A Myth Vivisected
Grotowski's Apocalypse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2021
Extract
An account of Apocalypsis cum figuris has long been overdue. It is total theatre, collectively created, no sooner thought through than orchestrated for the proper instruments, for the specific members of the company. It is the most mature fruit so far produced by the ascetic labors of the Wroclaw Theatre Laboratory. In any case, it is an event, one of more than local interest, and we don't get those every day of the week. It needs, therefore, to be recorded as accurately as possible before it slips out of focus. Fair enough, only how? Seldom does something so straightforward prove so baffling.
Ordinarily in describing a play we can always fall back on the script, on the lines and the plot. In Apocalypsis there are only the bare bones of a scenario. In the reading, the text is a haphazard jumble of quotations from the Bible, liturgical chants, Dostoevski, T. S. Eliot, Simone Weil.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © 1971 The Drama Review
Footnotes
This article is reprinted from Polish Perspectives, which is published under the auspices of the Polish Institute of International Affairs. It appeared in Vol. XIII, No. 2, February, 1970. The production of Grotowski's Apocalypsis cum figuris began in Poland in 1968 and is still being performed twice a week at the Laboratory Theatre Institute in Wroclaw. Pictures of the production along with an edited version of the program notes appeared in T45.
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