Tomasz Kaczmarek

The dramaturgies of existence, or the tragedy in everyday life in theatre: Karolina Czerska, Tadeusz Kantor i Maurice Maeterlinck. Dramaturgie istnienia [Tadeusz Kantor and Maurice Maeterlinck. Dramaturgies of existence]

Karolina Czerska’s book offers a comparative study in which the theater of Maurice Maeterlinck is confronted with the theatrical work of Tadeusz Kantor. The author has set herself two major objectives: on the one hand, she wants to popularize Maeterlinck’s dramaturgy with the Polish public, and on the other, she evokes the works of the Belgian writer in the context of Kantor’s stage productions, which agrees to revisit and reconsider the work of the Polish theater director from a new perspective. By comparing the work of these two theater men, Czerska examines four themes where their artistic concepts seem similar: the conceptions of the “tragique quotidien” (tragedy in everyday life) and the “invisible”, the construction and status of the character as well as the function of the actor.

Georg Kaiser and Jean-Victor Pellerin in the face of the human alienation, or two concepts of expressionist drama

It is commonly said that expressionism was a purely German movement, however, it is difficult not to notice similar tendencies, albeit with a lesser intensity, also in France. Expressionism was not only an artistic movement. It could be seen above all as a certain spiritual attitude towards the dehumanized industrialization. Expressionism was born of existential anxiety of many German writers leading to a rebellion against the bourgeois society. This rebellion was also expressed by some French writers. In this article, the author compares the theaters of Jean-Victor Pellerin and Georg Kaiser from the perspective of expressionistic aesthetics. Both writers describe the alienation of a modern man in the mechanized civilization. They both put attention on the internal crisis of the main character who in the end decides to fight against the hostile reality. Hence, in their works typically for the expressionist drama, the protagonist embarks on a journey during which his internal change takes place. While Georg Kaiser expresses his pessimism by describing apocalyptic scenes, Jean-Victor Pellerin still believes in the power of love which alone can change the fate of mankind.

L’Âme en folie by François de Curel: In search of a new dramatic paradigm

The author of the article studies Curel’s play, which testifies to the crisis of traditional drama, announced at the turn of the 20th century. Curel seems to destroy the canonical form of “drama-in-life”, based on a dramatic progression of the action and on the character as an active agent ensuring this same progression, by proposing a new paradigm of “drama-of-life”. The latter moves away from classic prerogatives to focus on the inner life of the protagonist. Instead of focusing on episodes that inevitably lead to disaster, the French writer attempts to embrace the evolution of the characters’ souls. This is how he passes from “agonistic drama” to an “ontological” one.