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Dramatists in Search of Self: A Backward Glance E. J. Czerwinski When Adam Tam was removed as editor of Dialog,1 the Polish monthly devoted to the dramatic arts, in April, 1968, his dismissal sig­ nalled the end of one of the most productive periods in Poland’s his­ tory of belles lettres. Since its initial appearance in May, 1956, the periodical has published some of the finest works written in the idiom of the Absurd, both by foreign and by Polish writers. It is too soon to say what profile Dialog will assume under new management, but certainly choice of literary material will be quite different. Always considered too avant-garde by most personnel in Poland’s theaters, Tam has had to battle both traditionalism and jealousy. The fact that he, his staff, and policies survived for thirteen years can only be con­ sidered a modern-day miracle. During his tenure as editor-in-chief, Tam led the fight for experi­ mentation. Through his efforts Poland was able to boast of a theater, of dramatists, of critics with which few countries could compare. One need only single out the best known: Jan Kott, Slawomir Mrozek, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Leszek Kolakowski, Jerzy Broszkiewicz, Zbigniew Herbert, Andrzej Wirth, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, and of course, Tarn himself. These names hardly exhaust the list of fine talents. Together these writers and critics formed a “ school,” which resembled those in France and England. The Theater of the Absurd found a real home in Poland. Tarn’s dismissal has changed all that. With Kott and Wirth in America, Mrozek in Italy, Kolakowski a non-person in his own coun­ try, and with Tarn teaching drama at the University of Calgary in Canada, the Polish Theater of the Absurd has ceased to exist. It is impossible to speculate on future developments; one must look to the accomplishments of the past. The past included a revival of Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, whose thirty odd plays helped form the basis of a Theater of the Absurd in Poland. It also marked the emergence of a new kind of Mytho-Ritual 210 E. J. Czerwinski 211 Theater, whose chief exponent was and is Jerzy Grotowski (aided tremendously by Josef Szajna’s scene-designs) .2 But most of all, the past brought forth young talent, dramatists who in most cases were poets first: Tadeusz Rozewicz, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Ireneusz Iredynski , Zbigniew Herbert, and Stanislaw Grochowisk. Since it is impossible to discuss all the works of these Polish writers, I have chosen to analyze four plays which I feel are the most repre­ sentative of the total output of some two-hundred and more pieces written in the idiom of the Absurd during this period. Significantly, most of these plays, including the following four, were first published in Dialog: Jerzy Broszkiewicz’s Przychodze opowiedziec (I Come To Tell, April, 1964) ; Tymoteusz Karpowicz’s Dziwny pasazer (The Strange Passenger, June, 1964); Tadeusz Rozewicz’s Wyzedl z domu. (He Left Home, October, 1964); and Slawomir Mrozek’s Tango (No­ vember, 1964). A search for identity is the dominant theme of these plays, all published in 1964. It is at once a personal search and a col­ lective one that is applicable to the entire country, perhaps to all post-war Europe. On the personal level the search involves the dramatist-protagonist, and as such depends a great deal on poetic mood and language. In this respect the Polish Theater of the Absurd differs considerably from its Western counterpart, where the personal “ I,” a tormented, haunted figure, rarely appears. Each play is saturated with a type of romanti­ cism which is reminiscent of nineteenth century Polish dramas. The hero in each of the four plays has antecedents in various Polish Clas­ sics, from Juliusz Slowacki and Adam Mickiewicz to Stanislaw Wyspianski and Witkacy. Thus the Polish Theater of the Absurd seems at the same time both a part of a past tradition and an extension of the Western Theater of the Absurd, notably the French. On the collective level the search shatters national boundaries. The characters and setting are Polish but the problems are universal. And yet it would be misleading to assert that the universality in theme...

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