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1

Fluctuat nec mergitur

100%

Ciechowicz J.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2013

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tom 62

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nr 1(245)

48–61

EN

Pamiętnik Teatralny, the best Polish (quarterly) academic journal devoted to “history and critique of theatre”, was established in 1952, that is, half a century after Pamiętnik Literacki, the best Polish literary criticism journal. After the death of Leon Schiller, an outstanding man of theatre and the journal’s founder, Pamiętnik Teatralny gained its subheading: “A Quarterly Journal of Theatre History and Criticism, Established by Leon Schiller”. Since its first issues, the cover of the journal has featured a Latin sentence: fluctuat nec mergitur, which is incidentally also the motto of the city of Paris and can be translated as: “it is tossed by the waves, but does not sink.” The motto is accompanied by a picture by unknown author, depicting a “pile” with a theatre mask, a mirror and a harp in the foreground, which is a metaphor of theatre as such. Almost right after Schiller’s death, from 1956 up to 1992, the helm was taken over by the excellent tandem of editors-andprofessors, Zbigniew Raszewski and Bohdan Korzeniewski. From 1952 to 1992, 164 issues of the journal were published, including 37 monographic volumes that had been building the exceptionally high academic prestige of the periodical from its very beginnings.

2

Molière i inni

80%

Kencki P.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 4(252)

7-13

EN

The introductory article presents the conception of the present volume of Pamiętnik Teatralny (4/2014) that focuses mostly on the reception of Molière, but also, as there is such opportunity, of other French playwrights in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of all, the particular stages of absorbing the work of the great comedy writer are discussed. The initial phase of the process encompasses the plays performed at courts of distinguished Polish noblemen fascinated with French culture in the 17th century. The next phase brings the adaptations and paraphrases written by magnates in the Saxon period. The subsequent stage is marked by the presence of Molière’s comedies on the stages of schools run by religious orders, which included adaptations made by Father Franciszek Bohomolec. Public performances organised in Poland by foreigners constitute a separate phenomenon. The translations completed for the National Stage by Polish authors (by Wojciech Bogusławski and Jan Baudouin, among others) were also an important part of the reception process. It would also be worthwhile to note that it had its impact on theatres at provincial courts as well. The volume contains texts about other French playwrights as well. Much space is given to some issues concerning the work of Pierre de Marivaux, and a little less – to that of other playwrights. The following authors are mentioned, among others: Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Philippe Quinault, Philippe Néricault Destouches, Jean François Regnard, and many others.

3

Teatr staropolski w teatrze Piotra Cieplaka

80%

Jarmuż S.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2013

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tom 62

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nr 2(246)

100-116

EN

The starting point for the findings presented in the article was a detailed analysis of Historyja o chwalebnym Zmartwychwstaniu Pańskim productions. Piotr Cieplak staged the mystery play by Mikołaj of Wilkowiecko three times: first at the Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny in 1993, then at the Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw a year later, and finally as a television adaptation for Teatr Telewizji (TV Teatre) in 1995. The author asserts that even though Cieplak had completed three other productions at the Wilam Horzyca Theatre in Toruń it was “Historyja”... that was truly his debut and something of a manifesto. It is there that he has indicated whattype of theatre he intends to make, what problems he considers worth discussing and in what forms he intends to do it. First impressions notwithstanding, it is argued that it was not the past but rather the present that inspired the director to stage “Historyja”..., or more precisely, it was liquid modernity and the changes it had been undergoing. Yet his goal was not only to show these changes. Had it been only that he could have used some other text. The fact that he chose “Historyja”...means that his intentions were more complex. In the author’s opinion, Cieplak meant not only to present his observations on liquid modernity but also to remind the audience that which was old, primordial, constant and captured bythe fundamental Christian concepts present in “Historyja”.... In liquid modernity these terms changed their meanings. Cieplak indicated these changes but at the same time – in a modern way, adequate for the sensibility and expectations of new audience – reminded the contemporaries of the old, primitive meanings. Cieplak’s theatre, though emerging from the “here and now,” leads into a universe that transcends earthly reality. It is an attempt at rooting inhabitants of the liquid worldback in the Christian cosmos. “Historyja”... was, in the author’s view, a founding act of this endeavour, in which Cieplak has persisted ever since.

