Antiquity in theatre during People's Poland. The Polish Antigone 4012-131C

We will seek all kinds of information about the presence of antiquity on theatre stages during People’s Poland, but next to drama theatres we will also be interested in musical and puppet theatres, TV Theatre, Polish Radio Theatre, feature films, documentaries, and short films.
We will make use of existing databases and add to them ourselves. We will also attempt some analyses of the gathered material. It will be interesting to see what it can tell us about the not so distant past. Who knows, maybe it will also help us understand contemporary theatre, or perhaps even ourselves just a little bit?
The classes will be of a dual nature: the main part will be a weekly seminar on topics related to the topos of the “Polish Antigone”, and then all those who want to can also join the working group for the project “Antiquity in theatre during People’s Poland”. If we manage to assemble a proper team, we will establish a completely professional research group supervised by Prof. Jerzy Axer. This is an opportunity to take part in a major research project. We might begin delving into subsequent stages of the project if we finish working on Antigone quickly enough.
This is an interdisciplinary course welcoming students of languages (original texts and translations into other languages), classical studies, political science, sociology, psychology, history and cultural studies, art history, drama and theatre studies, law and musicology.
Studying the stage history of Sophocles’ Antigone during People’s Poland, we need to remember about the following circumstances:
a) Antigone was required reading at school (ever since the 19th century, when it was placed on the required reading list at all classical secondary schools in all three partitions). Looking at theatre repertoire policies, especially at provincial theatres (and particularly when there was just one theatre in a town), this influenced the choice of play for staging (which means caution is needed when drawing conclusions about why this particular play was produced);
b) the staging history of Sophocles’ play in People’s Poland was significantly affected by the world premiere of the play by Jean Anouilh (1910-1987), written during World War II, in 1942, and staged for the first time in France in February 1944, one of his pessimistic “black plays” (which may have better suited the mood at the time) (Polish premiere: Stary Teatr in Kraków, translation: Zbigniew Solarek, director: Jerzy Kaliszewski, stage design: Tadeusz Kantor, assistant director: Jerzy Grotowski, music: Jerzy Kaszycki, premiere: 1957-01-12). Perhaps writing about the reception of Antigone in People’s Poland, we should also consider Anouilh’s play (16 productions at drama theatres up to 1989). In addition, during the war, or more exactly starting from 5 September 1939, another adaptation of Antigone was being developed: by Juliusz Osterwa; despite efforts, it was never staged;
c) Sophocles’ Oedipus the King was also produced relatively often (22 times at drama theatres in 1944-1989), often blocking the way to the stage for Antigone (and vice versa); Sophocles’ other plays were not as popular (Electra - 4 productions, Oedipus at Colonus - 1 production, Ajax, Philoctetes, and Trachinian Women - not one);
d) the main problem are translations, with directors choosing from among the old translation by Kazimierz Morawski (sometimes produced even today) in eleven-syllable blank verse, Morstin’s translation in thirteen-syllable meter, Stanisław Hebanowski’s translation in prose from Western languages, and their own paraphrases (Helmut Kajzar, Józef Jasielski) which were later also used by other directors. Mixed versions were often staged as well, e.g. the dialogues in prose (Hebanowski), the chorus’s lines in verse (Morawski, Morstin); apart from meter-related issues, it is important to consider important differences in understanding the essence of tragedy or “directing” the characters already at the translation stage - this becomes particularly visible when comparing Antigone’s self-presentation in her first conversation with her sister and Creon’s “royal speech” (in the latter case, one also has to contend with the prominent “Polish character” of the translations - depending on which point in history the translation was made);
e) one often hears the term “Polish Antigone” (or even “Polish Antigones”), as if this particular myth were a special reflection of Poland’s history (the source of this thinking was probably Wyspiański’s Liberation, act 2, Konrad in his dialogue with Mask 18: “Thus let the Polish Antigone and Polish Oedipus come out and bid the sun farewell and bid the light farewell”). Actually, it was because of Wyspiański that the stage history of the Polish Antigone began (in the premiere of 1903, the part was played by the 63-year-old Helena Modrzejewska, who on that same night was also Laodamia in the world premiere of Wyspiański’s Protesilaus and Laodamia; as Dariusz Kosiński recently proved, the two plays being shown together was no coincidence, cf. his Sceny z życia dramatu, Kraków 2004). Later, Morstin’s translation appointed Antigone the patron of female fighters for independence during World War II;
f) The strongest and most prominent connection with Poland’s history hic et nunc (and not without reason) was seen in Andrzej Wajda’s 1984 production of Antigone at the Stary Teatr, developed during martial law. It is fascinating to compare the reviews from the premiere with those from guest performances in Warsaw, after Poland regained its independence (during People’s Poland all guest performances of the show were banned). These were two very different takes on the same production (cf. the reviews featured below);
g) For Andrzej Wajda, Antigone as a character is strongly linked to the communist period, especially to the issue of the “Katyn lie”, as proved the most strongly by his last film but one, Katyn (released in 2008): Two sisters lose a brother, an officer murdered in the Katyn forest. One of them (“Antigone”, played by Magdalena Cielecka) tries to get to the truth and commissions a symbolic grave with a plaque at the local cemetery, with the date and place of death engraved on it (Katyn 1942), which is destroyed the next day by the secret service. The other sister (“Ismene”, played by Agnieszka Glińska) is the principal of a state secondary school… In addition, rehearsals of Antigone (who is played by Alicja Dąbrowska) are being held at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków;
h) One of the key problems stage directors have to resolve is the playing space and stage design; this has been prepared by many great artists: Karol Frycz, Andrzej Pronaszko, Wiesław Lange, Józef Szajna, Józef Nowosielski, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, Jerzy Grzegorzewski, Jadwiga Pożakowska;
i) The adoption of a specific definition of tragedy raises questions, as it defines the relation between the two protagonists (most often, especially in “school-standard” productions, Antigone is shown to be right; Hanuszkiewicz (being Hanuszkiewicz) decided to do it the other way around: he strengthened the arguments of Creon, played by himself, while few directors tried to show the conflict of the two arguments (cf. Zbigniew Zapasiewicz’s opinion: “There is no single truth if you observe people conscientiously. It starts with Antigone - when the protagonists cannot reach an agreement because there are arguments in favour of both sides. Antigone is right emotionally, Creon - politically. The discussion between Solidarity and Jaruzelski was the same kind of thing”. “Teatr codzienności. Wywiad” (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz talks to Katarzyna Bielas), Magazyn Gazety Wyborczej, 1 April 1998, p. 44.
