QUEERWARSAW
Trams in Warsaw
starring Jacek Poniedziałek, was met only by critics' consternation, the latter, a staging of Szymanowski's opera in Paris, ended in the audience booing and almost a scandal. The director himself seems to care least of all, eventually people have also left the performances of the multi-awarded Cleansed outraged. Warlikowski always explored taboos and invoked national demons: intolerance, xenophobia, alienation and the crisis of spiritual values. Fascinated by antic tragedy, he always made his works very contemporary, almost documentary and personal. Working with a trusted team enabled him to elevate the stagings to be a cleansing therapy and a dialogue between people. Rozmaitości remain one of the most defiant and provocative theatres in Warsaw. It is where Michał Witkowski (author of the notorious fag novel Lubiewo) presented his Barbara Radziwiłłówna Show, where Michał Borczuch directed Portrait of Dorian Gray, where Dorota Masłowska's texts have been stage-adapted and the most awaited premiere of the 2008/2009 season was T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T based on the works of Piere Paolo Pasolini and accompanied by an exhaustive presentation of his films TR Warszawa also hosted the premiere promotional meeting of the Polish version of QueerWarsaw. See also: ▶ Nowak Maciej, ▶ Radziszewski Karol
Trams in Warsaw There is a Polish gay stereotype concerning their fondness for railway transport. A large group of gays and lesbians has a soft spot for trams and trains. This weakness requires some tolerance: many a household run by a same-sex couple provides the so called “brick” – a thick book with train times – as toilet reading, which speaks for itself.
While straight macho men go into spasms at the sight of flashy showy four-wheeled vehicles, we faint when we see new models of trams, or engines. All railway events eventually become LGBT get-togethers, the attendants of which fight tooth and nail to get a ticket for e.g. a rare excursion to an engine house in Olszynka. It should not come as a surprise then that professions such as engine drivers, tram drivers, or train guards are highly homosexualized. In 2004, Public Transport Authority in Warsaw 126. Old tram depot at Inżynierska Street was the first institution of such kind to standardize the social rights of straight and same-sex partnerships (e.g. by granting free long-term tickets for the driver's “family”) – unfortunately, the Polish law still ignores the term “partnership”.
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