https://doi.org/10.21697/cl.2009.2.03
The Poetics of Contemporary Non-fiction Theatre – Conversations with an Executioner and Wrocław Via Dolorosa as Significant Representations of the Genre
The aim of the article is to examine the specificity of theatrical performances based on historical documents and carried out as part of a Television Theatre.The author of the paper observes the described phenomenon from a broad perspective and ponders on current and past characteristics of a nonfiction theatre. She endeavours to bring the reader close to the origins of a TV Non-fiction Theatre and to the idea of this enterprise. The first part of the article focuses on the historical development of a theatrical genre, which is a documentary drama (docudrama). A special attention is drawn to its links with a political theatre, for instance to Piscator’s and Brecht’s artistic activities.
The discussion about a contemporary phenomenon of the Non-Fiction Theatre is based on the description of the two selected stage performances – Conversations with an Executioner and Wrocław Via Dolorosa. Similarly to many other spectacles of this genre these plays rediscover the Stalin era. The action of the spectacles takes place in Poland at the end of the 1940s and their protagonists are people persecuted during that system. Conversations with an Executioner directedby Maciej Englert (the premiere was in 2007) is the adaptation of a widely known Kazimierz Moczarski’s book under the same title. Wrocław Via Dolorosa written by Piotr Kokociński and Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, and directed by Jan Komasa (the premiere: 2008) recounts the story of a ruthless investigation and a fabricated process that took place in Wrocław. The ruminations on both these stage performances lead to the conclusion that a theatrical reconstruction of true events may currently play key roles. The critics draw the attention to the fact that both the spectacles have not only educational and documentary dimensions. They, first and foremost, revive the interest in the most recent history provoking the debates over stalinism. By showing an individual drama they make the viewer identify with historical characters and therefore the very history appears closer to him/her. The author assumes that if the non-fiction theatre avoids certain mistakes that are imputed to it (such as conventionality, martyrdom, direct didacticism) it will still constitute a significant element of contemporary culture.
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English
Język Polski