4

Arlekin Bohomolca i Poliszynel Duranty’ego. O humorze uwolnionym od obowiązków

80%

Waszkiel H.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2015

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tom 64

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nr 3-4(255-256)

126-142

EN

The article draws attention to Harlequin’s presence in Polish theatre and his later gradual disappearance from the stage. Two comedies by Franciszek Bohomolec, Arlekin na świat urażony (1756) and Nieszczęśliwe przypadki Panfila (1783), are analysed in detail. Composing the first of them, the outstanding comedy writer was still enchanted by commedia dell’arte (watched in Italy and at the Operalnia in Warsaw) and, additionally, drew inspiration from the traditional folk interplays. In later years, having become a champion of royal reforms and a supplier of didactic comedies for the public theatre, he succumbed to the rules and didacticism of the Enlightenment. The example of the two closely related comedies by Bohomolec is a forceful demonstration that Harlequin was expelled from Polish drama and theatre very quickly, even during the lifetime of the first generation of “national” comedy writers. The grass-roots-level, plebeian comedy in Poland all but disappeared; its traces could only be found in humorous gags incorporated into nativity plays (szopkas). It was not so in Western Europe, where the Harlequin character, driven out of the “serious” theatre, flourished in the puppet theatre—as fair-market and plebeian as himself. In 1861, at the Tuileries Garden in Paris, Louis Éile Edmond Duranty (1833–1880) established his puppet theatre. Among the twenty-four surviving dramas by Duranty featuring Pulcinella, Pierrot and Harlequin characters, there is one strikingly resembling some motifs of Bohomolec’s Arlekin na świat urażony, even though it is more than a century later; it is entitled Polichinelle retiré du monde. The comparison of these three versions of the same motif (two versions by Bohomolec and one by Duranty) confirms the hypothesis that the Enlightenment, in its didactic and moralising fervour, thwarted the development of plebeian comedy. However, whereas in Western Europe the spirit of commedia dell’arte found its refuge in the fair-market puppet theatre, in Poland the gag proved to be effective, and thus we do not have a Polish Pulcinella.

5

Julian Lewański o staropolszczyźnie Leona Schillera i Kazimierza Dejmka

80%

Kuligowska-Korzeniewska A.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2013

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tom 62

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nr 2(246)

86-99

EN

Using Julian Lewański’s essay “Leona Schillera prace nad teatrem staropolskim” (Pamiętnik Teatralny 1955 No. 3–4) as a starting point the author undertakes to analyse the way the most outstanding researcher of old Polish drama perceived the work of this drama’s most outstanding directors. While evaluating Leon Schiller’s achievements in this respect Lewański had been working on his anthology of old Polish dramas, which would then becomecanonical. Thus, it is not surprising that the scholar paid attention to various historical inaccuracies found in Schiller’s productions. On the other hand, however, he did notice and appreciate the director’s efforts to “form a Polish theatrical style. ”Lewański looked at Kazimierz Dejmek’s old Polish productions from a different point of view as he participated in their inception as a consultant or scenario co-author. Without doubt, the collaboration was fruitful and beneficial for both parties. It made the productions richer, but it also broadened the researcher’s horizons. At the end the author recalls a conversation she had with Lewański in 1998.The scholar, over eighty years old at the time, talked with approval and enthusiasm about the novel production of “Historyja o chwalebnym Zmartwychwstaniu Pańskim” that was being prepared by Piotr Cieplak.

6

Reinhardt reżyseruje Shakespeare’a. Przestrzeń jako paradygmat inscenizacji

80%

Leyko M.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 3(251)

66-85

EN

Plays by Shakespeare constituted an important and strong element of the repertories of Max Reinhardt’s theatres, perhaps the strongest apart from the Greek tragedies, German and European classics, and contemporary drama. Novelty of Reinhardt’s Shakespearean productions becomes apparent when juxtaposed with the German tradition of staging Shakespeare, i.e. with productions by Ludwig Schröder, Ludwig Tieck, Franz Dingelstedt, or Georg von Meiningen. In Reinhardt’s case, the reform in stage technique went hand in hand with a new definition of goals for theatre: it stopped being subservient to literature and came to be viewed as using literature only as a basis for its own works. The key innovation of this programme was to stage classical plays using modern aesthetics: ‘Thanks to the classics, new life flows onto the stage; its colours and music, its greatness and grandeur, its joy’, the German director proclaimed. Max Reinhardt staged fifteen plays by the English playwright, some of which he produced only once (e.g. The Tempest or Julius Caesar), twice or thrice (Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, King Henry IV, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado about Nothing) whereas some he revisited numerous times, producing them on different stages that offered varied space conditions – these include As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream especially. The 1913–14 Season at the Deutsches Theater saw the beginning of A Shakespearean Cycle [Shakespeare-Zyklus] that showed thirteen premiere and re-run productions in total. The article focuses on select productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: at the Neues Theater in Berlin on a box stage in 1905; at the Künstlertheater in Munich on a frieze stage in 1909; in the Nicolasee park in Murnau in 1910; at Klessheim in 1932, and at the Hollywood Bowl amphitheatre for the audience of 20,000 people in 1935. They show how, depending on what space conditions he had, Reinhardt changed his strategies of directing.

7

Molière w teatrach warszawskich (1870–1919). Rekonesans

80%

Bieńka M. O.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2015

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tom 64

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nr 3-4(255-256)

180-219

EN

Molière in Warsaw Theatres (1870–1919). A Reconnaissance

8

Animowane rzeźby w ceremoniach liturgicznych i paraliturgicznych : niedoceniony element dziejów teatru w Polsce

80%

Kopania K.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2013

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tom 62

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nr 2(246)

49-71

EN

The article is devoted to medieval and Early Modern animated sculpturesfrom the current and former territories of Poland. Sculptures of this kind, withthe construction of various degrees of complexity, quipped sometimes withmechanisms enabling movement of chosen body parts, e.g. the head, hands or legs,were used at theatralised liturgical and paraliturgical ceremonies, mostly during Holy Week. Such ceremonies have a rich tradition, which is clearly testified notonly by numerous surviving written accounts of specific ceremonies but also by seldom talked about and mostly unknown to theatre historians sculpted pieces thatare the subject of this article. The article contains a detailed presentation of surviving and known from historical accounts figures of the Christ on a donkey, fixed to platforms onwheels and used on Palm Sunday; animated statues of the Crucified Christ, fitted with mechanisms that made it possible to take the figure off the cross on Good Friday; and statues of the Resurrected Christ that were used during ceremonies commemorating the Ascension of Christ. Other works of similar character used inother periods of liturgical year, though fewer, have also been mentioned.

9

Festspiel in deutschen Reimen

80%

Jurkowski H.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2012

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tom 61

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nr 1-2(241-242)

89-118

EN

In June of 1913, Max Reinhardt put on the play Das Festspiel in deutschen Reimen commissioned from Gerhart Hauptman by the Breslau city council to commemorate the centenary of the “liberation war” waged against Napoleon’s army by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. Occasional plays had a rich tradition, inherited from the Renaissance and the Baroque. Goethe wrote them; playwrights in other countries wrote them as well. And Poland was no exception. Occasional spectacles of the 19th century promoted the cult of Napoleon. Hauptmann accepted the commission with some qualms. He disliked shows of patriotism laced with militarism. He took inspiration from the satirical tradition of ancient mimes which ridiculed pompous individuals. After a few attempts of script writing (one of them being Napoleonic Mime), he composed Festspiel, based on a metaphor taken from puppet theatre: the rulers, politicians and generals were just marionettes on the stage of the world. The manager of the theatre was to show his heroes as marionettes and then, with actors help, present a chronicle of events starting with the French Revolution and ending with the defeat of Zeus-Napoleon after his retreat from Moscow at Leipzig, and then culminating with complete symbolic liberation of the Germans with help of their poets and philosophers. The allegorical character of Germania predicted a new happy life despite the intentions of Marshall Blücher, always ready to fight another war. Luckily, the theatre manager sent him back to a box for marionettes. Reinhardt produced the spectacle with great panache, for several thousand spectators, with excellent actors. The public received it well, but German nationalists raised protests. The heir to the throne, Friedrich Wilhelm Victor threatened that he would take back his patronage over the celebrations, and the city council took the play off after just eleven shows. The German experience is of universal value. War over symbols and allegories is being fought constantly in many countries. It is a part of the political culture of our times.

