POLISH THEATRE IN LIMERICK AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDRZEJ DUDEK
TLP: Who is your audience? Are you only presenting to the Polish audience or for the Irish too? Our audience consists mainly of the Polish community. We prepare performances for the young Polish audience, so that they have a chance to get to know Polish theatre, literature and language. I think this contact is very important and cannot be ignored, because something that is still obvious to us, is no longer obvious to our children. On the other hand, "The Passion in Limerick" was a universal spectacle, and what I found out at the premiere, it was dominated by the Irish audience. What we did and what I'm proud of, is that this spectacle did not leave the audience indifferent. Recently, a few months after the premiere, one of the Irish viewers, wrote in a correspondence on the theatre website, that the spectacle was very moving, that he often thought of it and he still remembered the living images of it. I often meet such voices, and the further from the premiere the more often I can hear about it. This is the best review of the play.
TLP: Do you think that 'foreigners' can understand 'Polish' (very specific and culturally conditioned) message? Do you try to make the presentation more universal?
I must admit, honestly, that I did not think about it too much, because our biggest undertakings so far have been the fairy tales in Polish language, addressed to Polish children, which determines the audience and a widely universal evangelical tale, realized in the convention of light, motion and music - "The Passion in Limerick." But I think (apart from the language) that there is no problem in understanding the message and the culturally specific nature of it only wakes up interest in our Irish friends. We are a little exotic, but maybe becoming less exotic now, because we all grow into places and communities, and for them we are more and more familiar than strange. Let's look at the theatre of Kantor, Szajna, Grotowski, (I know it's a very high threshold and I could tie their shoelaces if they were still alive and allowed me to do it, but if to make comparisons, then to the best ones).
Their theatres were somehow sunk in Polishness, but at the same time they were recognizable and universal in the reception for the viewer not affected by the specifics of Polish history. Kantor recalled border pictures, the climate of the provincial town, Szajna talked about the war of extermination, Grotowski explored the pillars of Polish literature, but in the way that was stunning with the force of expressive simplicity. The form of the message and the way to tell history, the theatre of the form in which I am formed, (I am a graduate of "Wroclaw dolls") and which I am a supporter, may be readable to the "foreign" viewer, even when dealing with hermetically Polish subjects.
TLP: Do you think that theatre, or again, more widely understood art play an important role in the life of emigration, and if it is the case, what the role is? Is it usually 'sentiment' and longing for the country, or maybe something more, something else? I think that theatre and more broadly art, have a great significance and impact on our lives, not just on emigration, but generally. Perhaps not everyone is able to realize this, because we have the time of impulses that attack us, surround us from the very morning till the late evening. The art requires reflection, and the reflection likes silence, so some things pass us by, some of us go to the agenda without even trying to understand them. Eventually it does not matter, because when a temporary stop occurs, like when the power station turns off the electricity, or when the smartphone’s battery is dead, it turns out that we miss the beauty, the story, the imagination, the mystery, or the art. This sets us apart from the rest of natural world. ...and when it comes to emigration, I do not really know what answer, because currently there are such possibilities that the feeling of being in the emigration is blurred, for example I often feel more in Poland now than when I lived in Poland. 71 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND