especially, of Polish People’s Republic period.
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Recenzja książki Robin Detje, Castorf, Prowokacja dla zasady, przeł. Mateusz Borowski i Małgorzata Sugiera (Kraków 2013)

80%
Duda A.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2014
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vol. 63
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issue 1-2(249-250)
328-336
EN
The article by Artur Duda is a review of the Polish edition of Castorf. Provokation als Prinzip (translated by Małgorzata Sugiera and Mateusz Borowski) by Robin Detje, the first book in Poland devoted to the artistic director of the Volksbühne in Berlin. The author of the review critically examines the book, praising the colourful portrayal of the director’s life set against the background of his family relations, numerous love partners, and with a look into very interesting private and family documents as well as school archives and files of the Stasi, East German secret police. Of particular interest is the part titled East, which concerns Castorf’s artistic activity in the GDR. The author of the review draws attention to the director’s attitude toward the Communist state, his struggles with the regime, and his balanced views on vetting informants and unofficial collaborators of the Stasi (a digression about the case of Michael Schindhelm). In Andrzej Duda’s opinion, due to the lack of historical distance, the second part of the book, entitled West, does not make as much of an impression as the first one. The reviewer emphasises the book’s merits (behind-the-scenes details of how Castorf first met the actors that he worked with in Berlin; the heroic beginnings of the Volksbühne; the significance of rock music in his life and directing, especially as far as his contestation of the bourgeois theatre and culture is concerned) but points out that the reflexion on Castorf’s theatre aesthetics is somewhat fragmentary: in what sense is he a continuator of Stanislavski and Brecht? Is he really inspired by commedia dell’arte? What are the distinguishing features of acting in Castorf’s theatre? All the objections, however, do not change the fact that R. Detje’s book about a rebel director makes for fascinating reading. Finally, the reviewer highlights some Poland-related strands in Frank Castorf’s biography.
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Grzegorz Sinko. Sylwetka badacza i krytyka teatru

80%
Kuźnicka D.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2012
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vol. 61
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issue 1-2(241-242)
211-222
EN
Grzegorz Sinko (1923–2000) was an excellent English philologist, uncommonly insightful theatre critic, outstanding theatre theoretician – in one word, a scholar of great stature. He was also an exceptional, often difficult and always interesting person. He was born in Kraków in 1923 as son of the Classical philologist of great renown, Professor Tadeusz Sinko, and Anna Starzewska, and it is in that town that he spent his childhood and youth. In 1944, he started studying English philology at the Jagiellonian University and completed his course of study in 1948. The first five years of Sinko’s academic work were spent at the University of Wrocław. This is where he received his PhD degree in 1950. He continued his fast-paced academic career in Warsaw. In 1953–1957, he was employed at the State Institute of Art (Państwowy Instytut Sztuki), and was promoted to associate professor, in 1955. Until 1971 he worked at the University of Warsaw where, after being promoted to full professor in 1964, he held various positions. According to his own opinion, he was a demanding professor. Since his debut in 1947, he published more than 450 historical and critical articles, reviews, essays, translations, and commentaries. In the 1950s, his research focused mostly on English theatre and drama. He combined his knowledge of literature and philology with competence in theatre studies. From 1959 to 1977, and especially in the1960s, his essays, analyses and critical studies appeared in Dialog monthly, where he also published his translations of English and German dramas. At the beginning of the 1970s, just as he started working at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Sinko intensified his collaboration with Teatr. The English- and German-speaking spheres of culture, productions of plays coming from these regions, accounts of what was going on in their theatres and literature of the field were to remain Sinko’s specialty as he was fluent in both languages. In 1970–1988 there appeared in Teatr 138 articles by Sinko; they included theatre and book reviews, essays, etc. It seems that the critical essay, with its less rigorous structure which enabled him to freely combine academic writing, elements of the history of literature and theatre, philology and theoretical approach with descriptions of particular theatre productions and their careful appraisal, supplemented with free expression of his intellect, suited him the most. He was a gifted writer; his articles were erudite, insightful and clear, and his vivid, witty and ironic style, coupled with his penchant for anecdote, were invaluable qualities of his writing. Sinko supported and encouraged theatrical experiments and those in search for something new who were breaking away with tradition just as long as they had a clear understanding of what they were trying to achieve and were able to show it in a convincing, compelling fashion. His critical essays displayed also a new research programme, which Sinko initiated while working at the Institute: the semiotics of theatre. Sinko had a clear and definite idea of how to study theatre. In his view, theatre studies needed a solid methodological foundation in the form of a well-developed theory, which made ample use of structuralism, semiotics, and theory of literature in general. Sinko wrote three remarkable books: Kryzys języka w dramacie współczesnym – rzeczywistość czy złudzenie? (A Crisis of Language in Modern Drama: Reality or Illusion? Wrocław, 1977), Opis przestawienia teatralnego – problem semiotyczny (Description of Theatrical Performance As a Semiological Problem, Wrocław, 1982), and Postać teatralna i jej przemiany w teatrze XX wieku (The Theatrical Character and Its Evolution in Twentieth-century Theatre, Wrocław, 1988). In his research he referred to a substantial body of English, German and French literature in the field of linguistics, literary theory and theatre studies, drawing from there categories and concepts to grasp, analyse and describe with precision the phenomena he focused on. He saw the importance of the of the paradigm shift that had been taking place in the modern humanities and paid close attention to post-structuralism. He died a tragic death.
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Kantorowskie wynalazki. Między przedmiotem magicznym a maszyną

