Theatre in Poland - Actors and Directors

Actors and Directors

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.

During the second half of the nineties, there appeared in Polish dramatic theatre a new generation of young directors, who have attempted to create productions relevant to the experience and problems of a thirty-something generation brought up surrounded by mass culture, habituated to a fast-moving lifestyle, but at the same time ever more lost in the world of consumer capitalism. The leading theatre in this movement is Warsaw's TR, known as "the fastest theatre in town". Among its collaborating directors, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Grzegorz Jarzyna stand out. 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). Looking for a way to present the complex existential situation of contemporary humanity, Jarzyna reaches both for contemporary drama (Witkiewicz's Tropical Madness, Gombrowicz's Princess Ivona, or Frazer's Unidentified Human Remains...) and classic European novels (Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Mann's Doktor Faustus, directed at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin). Recently, both directors have taken an interest in the work of Sarah Kane, mounting startling productions: Cleansed (Warlikowski) and 4.48 Psychosis (Jarzyna).

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). Under his management, the theatre won considerable recognition, and numerous awards. It was twice invited to the Edinburgh International Festival: in 1996 with Macbeth directed by Jerzy Stuhr, and in 1997 with Antigona directed by Włodzimierz Nurkowski. Current director is Jacek Strama, an award winning theatre and film producer.