Teatralny odszczepieniec. W 50. rocznicę powstania Teatru 38

Abstrakt

THEATRE 38 – THE THEATRICAL DISSENTER. ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

From the very beginning of its existence, Theatre 38 (Teatr 38) earned the name of “theatrical dissenter” and its stage productions were often considered iconoclastic. The staff was recruited from the Kraków university circles (mainly from the local small, student theatrical troupes) and the theatre was established in the aftermath of the political thaw following the events of October 1956. Over the first three seasons the leader of the company was Waldemar Krygier who directed all of the 22 premieres which Theatre 38 produced in that period. At that time, Theatre 38 was the only institution in Poland which included world literature, especially the latest achievements of modern fiction which had never been adapted to the Polish stage (be it professional or amateur) in its repertoire. Student theatres of the time usually leaned towards the cabaret convention, presenting shows which had been based on the actors’ own scripts which reflected the present socio-political situation and were often prepared almost “on the spot”, while professional theatre companies were mostly fossilized in their creative stagnancy and it would take them a lot of time to recover from the pre-October 1956 inertia. Waldemar Krygier’s theatre was the first theatre company in Poland to persistently include e.g. the latest developments of the Parisian avant-garde in its repertoire. Moreover, the theatrical conventions used were far from the generally accepted standards, hence, many people did not approve of the “iconoclastic” productions and the numerous bold alterations and “intrusions” into the integrity of the original texts. Still, even the most ardent opponents of the theatre’s artistic profile were among its regular audience. The miniature stage of Theatre 38 in the legendary “Pod Jaszczurami” (lit. “under the saurians”) house at No. 8, Main Market Square (Kraków) hosted many Polish premieres, e.g. of Samuel Becket’s Endgame and Krapp’s Last Tape (that was perhaps even the world premiere), Jacques Audiberti’s Ualu, Arthur Adamov’s Professor Taranne and Jean Genet’s The Maids. Apart from the presentation of Western European avant-garde classics which had never been staged in Poland before, Krygier’s company also staged a number of plays which had been adapted from contemporary Polish literature, e.g. Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński’s poem Serce jak obłok (A heart like a cloud), Adam Tarn’s Zmarnowane życie (A wasted life) or Stanisław Dygat’s Najkrótsze opowiadania (The shortest short stories). Bold, unconventional productions of the classics, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy, Zygmunt Krasiński’s The Un-Divine Comedy or Juliusz Słowacki’s Samuel Zborowski were also in the theatre’s repertoire. As a result of the heated disagreement between the autocratic leader of Theatre 38 and the Regional Council of Polish Students Association (and, moreover, the theatre staff ) in the spring of 1960 Krygier was forced to leave. One of the actors, Andrzej Skupień, became the new leader; his strategy was based on the continuation of the theatre’s earlier artistic programme and repertoire profile and it turned out to be quite successful, especially in the period when Helmut Kajzar was the director (this is particularly true about the productions following the “theatre of cruelty” convention). Many actors, directors and stage designers who were involved in the activity of Theatre 38 in the period when Krygier and Skupień run the theatre later became important personages of the Polish theatre, literature and science (e.g. Maciej Prus, Antoni Jackowski, Irena Wollen, Andrzej Majewski, Helmut Kajzar, Józef Lipiec, Jerzy Cnota and Ryszard Przewłocki). Waldemar Krygier became involved in Jerzy Grotowski’s Theatre of 13 Rows at one point, however, since strong, extraordinary individualities cannot cooperate harmoniously for long, he soon went his own way. Having returned to Kraków after over 10 years he became the artistic director of the Ludowy Theatre in Nowa Huta.