Witkowski's Karpowicz

Abstract

This paper discusses the collaboration between the author, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, and the director, Andrzej Witkowski (broken by the latter's sudden death). This artistic alliance had brought forth for theatrical works, prepared by the Wrocław group Teatr Rozmaitości (later renamed as the E. Wierciński Teatr); Witkowski himself made every effort to do it. Owing to Witkowski, the playwright could treat this theatre almost as his own stage. Karpowicz had found in the Wrocław director the most careful and profound interpreter of his plays, someone who noticed in them a new theatrical quality. According to critics, Witkowski ”felt” best Karpowicz's dramaturgical matter. He collaborated with the author and at the same time created his independent and ambitious productions, which made the texts more profound and richer in their expression. This creative alliance was initiated by the preview of The Strange Passenger in 1964. Three years later Witkowski directed The Green Gloves. The latter production was very different from earlier productions in other theatres. It became the most important spectacle of the season and gained a permanent place among the most eminent productions of the director and the Wrocław stage. In the following years there were still other stagings: A Break in the Journey (1968), based on a new version of the text; Witkowski participated in the whole process, and the preview of Charon from Dawn to Dawn (1972).