Preface

Special Polish Theatre Section This specialPolish theatresection has been drawnfrom the recentpages of Poland's distinguished theatreperiodical, Dialog. As part of an internationalexchange , Dialog will publish articlesfrom PAJ in aforthcoming issue.Founded in 1956, at a time of openness in the arts, Dialog has managed to survive through all the upheavals of Polish cultural life, including the recent economic and social transformationsbrought on by the break-up of the Soviet-bloc in Eastern Europe. The collectionof writingsgatheredhere reflects the range ofexpression in the old Poland and the new Poland. The subtle political texture of Slawomir Mrotek's "My Middle Europe" alludes to a complicated regional culturalpolitics before the democraticPolish government came topower. In a more playful vein is the spiritof The Orange Alternative which, even before the imposition of martial law in 1981, staged their "socialistsurrealism" interventions in the streets ofPolish cities, to the consternation of bewildered policemen. Aligning themselves with the impulses of the counter-culture,avant-gardeart, student theatres, and Solidarity,The OrangeAlternativedevised happeningsaroundthemes of Polish life and history. One of the movement's high points, The Eve of the Great October Revolution, is chronicled here. As a young man, drawing on the same iconoclasticperformance/art gestures, Tadeusz Kantor created events and happenings, then went on to become one of the world's great theatre directors, crafting highly emotional chamber works drawn from images of Polish history.Two of Kantor'spoems, which outlinehisgrandview of a life in art,are included in this section. Kantor's sudden death at the end of 1990 marked the last link in the country's modern chain of romantic agony, begun at 22 the other end of the century by Stanislaw I. Witkiewicz. A eulogy (not from Dialog) by Jan Kott affirms Kantor'sspirit. In a very different perspective, Tadeusz R6zewicz punctures the romantic myth of the artistof Old Europe, to pose in its place the less heroic model of the artistas an everyday man, one who refuses to be the moral conscience or visionary of his society. In an article written especially for PAJ, commenting on R6zewicz's controversial new play for television,ElzbietaBaniewicz writes ofa contemporaryPolandstruggling to redefine itself culturally, economically, and politicallyas the old myths conflict with the new freedoms. Polish history is never far from the centerof its art. The Editors 23 ...