Other issues:
j) posters as an external commentary on a production and a moment in history (leading graphic artists);
k) censorship: interfering with the text and fabric of a production;
l) Saint Antigone - Christianisation of the text (cf. the translation by Kazimierz Morawski, who “built a bridge between the ancient heroine and the Christian virgins”. Hence Antigone interpreted in terms of Christian morality (cf. Morstin’s anecdotal note: “Despite several rehearsals with actors, despite an appeal for the actors to give their all, Osterwa couldn’t reach a final decision. His excuse was the lack of an actress worthy of the title role. His idea was that only a young girl who had never felt the thrill of love could play the part well. If he could find one, the role would be genuine. Otherwise it would not ring true”. L. H. Morstin, Moje przygody teatralne. Warszawa 1961, p. 134, 135.;
m) Antigone as material for actors (famous actors: as Antigone: Elżbieta Karkoszka, Maja Komorowska, Anna Chodakowska, Ewa Kolasińska, Dorota Kolak; as Creon: Tadeusz Huk, Adam Hanuszkiewicz);
n) Antigone as a rehearsal - using the theatre-about-theatre trick: cf. the productions of Ryszard Smożewski and Jerzy Gruza;
o) Antigone as an anti-war protest (e.g. against the junta in Greece: Smożewski 1969)
Subject of analysis:
- reviews
- recordings (footage from theatre archives, TV Theatre, Polish Radio Theatre)
- theatre programmes
- correspondence of the creators involved in productions
- testimony from audiences (diaries, memoirs, journals)
- theatre photographs
- stage and costume designs
- posters and playbills
- censorship documents
Antigone’s presence in Polish literature (a starting point, we will continue the search!):
in drama:
Berwińska Krystyna, Ocalenie Antygony (1948, druk 1954)
Brandstaetter Roman, Cisza (Winogrona Antygony) (1958-1959, druk 1961)
Głowacki Janusz, Antygona w Nowym Jorku (1992)
Hertz Janina, Druga Antygona
Maliszewski Aleksander (1939)
Swinarski Artur Marya, Godzina Antygony (1948-1959)
Szczepańska Nora, Kucharki (1959-1960, druk 1961)
in poetry:
Gołębiowski Stefan, Bez opamiętania (1969)
Herbert Zbigniew, Studium przedmiotu (1966)
Herbert Zbigniew, Wilki (1992)
Iłłakowiczówna Kazimiera, Antygono, patronko sióstr (1947)
Kryska Sławomir, Sztuka wierszowania (1961)
Kwiatkowska Krystyna, Antygony rosną w innym klimacie (1980, druk 1981)
Lechoń Jan, Erynie (druk 1987?)
Międzyrzecki Artur, Koniec gry (1968)
Miłosz Czesław, Antygona (1949)
Miłosz Czesław, W Warszawie (1947)
Sprusiński Michał, Mitologia (1972)
Śliwiak Tadeusz, Antygona wołyńska (1963)
translations:
1574 Jan Walenty Jakubowski (epicka parafraza)
przed 1858 Alfons Walicki
1850 Wincenty Smaczniński
1853 Kazimierz Kaszewski (wyd. także 1947 i 1972)
1875 Zygmunt Węclewski
1881 Jan Czubek
1898 Kazimierz Morawski
1931 Tadeusz Węclewski
1938 Ludwik Hieronim Morstin
1947 Mieczysław Brożek
1968 Stanisław Hebanowski
1971 Helmut Kajzar
1991 Nikos Chadzinikolau
1993 Libera Antoni, Janusz Szpotański
2000 Robert A. Chodkowski