On Tadeusz Kantor’s The Dead Class
On Tadeusz Kantor’s The Dead Class

Summary/Abstract: The Dead Class – a ‘dramatic séance by Tadeusz Kantor’ – premiered on 15 November 1975, in the basement of the Krzysztofory Gallery in Kraków. This was the first official version of the production, which travelled to the Edinburgh festival in August 1976 and which continued to be performed until 1977. The second version (1977-1986) – which saw significant changes among the actors and the characters in the production – was performed much more extensively outside Poland, and became the best-known version of The Dead Class abroad. A third version by Kantor was also prepared in 1989. The first version of The Dead Class was documented by the distinguished film and theatre director Andrzej Wajda in 1976, several months after the premiere. (Wajda’s film is published with English subtitles on the DVD accompanying the print edition of this issue of Polish Theatre Perspectives.) On 9 September 1976, shortly after the making of his film, Wajda met with two key figures of Polish theatre: the literary critic Konstanty Puzyna, and the poet, dramatist, and essayist Tadeusz Różewicz, to discuss the reception of The Dead Class, and their personal responses to the performance. This text is an edited transcript of the conversation that took place between them.

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