Rapsodyczny „płaszcz niewyżebrany” Mieczysława Kotlarczyka
Mieczysław Kotlarczyk’s Rhapsodic Theatre (Teatr Rapsodyczny)

Summary/Abstract: This theatre has been described as ‘born in captivity, fettered in its cradle’. Established in 1941 by Mieczysław Kotlarczyk on the initiative of Karol Wojtyła and his peers associated with the Theatrical Confraternity (Konfraternia Teatralna), the Rhapsodic Theatre was an important part of Cracow underground culture during the war. Its original artistic formula, sometimes referred to as rhapsodic and setting the Theatre apart from all others, as well as its repertoire, consisting mainly of Polish and world classics, were openly resented after the World War II and, with the strengthening of communist regime, became subject to smear campaigns which ultimately led to the Theatre being closed in 1953. The Theatre was revived in 1957 as a result of liberalisation in public life brought about by the political event in October 1956. The authorities closed the Theatre permanently in 1967 and its director was banned from working in theatres or in Cracow Academy for the Dramatic Arts (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna). The communist authorities could not tolerate Kotlarczyk’s relations with the church hierarchy, especially with bishop Karol Wojtyła. Openly, however, it was the ideology and the aesthetic value of the repertoire that came under heavy criticism. The ideology promoted by Kotlarczyk and his Theatre was defended, usually without success, by intellectuals and artists. Kotlarczyk himself often stood up for it when, following the second closure of the Theatre, he made efforts to secure its revival. The unemployed director, who a few years before the retirement age was deprived of all sources of income, received help from the Church, which gave him the opportunity to teach in Cracow seminaries. The founder of the Rhapsodic Theatre died unexpectedly in 1978, few months before Karol Wojtyła was elected pope. This was the period when the conspiracy of silence regarding Kotlarczyk and his Theatre was finally broken.

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