Theatre of Poland
The tradition of the great 19th century players, with Helena Modrzejewska – the "star of two continents" – at its forefront, has been continued by successive generations of university trained artists.
The core of its repertoire consists of the most cherished Polish and foreign dramas, with which directors conduct their individual dialogues, asking these classic pieces questions tormenting modern-day Poles.
Most characteristic are the productions of Jerzy Grzegorzewski (Theatre director between 1997 and 2002), who, employing complicated stage equipment (metaphoric scenographic elements such as pantographs, huge musical instruments, or symbolic props) and creating his own montage of classic texts, testing their value, searching for their relevance to the here and now.
This theatre, which shone in the seventies thanks to the well-regarded and world-famous productions of Konrad Swinarski, Jerzy Jarocki, and Andrzej Wajda, is attempting to continue these traditions, seeking worthy successors to these masters.
Lupa is also one of the most important teachers of directing at the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków, where his students have included the newest generation of Polish directors: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Grzegorz Jarzyna, Maja Kleczewska, Anna Augustynowicz, Michal Zadara and Jan Klata.
At present, the Polish theatre actor possibly best known outside the country is Andrzej Seweryn, who in the years 1984–1988 was a member of the international group formed by Peter Brook to work on the staging of the Mahabharata, and since 1993 has been linked with the Comédie Française.
The most revered actor of the second half of the twentieth century in Poland is generally considered to be Tadeusz Łomnicki, who died in 1992 of a heart attack while rehearsing King Lear.
Warlikowski has gained international recognition with a series of innovative productions of Shakespeare, performed both at Polish theatres (The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet) and abroad (Pericles at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Twelfth Night and The Tempest at the Stadt-Theater in Stuttgart).
The true rebirth, following the collapse of the Soviet empire, was experienced by the Ludowy Theatre in Nowa Huta district of Kraków taken over by an actor, director, and politician Jerzy Fedorowicz (1989–2005).
The most recognized directors in Poland, such as Krzysztof Warlikowski, Grzegorz Jarzyna, Jan Klata, Michal Zadara or Maja Kleczewska work in Warsaw, but also travel to other cities.
Recognised masters (Jerzy Jarocki, Krystian Lupa) and a group of younger directors, with Piotr Cieplak and Paweł Miśkiewicz at the head, collaborate with Wrocław's theatres.
So he began putting on shows relating events in the lives of the local citizens, as well as siting classical dramas in surprising arenas (e.g., Shakespeare's Coriolanus in an old Prussian barracks).
In his Forefathers' Eve, the most important work in Polish literature, there is a vision of theatre as phenomenon on the border between a show and a ceremony led by an actor.
His works, born of Romantic and symbolic inspiration, conjoining Catholic, pagan, and classic traditions with the existential and political problems of the new century, has not been completely discovered and understood to this day, forming a vivid and fascinating heritage.
It was to this tradition that the originators of Polish monumental theatre, Leon Schiller (Edward Gordon Craig's collaborator), Juliusz Osterwa, and Wilam Horzyca, harked back.
Aiming for the creation of a performance as a selfless act of sacrifice, he carried out the second great reform, after Konstantin Stanisłavski's, of the actor's art, and his book Towards a Poor Theatre is still one of the most important textbooks in drama schools the world over.
Włodzimierz Staniewski, who, after some years of close collaboration with Grotowski, finally rebelled, founded the "Gardzienice" Centre for Theatrical Practice in 1977 in a small village near Lublin.
The most characteristic aspect of "Gardzienice" is its treatment of theatre as one of many various cultural activities, including expeditions to areas inhabited by people holding onto folk traditions (e.g., the Eastern parts of Poland, Lemko villages or the Ukrainian Hucul region), and a strong link between art and the environment from which it arises.
One specific form of political rebellion through theatre was promoted by Wrocław's Orange Alternative, an informal group which organised mass events poking fun at the symbols and ceremonies of officialdom.
Its originator is considered to be Józef Szajna (1922), an artist whose collaboration with theatre began with stage design, went on to direction, and, since the seventies, the creation of theatrical productions employing striking pictures referring to expressionist and surrealist aesthetics.
Recent seasons have been a period of great operatic success for the film director Mariusz Treliński, who has aroused the interest of New York's Metropolitan Opera.
To this end, there are such festivals as "Contact," taking place annually in Toruń, and "Dialogue," organised biannually in autumn in Wrocław, in turn with Kraków's "Dedications" (October) and Warsaw's "Meetings" (November).
Aside from these, the most interesting events are "Theatrical Confrontations" in Lublin (October), the open-air "Malta" festival in Poznań (June), Kraków's "Ballet in Spring" and the Puppet Theatre Biennial in Bielsko-Biała.
During the Second World War, he co-founded, with his old teacher Mieczysław Kotlarczyk, the underground Rhapsodic Theatre, a group cultivating the Romantic tradition of live poetry.