10

Molière, Morsztyn, Marysieńka

80%

Kencki P.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 4(252)

14-44

EN

The article discusses the beginnings of Molière’s reception in Poland. The Paris premiere of Sganarelle ou Le Cocu imaginaire on 28 May 1660 serves as a starting point for the discussion. The performance of the same comedy in Warsaw on 5 March 1669 is the first instance of Molière’s work being performed in Poland. It was put on at Jan Andrzej Morsztyn’s palace to honour the departure of the former king of Poland John Casimir Vasa. Another royal couple, King John III Sobieski and Marie Casimire, can be credited with putting on Les fourberies de Scapin (Cracow, 12 April 1676), L’École des femmes and L’Amour médecin (Jaworów, June 1684). Organisers of the Jaworów shows even mentioned Molière by name. Thanks to Rafał Leszczyński, Polish king Stanislav’s father, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme was staged during the Carnival of 1687, probably in Leszno. While the four previous shows were performed in French, it is not clear whether it was so in the case of the last one. Certainly, however, a theatre programme that has survived to our times contains first attempts at rendering the comedy in Polish. While discussing the reception of Molière in Old Poland the author takes the opportunity to mention Polish translations and productions of Jean Racine’s tragedies and Pierre Corneille’s and Urbain Chevreau’s tragicomedies of the period. One important finding concerns the second play staged at the event organised by Morsztyn in 1669. A piece titled Le Docteur de verre performed there was, without doubt, a fragment of La comédie sans comédie by Philippe Quinault.

11

Recenzja książki Przemysława Strożka, Marinetti i futuryzm w Polsce 1909–1939. Obecność – kontakty – wydarzenia (Warszawa, 2012)

80%

Hernik-Spalińska J.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 1-2(249-250)

289-305

EN

The book Marinetti i futuryzm w Polsce 1909–1939. Obecność – kontakty – wydarzenia by Przemysław Strożek not only adds to the current knowledge of Futurism but most of all increases the awareness of its ambiguous and questionable politico-ideological dimension, which has been largely overlooked in the general reception of the movement. The fascist affiliation of the movement has been usually swept under the rug in the international research. This results from “attempts to reject the embarrassing works that expressed the fascist propaganda”, which right after 1945 formed a distorted view of the movement’s activity so that it would “suit the new image of the post-war Italy”. Thus, it may be said that Strożek’s book contributes substantially to our knowledge of the Polish socio-cultural life in the inter-war period insofar that it sheds new light on some of its aspects that have seemed already settled and defined, and shows how surprisingly strong, given the weakness of the Futurist movement reception in Poland, the impact of Futurism on the shape of contemporary theatre, and even on the socio-political and intellectual life in general, really was. The author refers the dramaturgical principles according to which the Italian Futurist dramas (the so-called syntheses) were composed, presents the Futurist movement in chronological order, and shows in what ways its accomplishments influenced the Polish literary and theatre life. He recounts the failed, but very important for the subsequent reception of the movement, attempts to stage Italian Futurist plays at the Polski Theatre in Warsaw and discusses two Polish premieres of Jeńcy (Prigionieri) by Marinetti (Lvov, 1933; and Cracow, 1937). The discussion of these theatre events is accompanied by an insightful analysis of the influence that the Polish cultural and intellectual circles had on popularising the Italian Futurism in Poland, even though at the same time they turned a blind eye on the work of Polish Futurists.

