In the Polish dramatic tradition, there is a distinctive apologia of madness. Mickiewicz's and Wyspiański's protagonists were often noble madmen, but in their case, insanity was reserved for the chosen ones, endowed with the gift of a clear vision of the world and superhuman strength to defy God. In the 1960s and 1970s, Romantic and Neo-Romantic works dominated the repertoire of Polish theatres, in the face of a shortage of contemporary themes. It was then, especially thanks to Konrad Swinarski's productions, that this noble insanity was established as a form of individual protest against the authorities and the society and a fight for the right to maintain a separate identity.

Around the mid-1980s, after certain unexpected events in Central Europe, the subject of the protagonist's madness is addressed several times in the new Polish drama. Naturally, the function of the post-romantic theme, as well as its message, is different then.

Although as early as March 1983 “Dialog” published Obłęd (“Madness”)—a dramatic composition by Janusz Krasiński based on a popular novel by Jerzy Krzysztoń—critics mostly failed to notice the extraordinary popularity of the topic of madness. Krzysztoń's adaptation was made at the request of the director Jerzy Rakowiecki and the National Theatre in Warsaw managed by Kazimierz Dejmek. However, in the 1980s theatres in Poland only paid attention (for completely different reasons) to Mrożek's Portrait, the only outstanding work among others. This peculiar new take on the theme of traditional Polish culture was by no means accidental at that time and place.

Mrożek

In Sławomir Mrożek's Portrait,145 written in 1987, Stalin, with a mysterious smile on his face, appears only once on stage, in the finale of the first scene of Act I. The portrait of the Generalissimus, which is also the title of the work, is shown for a moment, “hung high” at the front, just like in the times of Stalin's cult of personality—“in full light,” accompanied by music. Glorification of the silent portrait is preceded by Bartodziej's Great Improvisation, delivered in complete darkness, a confession of faith, love—and madness at the same time.