Krakow Festival Office
Divine Comedy 2010
Divine Comedy 2010
Tango
Director: Jerzy Jarocki
After the Polish premiere of Tango in 1964, the play was predicted “to be played eternally” in the Polish theatre: played regularly like the bugle call from St Mary’s Tower in Kraków. One of those who assisted in the delivery of the fantastic drama, Jerzy Jarocki, returns to it 55 years later. He supplements the Mrożkian tale of “the family that turns into the society” with a history of the ideological breakdowns of the 20th century and also a discreet settling of accounts with the theatre of the bygone century. In Jarocki, one of the protagonists – Stomil – changes from an eccentric avant-garde artist into a conceptualist director who walked hand-in-hand with Kantor, Swinarski, Grotowski, Szajna, Grzegorzewski, and finally with Jarocki himself.
Artur – the young, conservative rebel – assumes the repulsive form of a member of the phalanx of politicians, pragmatist-technocrats, who believe they have acquired knowledge of the mechanisms of controlling “the uneducated rabble”. It is only chance that decides which of the rightist parties they are going to choose. Jarocki knows only too well that the wisdom of the well-read Tango comes to the floor whenever there is something important in the reality that needs naming. Therefore, the director speaks straight about what violence and power are today, and why ideologists lose. In the final scene, as always in this drama, two males – Eugeniusz and Edek – dance La Cumparsita. It is usually in this scene that the answer to the question what Tango means today is vested. After all, it is one of the most powerful image-metaphors in the history of Polish theatre. It usually has a conservative dancing with a despot, while in Jarocki, two opportunist forces meet, with either dancer pondering how to exploit the other. The cynical mentor has possibly found an ideal disciple, a subcontractor to ano-ther conservative revolution. Jarocki puts forth a hypothesis that of this alliance something will again be born in Poland.
Photography: Grzegorz Ziemiański
Divine Comedy 2010
Divine Comedy 2010
Tango
Director: Jerzy Jarocki
After the Polish premiere of Tango in 1964, the play was predicted “to be played eternally” in the Polish theatre: played regularly like the bugle call from St Mary’s Tower in Kraków. One of those who assisted in the delivery of the fantastic drama, Jerzy Jarocki, returns to it 55 years later. He supplements the Mrożkian tale of “the family that turns into the society” with a history of the ideological breakdowns of the 20th century and also a discreet settling of accounts with the theatre of the bygone century. In Jarocki, one of the protagonists – Stomil – changes from an eccentric avant-garde artist into a conceptualist director who walked hand-in-hand with Kantor, Swinarski, Grotowski, Szajna, Grzegorzewski, and finally with Jarocki himself.
Artur – the young, conservative rebel – assumes the repulsive form of a member of the phalanx of politicians, pragmatist-technocrats, who believe they have acquired knowledge of the mechanisms of controlling “the uneducated rabble”. It is only chance that decides which of the rightist parties they are going to choose. Jarocki knows only too well that the wisdom of the well-read Tango comes to the floor whenever there is something important in the reality that needs naming. Therefore, the director speaks straight about what violence and power are today, and why ideologists lose. In the final scene, as always in this drama, two males – Eugeniusz and Edek – dance La Cumparsita. It is usually in this scene that the answer to the question what Tango means today is vested. After all, it is one of the most powerful image-metaphors in the history of Polish theatre. It usually has a conservative dancing with a despot, while in Jarocki, two opportunist forces meet, with either dancer pondering how to exploit the other. The cynical mentor has possibly found an ideal disciple, a subcontractor to ano-ther conservative revolution. Jarocki puts forth a hypothesis that of this alliance something will again be born in Poland.
Photography: Grzegorz Ziemiański