12

Dookoła trzech Hamletów. Teatr Polski w Warszawie 1922–1939–1947

80%

Komorowski J.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2013

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tom 62

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nr 1(245)

77–97

EN

The Polski Theatre has presented Shakespeare’s Hamlet to its audiences three times so far, in 1922, 1939, and 1947. The production of 1922, directed by the theatre manager Arnold Szyfman, constituted a decisive element of the counteroffensive mounted against increasingly heavy attacks of the critics. They all accused the theatre of lowering its artistic level. The Shakespearean counterstroke was received warmly, in hopes of change for the better. Unexpectedly, the premiere of Hamlet directed by Aleksander Węgierko, which took place on 4 April 1939, was overshadowed by political life, as the threat of war was looming ever larger and Great Britain had just provided Poland with the guarantees of military help. Thus, contrary to the producers’ intentions, many reviewers interpreted the play, and Fortinbras’ army march against Poland especially, in the context of the current political situation. As a result, the artistic qualities were often overlooked. Another premiere of Hamlet, on 17 July 1947, again directed by Szyfman, inaugurated the final of the all-national Shakespearean Competition, which was to show the condition of theatre companies in post-war Poland. The Competition was taking place in a tragically ambiguous situation. On the one hand, it was supposed to be a sign of Polish ties with European culture while on the other hand, it was organised in a country being, for all practical purposes, under Soviet occupation, in the circumstances of increasing Communist terror. This time, however, due to censorship, the theatre reviews were devoid of clear political references. The production received positive but not enthusiastic reviews even though it won the greatest number of awards in the competition. Tadeusz Kończyc, one of the 1939 reviewers, remarked that, despite difficulties, the greatest theatres once in a while “come back to Hamlet as to a fount of powerful and everlasting impressions”. The Polski Theatre in Warsaw has not done so for 66 years.

13

Recenzja książki Andrieja Moskwina Teatr białoruski 1920–1930. Odrodzenie i zagłada (Warszawa 2013)

80%

Kuligowska-Korzeniewska A.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 1-2(249-250)

306-311

EN

The book by Andriej Moskwin focuses on the Belarusian theatre of the inter-war period, at the time of awakening of the national culture and its later obliteration. Discussing the decade of 1920–1930, the author presents outstanding artists, the history of the Belarusian State Theatre, and development of Belarusian drama. Moskwin, not without reason, claims to have discovered and described the programme of the Belarusian national theatre. It is one of the book’s qualities. The author does not make any groundbreaking historical discoveries but argues that his description of them “is still thematically relevant”. As far as academic standards are concerned, the book is exemplary (the research carried out to date, biographies of the artists, reconstructions of shows, repertory, etc.), thus filling out a substantial gap in our knowledge of our close neighbours.

14

Co wchłania gąbka? Uwagi o Hamlecie na scenach polskich po drugiej wojnie światowej

80%

Kuźnicka D.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

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tom 63

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nr 3(251)

105-123

EN

The history of Shakespearean Hamlet on Polish stages after the Second World War is rich enough to provoke an attempt to make some general points. They can refer to our modernity, because theatre has heeded the call formulated expressly by the critics that Hamlet should reflect the current sensibilities and define the world here and now. Thus, the presented study, which takes into account over ninety post-war productions of the Shakespearean tragedy, not only explores the issues concerning persistence of the theatrical convention that a production should follow closely the text of the drama and respect its integrity, but it also tackles some questions concerning social role models and their transformations related to deeper cultural changes. Remarks on this subject are a contribution to the ongoing discussion about Maria Janion’s proposition that a certain form of Polish culture is dying away, taking the Romantic paradigm along with it. Until the end of the 1990s, the Polish stages were dominated by conventional productions, both mediocre and outstanding, that reflected the sensibilities and intellectual climate of their times. These productions include: Hamlet directed by Roman Zawistowski in 1956, Irena Babel’s show in 1959, and the much later productions by Hanuszkiewicz in 1970, Warlikowski in 1999, and by Klata (H.) in 2004. All these productions indicate two areas essential to the contemporary ‘thinking with Hamlet’, i.e. a broad sphere of political issues combined with reflexion on the mechanisms of power and laws of historical process, on the one hand, and the problems of cultural change that brings about changes in the psychology and personalities of the play’s protagonists, on the other hand. So what does Hamlet absorb? It absorbs the shocks of the convention under siege, which, giving way to individual formulae, has retained its productivity as a means of making sense of the world. Hamlet himself has lost his heroic qualities and even his intellectual potential, thus demonstrating the unattractiveness of reason. It reinforces Maria Janion’s assertion that the modern culture has lost its utopian aspect. One has to agree with her observation about ‘the sense of impunity and helplessness bred by the collapse of the present Polish cultural system happening before our very eyes’.

