A stage work ought to be written, to have decor and costumes and to have music, played and danced all by one man alone. Such a complete athlete does not exist. The individual might be replaced by something that is like such a person: a group of friends.
/Jean Cocteau/
Theatre 38 Jubilee
Half a century after the creation of Teatr 38, Academic Culture Association will organize the reunion of the former members of the group.
The Jubilee Reunion of founders and friends of Teatr 38 took place at 5 p.m. in Klub pod Jaszczurami on 26th November (Main Square 8, Krakow).
We have seen our small theatre as a great one. We were young and we assumed we will remain young forever. During this reunion we want to rejoice once more.
Such was the beginning:
On 24th April 1956, Small Academic Theatre created by Irena Wollen and a group of Jagiellonian University students, presented a poetic performance Gałczyński 38. It was directed by Waldemar Krygier, Fine Arts Academy student brought by Irena Wollen to one of rehearsals. Nine months later Teatr 38 started operating at the Main Square 8 building. It became one of the phenomena of student culture revival after 1956.
They performed Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Act Without Words, Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, The Maids by Genet, plays by Adamov and Audiberti, Undivine Comedy by Krasinski and Divine Comedy by Dante, Recueil des Parades by Potocki , as well as poetic shows based on works of Baczynski, Garcia Lorca, Gałczyński, Harasymowicz and Różewicz. Poetic shows in Waldemar Krygier's theatre were equally creative and daring as French avantgarde theatre - the stage of Krygier's theatre gave them dramatic rhythm and dimension, too shocking perhaps for the audience used to Rhapsodic Theatre of Kotlarczyk. The core of the team was then: Maciej Prus, Piotr Kominek, Jacek Butrymowicz, Irena Wollen. Zbigniew Horawa, Andrzej Skupień, Barbara Jasińska, Andrzej Sosenko, Mieczysław Czuma, Andrzej Stec…
About the theatre:
The stage was tiny, five by five metres, backstage adjacent to the wall of the building, 80 seats for the audience. The cloakroom was at the first floor, and was at the same time a storage place, workshop, club and sometimes a sleeping room. The theatre existed on 3 storeys. The audience had to go first to the basement, pass under the stage and then go up the stairs to find their seats. This architecture was actually forced because the connection between the rooms (which now became Klub pod Jaszczurami) was bricked up. The reconstruction was not allowed by Heritage Conservation Authorities, however Krygier was not bothered by superfluous regulations. The theatre debuted in 1957 with All Against All by Adamov.
Krygier managed the group in dictatorial way, and it turned out to be good for the theatre. However, supression of individuality cannot last too long. The young disciples of the theatrical art grew mature and steady, and the poetic play Hooligan's Confession, based on text of Sergei Yesenin, was created in June 1960 without Krygier, under collective direction of the actors.
This event marked the end of the earliest period of Teatr 38 - first out of many young, student theatres created after 1956, which didn't follow the fashionable style of cabaret and became the real theatre of drama and poetry. Krygier showed Krakow's audience not only Beckett, but also a couple of other writers of the French avantgarde. Such repertoire could not yet be played in professional theatres. Only at the turn of 1960s the translations of Western European and American writers began to appear in the bookstores. A student theatre which didn't care much about copyright, easily went ahead of the mainstream theatres with their choice of repertoire.
Waldemar Krygier, a professional stage designer, was a visionary of theatre. After conflict with the group of Teatr 38, he started to study theatre directing. He couldn't have imagined that his greatest input in the history of theatre will be starting the student group called Teatr 38. After his departure Andrzej Skupień became the leader. In the times of Krygier's leadership the actors came from single recruitment, now the new actors mainly came through competition. The cooperation with professional actors, Ryszard Kotas or Jan Güntner, brought not only interesting plays but also allowed the young performers to improve their acting skills, which mattered for the professionals.
Appearance of Helmut Kajzar in the team added some glamour and brought many awards in Poland and abroad. Kajzar dared to stage Richard III by Shakespeare and The Morality of Mrs. Dulska (songs written by Wiesław Dymny) - he treated these titles lightly, which allowed to hide imperfections of acting and direct audience's attention to visuals and staging. In 1963 the theatre prepared An Ancient Tale of Kraszewski in Wild West style, directed by Mieczysław Święcicki, based on some old opera libretto. This show didn't get any particularly favorable reviews, neither received any award. However, the audience had lots of fun, perhaps as much as the actors who were frequently firing their toy guns.