80%
Fazan K.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2015
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vol. 64
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issue 2(254)
67-96
EN
Objects of Kantor’s imagination filled his paintings, theatrical productions and writings. The article reflects upon their material existence in the performances and their subsequent “museum life”, freed from the context of theatrical performance. Objects of Kantor’s art are viewed here both as embodiments of an eternal dream of theatre involving a mechanical invention that would live in art and as consequences of the avant-garde search for form arising from critical reflexion on technological and cultural progress. Such an object is, thus, a magical form yielding circus-like and ludic effects within a theatrical performance and a machine, or apparatus, employing modern technology and entering into ambivalent relationships with human presence. Machine is a human invention (made by a miracle man, artist, engineer, researcher) and a projection of dreams and anxieties experienced by the individual subjected to pressures of technological progress. Tadeusz Kantor had a peculiar way of taking note of this function; during the Second World War he introduced Goplana not through a performing actress that would represent the fairy-tale character of Julisz Słowacki’s Romantic drama but through the “razor of history”, a formal construction threatening in its expressive qualities (Balladyna, 1943). He created intuitive spaces of exclusion in the form of the Aneantisation Machine for his production of The Madman and the Nun (1963) based on Stanisław I. Witkiewicz’s drama and the Final Judgment Trumpet in Gdzie są niegdysiejsze śniegi (“Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear”, 1973). He treated his inventions as discoveries of unbridled artistic imagination (emballages, cambriolages, ready-mades feeding off reality), as objects of prophecies, apocalyptic visions or historiosophical and metaphysical conclusions: Mr Daguerre’s Invention (Wielopole, Wielopole, 1980), Bodies of Power (“Organa władzy”) in Dziś są moje urodziny (“Today Is My Birthday”, 1990). To him, an object was an actor.
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Recenzja książki Zbigniewa Jędrychowskiego, Teatra grodzieńskie 1784–1864 (Warszawa, 2012)

80%
Leyko M.
Pamiętnik Teatralny
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2014
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vol. 63
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issue 1-2(249-250)
271-277
EN
Zbigniew Jędrychowski is the only Polish scholar conducting comprehensive historical research on the theatre life in Grodno and Grodno Province, and his book is the first monograph of Grodno theatre that spans the period starting with the opening of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s theatre on Horodnica in 1785 and ending in 1864 when the Polish stage was closed down as part of the repressions following the January Uprising. The book Teatra grodzieńskie encompasses the eighty-year-long period in which theatre companies remained active and performed in Polish, as it is the language that consists the author’s basic research criterion as to what theatre phenomena are to be taken into account. The Theatre on Horodnica, periodically lapsing into ruin, for three generations served the purposes of presenting Polish culture that was gradually stifled by the Russian rule. The venue was leased to managers of particular theatre companies, but the theatre house was owned and administered by the local authorities, first by the Grodno Governor, and then by the town council, which dictated artists their terms and supervised the repertory. The author has confirmed performances of troupes and companies managed by twenty-seven entrepreneurs, which first sporadically, and then, from the 1830s and 1840s regularly, toured also the whole region, performing at Brześć Litewski, Kobryń, Lida, Nowogródek, Świsłocz, Zelwa, and most of all at Druskieniki, which became the summer theatre capital of the province. The list of Grodno theatre managers opens with Wojciech Bogusławski, followed, inter alia, by Jan Szymański, Stanisław Nowakowski, Józef Surewicz, Andrzej Chełchowski, and women: Salomea Deszner, Izabela Górska, and Barbara Linkowska. In his historical chronicle, Jędrychowski interweaves several threads: he takes into account the changing political and legal situation, which defined the limits of the dwindling theatre freedom; he takes a look at the biographies of Grodno artists and their attitudes toward the tsarist administration, which reflect how Polish theatre was treated by the authorities; he reconstructs the history of theatre pieces, sometimes unknown or banned in the Kingdom of Poland but presented in Grodno; he studies both the history of particular texts, damaged by government interference, and the stage world of the epoch that they reveal. Complemented with a list of repertories and indices that make it easy to find detailed information, the book by Jędrychowski is outstanding in its exceptionally thorough editorial and typographical aspects as well.
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