The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor: History and Holocaust in ‘Akropolis’ and ‘Dead Class’Despite its international influence, Polish theatre remains a mystery to many Westerners. This volume attempts to fill in current gaps in English-language scholarship by offering a historical and critical analysis of two of the most influential works of Polish theatre: Jerzy Grotowski’s ‘Akropolis’ and Tadeusz Kantor’s ‘Dead Class’. By examining each director’s representation of Auschwitz, this study provides a new understanding of how translating national trauma through the prism of performance can alter and deflect the meaning and reception of theatrical works, both inside and outside of their cultural and historical contexts. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Grotowskis Akropolis | 47 |
A Very Short Introduction | 49 |
Grotowski in Poland | 57 |
The Polish Context | 62 |
Coming to America | 73 |
The Making of an Aura | 82 |
On Not Knowing Polish | 86 |
Dead Class in Poland | 196 |
The Polish History Lesson | 199 |
Dead Class Abroad | 201 |
On Not Knowing Polish Again | 204 |
The Visual and the Puerile | 209 |
The National and the Transnational | 212 |
Witkiewiczs Tumor | 215 |
Illustrations 157 | 229 |
That is to Say Nowhere | 90 |
AkropolisNecropolis | 93 |
The Vision and the Symbol | 95 |
This Drama as Drama Cannot Be Staged | 104 |
Two National Sacrums | 107 |
Mourning the Columbuses | 111 |
Against Heroics | 119 |
Representing the Unrepresentable | 122 |
Trip to the Museum | 126 |
Bearing the Unbearable | 129 |
The Living and the Dead | 136 |
Jacobs Burden | 141 |
The Final Descent | 147 |
Textual Transpositions | 150 |
Akropolis After Grotowski | 152 |
Kantors Dead Class | 183 |
A Very Short Introduction | 185 |
The Making of the Legend | 193 |
The Dead the Funny the Sacred and the Profane | 238 |
A pain with a smile and a shrug | 244 |
Raising the Dead | 252 |
Dead Class as Kaddish | 256 |
Dead Class as Dybbuk or the Absence | 260 |
The Dead and the Marionettes | 262 |
Men and Objects | 267 |
Dead Class as Forefathers Eve | 274 |
The Afterlife | 280 |
Postscript | 283 |
Appendix | 285 |
Chronology of Events | 286 |
Comparison between Wyspiańskis Akropolis and Genesis | 289 |
Comparison between Grotowski and Kantor | 291 |
Notes | 293 |
| 363 | |
| 389 | |
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The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor: History and Holocaust in ... Magda Romanska No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
actors aesthetic Akropolis Akropolis and Dead Andrzej argues artistic audience Auschwitz avant-garde Borowski Bruno Schulz childhood communist concentration camp context Courtesy Cracow Cricot Cricoteka Archives Dead Class director Dziady essay European experience Ferdydurke Figure film Flaszen Forefathers Gazeta Wyborcza Gerould Gombrowicz Grotowski and Kantor Grotowski Institute Archives Grotowski's Akropolis Grotowskiego Holocaust human humor Ibid Jan Kott Jerzy Grotowski Jewish Jews Józef Kantor's Dead Class Kantor's theatre Krzysztof Laboratory Theatre language literary literature living meaning memory Mickiewicz Miklaszewski Muselmann notes objects Osiński Photo play Pleśniarowicz Poland Poles Polish culture Polish Romantic drama Polish theatre Polish-Jewish political Polski Poor Theatre postdramatic prisoners production Puzyna quoted reality Richard Schechner scene Schechner Soviet spectacle spectators stage Stanisław Wyspiański symbolic Tadeusz Kantor Theatre of Death theatrical tradition trauma Tumor Brainowicz understand University Press viewers visual Wajda Warsaw Wawel Wielopole Witkacy Witkacy's Witkiewicz writes Wrocław wrote Wydawnictwo Wyspiański's Akropolis York