The repertoire of Andrzej Skupień was equally ambitious as his predecessor's. He adapted works of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ionesco and Chekhov, poetic works of Yesenin and Majakowski, books of Kafka and Günter Grass. Skupień didn't just work as a director but also as an actor and he created a couple of interesting roles, eg in Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka The best example of his acting skills was seen in Two Adventures of Lemuel Gulliver by Jerzy Broszkiewicz. After gaining acting certificate he left Teatr 38. In his farewell show he played in the adaptation of Günter Grass' Cat and Mouse in 1968 (directed by Jan Güntner).
Andrzej Skupień's theatre had 22 premieres in the span of 8 years. The greatest individuality was certainly Helmut Kajzar, whose career of director and dramaturgist was stopped by premature death. Skupień continued work as an actor in professional theatres, however without major successes.
After the repairs in the years 1966-1968, the theatre gained 2 new rooms for the office and the storage room, however the audience hall was reduced to 60 seats. Sound and Light Operator booth didn't smell with burned cables anymore, cloakrooms got some European standard, one for gentlemen and one for ladies, instead of a small, wooden ladder - there were stairs. Even a bathroom with shower was built. There was even sound transmission from the stage to cloakrooms and office. It was to be expected that soon there would be people willing to control such a great place. Teatr 38, however, was protected by its successes. Unfortunately, the new leader could not be chosen, the Council of the Theatre replaced him. Collective management couldn't have brought beneficial effects. Nevertheless, at the end of 1960s a popular play The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, directed by Jerzy Ciota, who also played the main character, was very successful. The lyrics to ballads were written by Wiesław Dymny, to music of Andrzej Zarycki.
The cooperation with Bogdan Hussakowski brought about the Book of Job, a show inspired by the biblical source combined with stage performance, not based on the ancient text however. In the last scene the actors were building a wall made of real bricks and disappeared behind it. Incompatibility of the narrative and stage performance allowed the critics many interpretations of vaguely defined modernity and allowed the foreign audience to understand the unintelligible. The play has received many awards and no one expected it to be the beginning of the end of the next chapter in Teatr 38's history.
The management of Teatr 38 was assigned to Bogdan Hussakowski. The next conflict in the group erupted after the Spanish tour with the Book of Job and after the unsuccessful show Lot. Consequently, the oldest actors left the group, including Barbara Jasińska, working with the theatre since its inception. After a couple of unfortunate shows with professional actors, Hussakowski resigned from the function of theatre's director. In this way, another generational change took place.
In the times of increasing political change, struggling with difficulties, the theatre lasted till 1980s, mainly thanks to Piotr Szczerski's individuality.
Through half a century the theatre had 65 premieres. The fame of Teatr 38 crossed the boundaries of Poland and many international awards were won. The first foreign trip was to Zagreb in 1962, then Moscow, and in the following years Italy, Germany, France and Spain. When in December 1970 there was a premiere of Niejaki Piórko - a show based on the text by a French surrealist Henri Michaux (directed by Leon Pawlik) pro-government militia were moving people out of the Main Square. Only a part of invited guests reached the theatre for the premiere, the rest of the audience was a random crowd that escaped the militia. Teatr 38, just like during the events of March 1968, became a shelter safer than the St. Mary Church.
There were many people - actors, musicians, scenographers, directors - that appeared in the history of Teatr 38. Some of the names are known also outside the world of theatre. People came, people left, studies were finished or prolonged endlessly. Some have passed the professional actors' exams, other started academic work in various fields. Yet others found themselves in journalism, some of us emigrated, some others (Krygier, Skupień, Jasińska) passed away. Some of us had their lives mercilessly twisted by the theatre, because they forgot it is a dangerous game after all.
The place remains. The places always last for long, their sentimental ability to survive is hard to wipe out of memory. The yard at the Jaszczury house was separated by a wall, above the club the words say: Teatr 38.
Leon Pawlik
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