In 2005, The Meyerhold Centre, the Polish Cultural Centre in Moscow, and the Cultural Department of the Polish Embassy in Russia conducted a Polish programme at The Meyerhold Centre. This framework of Russian-Polish theatrical encounters included premiere performances of Polish theatrical classics, tours, seminars, master classes, presentations, and readings of new Polish plays.

On January 31st, there were a variety of events: a reading of the contemporary Polish authour Doman Nowakowski’s first play Some Kinds of Virgins (translated by Leonard Buchov); an artistic encounter between director Pawel Miskiewicz (student of Krystian Lupa) and Justyna Golińska, theatrical critic and editor of the magazine Dialog; a retrospective on the early short films of Roman Polanski; and the premiere of Ivona, Princess of Burgundia by Witold Gombrowicz (translated by Leonard Buchov), a thesis production for Pavel Safonov, a directing student in the graduate program run by the Moscow Art Theatre School and The Meyerhold Centre.

On March 2nd and 3rd, Nikolai Roshchin’s staging of Juliusz Słowacki’s Lilla Weneda was premiered. This Polish romantic-tragedy tells of a war between the Lechites and the Druids in legendary times, which, to a certain extent of convention, could be considered a war between West and East. Director Nikolai Roshchin transposed the action of the play to the wasteland of humanity. In the face of the apocalypse, the heroes are forced to admit to the pointlessness of human existence and to make way for the next form of life. The performance reaches its finale over text from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra.

From March 17th to 20th, The Meyerhold Centre hosted a tour of the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice (Lublin, Poland), with Włodzimierz Staniewski’s staging of Euripides’ Electra.

On March 18th and 19th, leading specialists from the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice conducted a two-day seminar in their theatre-laboratory’s unique working methods and in Włodzimierz Staniewski’s system of actor training. This immersion in the work of Gardzienice also included an extensive programme of video screenings, lectures, and a presentation of Staniewski’s new book Hidden Territories.

On March 20th, critics, directors, actors, and audience members took part in a round-table discussion with Gardzienice.

June included: a presentation of the anthology Polish Dramaturgy: 20th Century, released by the Herald Bureau of Dramatic Art and the Polish Cultural Centre in Moscow; an artistic encounter with playwright Doman Nowakowski; and play readings from an anthology of Polish drama.

October included: an exhibition of drawings and sketches from the Cricoteca archives for performances staged by director and artist Tadeusz Kantor; lectures and round-table discussions on Kantor’s legacy; and screenings of four performances staged by Tadeusz Kantor.

Performances:
Lilla Weneda