Contemporary Polish Theater and Drama (1956-1984) by E.J. Czerwinski (review)

Book Reviews which from the start had trouble with the censor. It was in rehearsal for more than four years; Stanislavsky kept urging that the text be changed to make Moliere more of a conventional figure and he treated Bulgakov condescendingly. Finally, in 1936 The Cabal of Hypocrites received its premiere, but after seven performances it was banned and withdrawn. Bulgakov's career ended in gloom and despair. He said that his writing for the theatre was "pure quixotry" - and his last work for the stage was an adaptation of Don Quixote in 1937- 38 during the height of Stalin's terror. Curtis tells this tragic and inspiring story in Bulgakov's lAst Decade. The writer-hew's dedication to his an leads to defeat in life, but his commitment to truth over compromise and conformism brings ultimate victory. It is little wonder that this writer who believed in artistic integrity and commitment to the cultural values' of the old world is now highly esteemed in Eastern Europe and the USSR. DANIEL GEROULD, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK E.J. CZERWINSKI. Contemporary Polish Theater and Drama (1956-1984). New York: Greenwood Press 1988. Pp. xix, 155. The 'overview suggested by the title of this work would be a welcome addition to the critical works available in English. Unfortunately, not only does Czerwinski fail to live up to his ambitious title, but the analyses he does provide are a shocking example of poor writing and sloppy thinking. The book begins with a chapter about the roots of contemporary Polish drama. Czerwinski's all too brief treatment of this important subject is misleading in its emphases and omissions. For example, his assertion that "the roots of [Polish] drama ... were planted on the eve of Poland's loss of independence [at the end of the 18th century]" (p. 1) might suggest a rueful irony, but it is false. The author himself contradicts this claim in later references to the influence of the "szopka" - a Christmas puppet theatre of medieval origin - on the works of some major playwrights. In his analysis, Czerwinski claims that Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (or Ursyn Julian, as he calls him) was one of the major influences on the future development of contemporary Polish drama; it is remarkable, therefore, that he so conspicuously misrepresents this writer's work. Two of the three lines he cites as examples of Niemcewicz's own political and social criticism are spoken by a character created by Niemcewicz to represent the worst aspects of the conservative nobility. It seems inconceivable that Czerwinski read beyond the first three scenes of the play. or even glanced at the list of characters, in which the quoted speaker is identified as Gadulski, a name translatable as Mr. Gabgabgab. Most of the rest of the book is devoted to the major Polish playwrights of the period 1956--1970. No playwright to begin publiShing after 1970 is mentioned, and only one play published after 1979 is discussed (Tadeusz Roiewicz's Pufapkal/Trap, 1982). The final chapter, a mere 19 pages, together with two pages inexplicably Book Reviews 159 inserted into an earlier chapter, provide the only justification for including the word "theatre" in the book's title. Although Czerwinski does briefly discuss the work of the most prominent Polish theatre directors. he only mentions in passing such influential directors as Jerzy Jarocki , Adam Hanuszkiewicz and Konrad Swinarski, and excludes altogether the great mime director, Henryk Tomaszewski. Czerwinski is not a gifted critic. His analyses are without exception shallow and erratic ("Life itself becomes a gigantic metaphor" [po 76]). He has a habit of comparing almost every work he discusses to at least one classic of Western literature (which he consistently calls "world literature"), and the analogies are usually so tenuous and peripheral as to be totally inconsequential. For example, in his examination of Tadeusz R6zewicz's Card Index, he asserts, "Like Christian on his Earthly Journey. or Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Sl. Joan on theirs, Hero momentarily collapses. Resignation overwhelms him" (p. 37). The only interesting contribution of this book is Czerwinski's emphasis on the importance of Leszek Kofakowski 's seminal essay, " The Priest and the Jester," as it pertains to...