Osterwa na froncie
Osterwa at the Front

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the years 1919 and 1920, the time of Poland’s newly regained independence and the Polish-Bolshevik war. Due to censorship, this period used to be mentioned only briefly in literature on Juliusz Osterwa and the Reduta theatre even though the director and his ensemble were involved in this war. The author attempts to reconstruct the socio-political conditions in which the founder of Reduta opened his theatre in 1919. She focuses on how Poland’s being at war with all its neighbours had an influence on the discussions about the tasks of the theatre. She also describes Osterwa’s intellectual engagements with Stefan Żeromski and Wincenty Lutosławski, who at the time were close to the philosophy of Roman Dmowski, the ideologist of National Democracy. Based on these facts, she argues that between 1919 and 1920 Osterwa’s thinking about national theatre and the duties of the “modern Pole” was akin to ND ideals, and that in the first months of Reduta’s activity, right-wing circles saw it as a chance for the renewal of Polish theatre. (Transl. Z. Ziemann)

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