Page 33 - Studio-International-January-1974

the modern theatre while simultaneously doing nor interpreted it. They merely uttered the mirrors take place with no obvious purpose, yet
research in painting, happenings and all the words, left off the subject at will only to take it with a certain mysterious rhythm.
other forms in which modern art manifests up again and repeat it many times. The theatre In Lovelies and Dowdies the stage proceedings
itself. The artist's personal experiences in then became 'a mill grinding out the text'. The are enclosed in their own circuit and, according
`informal' painting, 'ephemeral' art and anecdotal level of the text was reduced to nothing to Kantor, are independent of any perception. The
happenings were an important base for these but it was a degradation of the drama. In the actor neither transmits nor represents anything
ideas. His 'popular' exhibition (1963), Theatre of Nothing there occurred except his own behaviour in the situations forced
`emballages' (1963), well-known happenings simultaneously the removal of action and the upon him, or won by fighting. The spectator
like Cricotage (1965), A Demarcation Line disablement of the actor. On the stage there was is deprived of his normal condition and of his
(1966), A Letter (1967), A Panoramic Sea a huge pile of chairs filling up almost the whole right to be a receiver of the spectacle. His
Happening (1967), The Lesson of Anatomy, area and making the actors fight not to be pushed only chance, his only function and opportunity,
after Rembrandt (1968), his manifestoes and off it. It was the only action. The latest spectacle, is to be in the theatre. The spectator finds
`actions' (Multipart 1970 or Cambriollage Lovelies and Dowdies, is almost the final step himself in the theatre as if in a trap where his
1972) realized mainly at Warsaw's Foksal towards completely throwing away theatrical usual rights and reactions are out of place and
Gallery, are part of a consistently developing illusion. The text of the play does not indicate entirely ineffective. The spectator in the theatre
artistic process intruding into the sphere of the course of the dramatic action. The plot does becomes a `fan'; he is neither passive, as he
concrete reality and defeating the illusory values not develop in an imaginary situation and space would be in an ordinary audience, nor is he
and structures of art. In the theatre, where the suggested by the author. The spectacle takes actively participating in the spectacle: The
elements of illusion are particularly deep- place in the cloakroom, a degraded and marginal function and character of the object has changed
rooted, a basic re-evaluation was necessary. One institution performing prosaic and purely in the present work of the Cricot 2 theatre
of the methods used by Kantor was to deny the practical functions. The cloakroom opens the compared with the 'Theatre of Happening'
hierarch between the elements making us the show and becomes the centre of the action. Thus phase. The object is no longer all-important and

Lovelies and Dowdies 1973. Photo Jacek Szmuc Housebreaking Foksal Gallery, 1972
theatre performance. For instance, the dramatic the audience does not reach the theatre but is self-dependent, although previously it was
text in the presentations prepared by the Cricot stopped right in the halls, and the people find entirely isolated and autonomous. Now it is
theatre has a function no more important than themselves in the very nucleus of events. reduced to the function of a strange and
that of the audience, the actors or the stage The cloakroom, becoming both the stage and burdensome body. It exists as a scourge
props. According to Kantor's concept, during the audience, never stops for one moment in its without forgetting for one moment to perform
the spectacles fundamental conflict takes place function as the proper cloakroom, where its its additional function. No matter if it is a
between the written drama introduced on the officials take care of the situation, allowing no wooden board sticking out of the actor's back
stage and the theatre itself. The solving of this protest. They are suspicious-looking and as a kind of offshoot, a door-frame accompanying
conflict should always reveal the superiority of unscrupulous, and exert constant pressure and the Cardinal, or a skeleton carried by another
the theatre. Kantor does not adapt the action to violence against the audience and the actors actor. A similar function is assumed by the
the text of the play, which is the conventional trying to do their job. The actors, for instance, cage, paralysing the actor's movements. The
method, nor does he do the contrary: he does are driven into a hen cage where they are object, which does not retain its conventional
not adapt the text to the action, which, in turn, tightly crammed and attempt to act. A group of function as a stage prop, grows into every
has become a rule with 'modernizing' producers. the spectators joins in the action as 'forty personality and every idea, which it cripples,
He separates the text from the action. This Mandelbaums', making helpless gestures and deforms and restrains while at the same time
postulation of the independence of the text and uttering (via pre-recorded tapes) shouts defining it in a new way. The object, which is
action was the result of a conscious artistic demanding their part in the action and their essential in the whole creative work of Kantor,
evolution. When Cricot 2 produced Witkiewicz's rights. During the most dramatic and decisive becomes once more an unyielding attribute of
The Madman and the Nun (1963) there occurred moment there occurs a completely purposeless, all activities, of Man grown into his
what Kantor defines as 'the separation of the enigmatic scene — performed with the utmost consciousness and his existence. q
dramatic text and accompanying events'. Actors concentration and pedantry — where the actions WIESLAW BOROWSKI
speaking the lines of the text neither represented of aiming, measuring distance and manipulating