15

Z dziejów żydowskich widowisk rozrywkowych we Lwowie przed 1945

80%

Szydłowska M.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2014

|

tom 63

|

nr 1-2(249-250)

77-152

EN

Entertainment played a major role in the cultural life of the Jewish community that constituted about one third of the population of Lvov before the Second World War. The article discuses a broad array of such shows, from popular folk performances to artistic cabarets and outdoor stage concerts. The folk current, especially strong before the First World War, was represented by klezmer musicians and the legendary Broder singers who came to Lvov with songs about the hardships of life of indigent Jews. Their performances in pubs, inns, and gardens attracted poor and uneducated audiences while being shunned by the intelligentsia. Jewish audiences, this time intellectual elites as well, enjoyed kleynkunst performances, or artistic cabaret shows modelled on their Polish and Russian counterparts, staged with care for their high literary and artistic merits, but infused with Jewish folklore and everyday experience of the community. Lvov never had its resident Jewish cabaret, but it was visited by Warsaw and Łódź kleynkunst theatres, such as Sambation, Azazel, Scala, Ararat, Di Idisze Bande, and others that formed just to play in the summer season. These theatres created their own stars, who toured with their own recitals; among them were the diseuses Hilda Dulickaja and Chajele Grober, the Ola Lilith and Władysław Godik duet, and the dramatic singer Wiktor Chenkin. The outdoor stage acts included also soloist dancers, students of Lvov dance schools, reciters, including the world-famous Herc Grossbart, and cantors. These numerous and varied entertainment shows were part of the local colour of Lvov, one of the greatest centres of Jewish culture in the world.

16

Teatr Narodowy Jerzego Grzegorzewskiego

80%

Kuźnicka D.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2015

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tom 64

|

nr 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.

17

Uwagi „Śmigusa” o teatrze pana Pimpla

80%

Szydłowska M.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2012

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tom 61

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nr 3-4(243-244)

19-36

EN

The history of establishing of the Jewish theatre in the Galician capital and the first years of its operation were discussed in the article “Uwagi o teatrze Jakuba Bera Gimpla we Lwowie” (Notes on Jacob Ber Gimpel’s Theatre in Lwów), published in Pamiętnik Teatralny 2010 z. 1–2. Now we are presenting fourteen texts relating to this theatre, published in the satirical biweekly Śmigus in 1889, 1890 and 1892. These include two poems composed by Adolf Kitschmann, an artist of the Polish theatre in Lwów, translator and writer. A journalist of Jewish descent, Michał Abler, probably authored the rest of the texts. As humour and merciless satire was a weapon which Śmigus wielded against all of Lwów’s nationalities and institutions, it is hardly surprising that they abound in the sources reprinted here. For a theatre historian, they have an additional value as they shed light on some of Gimpel’s management problems, the theatre’s repertory and actors – and such information, in view of the fact that Polish-language sources documenting the history of the Jewish stage are scarce, is worth noting.

18

SPATIF Leona Schillera

80%

Chojnacka A.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2012

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tom 61

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nr 1-2(241-242)

143-210

EN

The Society of Polish Theatre and Film Artists (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Artystów Teatru i Filmu: SPATiF) was a continuation of the Polish Stage Artists Union (Związek Artystów Scen Polskich; ZASP) established by and for actors and directors in 1918. Leon Schiller had been its active member since the beginning. ZASP had made it its goal to evaluate and improve its members’ professional qualifications, and took care of various organisational and artistic matters. During the Second World War, the union organised help for actors in need and took part in some activities of the Polish underground. In 1945, as more and more of Poland’s territory was being freed from the Nazi oppression, new theatre companies and local trade union organisations were being formed. The Communist government, however, aimed at bringing all trade unions into submission. Thus, in 1949, a decision to dissolve six trade unions of artists, including ZASP, was made. Soon afterwards, they were all replaced by a single Trade Union of Arts and Culture Workers (Związek Zawodowy Pracowników Sztuki i Kultury) which was controlled by the Central Council of Trade Unions (Centralna Rada Związków Zawodowych), with party dignitaries holding the reins. Actors and directors were right to conclude that the new union would not represent their interests properly and decided to establish their own organisation. The process of its formation was controlled by the party. SPATiF was established at the Formation Conference held on 11 and 12 of July 1950. Schiller became its first president and right at the start presented an extensive programme. He proposed repertories with Romantic drama, professional and ideological training courses, organisation of a central library, publishing of theatrological literature and the society’s own periodical, and organisation of artistic councils in theatres. The assumption was that the society would have real influence on decisions concerning theatre. Yet SPATiF was not a trade union, and it was ignored by the government. The Managerial Board of SPATiF organised local branches of the Society but focused its activity on Warsaw. The organisation managed to collect a substantial number of books for its library; it organised numerous lectures, discussions, courses, meetings with artists from abroad, and actors’ jubilees. The Society engaged in important cultural and political events, i.e. general election to Sejm in 1952 or the Tenth Anniversary of the People’s Republic of Poland celebrations. It provided social help for its members and their families, and funded the Shelter for Veteran Artists in Skolimów. Despite numerous efforts of the President and the whole SPATiF, it had been impossible to establish any satisfactory principles of cooperation between the Society and the Central Management of Theatres Office, the Ministry of Culture and the Trade Union of Arts and Culture Workers. Schiller died on 25 March 1954. His duties were taken over by Vice-President Marian Wyrzykowski. The first General Meeting of the Society Members took place in 1955. Neither then nor later did the relations between SPATiF and the government improve.

19

O widowiskach staropolskich

80%

Kencki P.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

|

2013

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tom 62

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nr 2(246)

5-18

EN

The author presents the world of old Polish spectacles by combining performative and ethnoscenological perspectives. On the one hand, he makes use of his own definition of performance as a causal action while, on the other hand, attempting to distinguish the sphere of old Polish spectacles and pinpoint its unique features. In his analysis, he eschews any theatrocentric classification of performance phenomena. The middle part of the article discusses Julian Lewański’s research on old theatre and stresses the novel way in which he looked at various sides of stage creation using classifications derived from sociology. The last, and the longest, part is an attempt to combine the methodological assumptions discussed in the previous sections. Its title, “Power and Spectacle,” is a deliberate reference to the thought of Michel Foucault and Jon McKenzie. Adoption of such a point of view leads the author to distinguish the concepts of direct and indirect performatives, which may be exemplified by a public execution on the one hand, and the drowning of Marzanna on the other. At the same time the author proposes to replace the sociological classification put forward by Lewański with one that differentiates the kinds old Polish spectacles in relation to centres of power: the Church, secular authorities, and school situated on the borderland between them. The author, however, does not ignore the “prehistoric” sphere of spectacles functioning at the lower, or deeper, levels of culture that the aforementioned typology fails to grasp. The whole text is set into a frame of metaphors relating to old and modern visions of cosmos.

20

Kantorowskie wynalazki. Między przedmiotem magicznym a maszyną

80%

Fazan K.

Pamiętnik Teatralny

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2015

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tom 64

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nr 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.