Once-Underground Polish Theater Troupe To Present Play the Communist Government Had Banned

Published: October 30, 2009

While Theatre of the Eighth Day is now recognized as a leading alternative theater troupe in Poland, it was forced to go underground during Communist rule.

New Haven, Conn. — A play about life under martial law in Poland that prompted the exile of the troupe that created it will be presented Nov. 5-7 as part of "No Boundaries: A Series of Global Performances."

The series, presented by the Yale Repertory Theatre and the World Performance Project at Yale, celebrates the diversity of voices and experiences in today's world through cutting-edge dance, music and theater.

The first offering this year is "Wormwood," a rare remounting of the landmark 1985 production by Theatre of the Eighth Day (Teatr Ósmego Dnia), an internationally recognized Polish theatrical troupe that worked underground for several decades.

Founded in 1964, the company takes its name from a line by Polish poet Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski: "On the seventh day, the Lord God rested, and on the eighth, He created theatre."

The troupe was inspired and influenced by the work of revolutionary theater artist Jerzy Grotowski; it developed its own acting method, creating performances through improvisation. For the first 25 years of its existence, and despite constant police surveillance and government censorship, Theatre of the Eighth Day managed to create what are now acknowledged as some of the most important works for the Polish stage.

However, its members always rejected the label "political theater." Former artistic director Lech Raczak said: "In a monopolized system such as Poland everything becomes political. If you make any gesture different from what the authorities want, that gesture immediately carries political weight. So the term ‘political' results from the distortion and unnaturalness of social life here."

The Polish government eventually withdrew all subsidies and issued an official announcement that the group had disbanded. However, Theatre of the Eighth Day continued to produce work underground. "Wormwood" was the group's last production in Communist Poland. The government shut down the production, and the would-be audience was met by a police cordon at the scheduled premiere. Despite confrontations with the police, Theatre of the Eighth Day outwitted officials by scheduling a secret premiere of the production the following day in the very theater from which the play had been banned.

In 1985 the company was invited to the Edinburgh Festival to perform "Wormwood." Only half of the company was granted visas by Polish authorities, and a new piece, "Auto Da Fe" (based on "A Minor Apocalypse," a satirical novel about life in Poland by Tadeusz Konwicki) was devised and performed in its place. "Auto Da Fe" won the "Fringe First" prize, an achievement denounced by the Polish government because, according to them, the group "did not exist."

Later, the members of the troupe who had been allowed to leave Poland took "Auto Da Fe" around Western Europe, while those left in Poland mounted a different version under the novel's original title. Due to increasing harassment, the latter fell into inactivity, until the chance came for them to join the others at Ferrara in Italy in June 1988, whereupon the troupe became a theater-in-exile.

Since the collapse of the Communist regime in their homeland, the company, currently based in Poznan, Poland, continues to be recognized as a leader among Polish alternative theaters.

"Wormwood" will be presented at 8 p.m. nightly in the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St. The show, which is about an hour long, will be performed in Polish with English supertitles. A "Talk Back" question-and-answer session with the company will follow each performance.

Two special events will take place in conjunction with the performance. The first is a lecture titled "The Poetics of ‘Going Against the Tide': 45 Years of the Theatre of the Eighth Day" by Kathleen Cioffi of Princeton University Press, with a response by Krystyna Illakowicz, senior lector in Yale's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. This will take place 5:30-7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.

There will also be a workshop with the Theatre of the Eighth Day 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Rm. 101 (the Theater Studies Program ballroom), 220 York St.

These two events are free and open to the public.

Tickets for performances of "Wormwood" are $35; $10 student and $25 senior tickets are available for all performances; and Yale faculty and staff tickets are $25. Discounts are also available for groups of 10 or more.

Tickets for the entire 2009-2010 "No Boundaries" season are now available online at yalerep.org, by phone (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep box office, 1120 Chapel St. at York Street).

The other offerings in the "No Boundaries" series will be "The Be(a)st of Tay­-lor Mac," featuring the renowned U.S. ­performance artist (Jan. 28-30) and "MESs" by the Japanese multimedia performance group Baby-Qs (March 25-27).

PRESS CONTACT: Office of Public Affairs  203-432-1345