It is dangerous to quit the stage

The theme of this year’s edition of the International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant refers to the words of Professor Sławomir Świontek. He was an outstanding drama and theatre theorist, literary scholar and an expert on the poetry of Cyprian Kamil Norwid connected with the Łódź academic community. He cited a legend of Saint Genesius of Rome, a comedian and actor, who had once given up the rehearsed lines and sacrificed his life to deliver his own speech. „It is dangerous to quit the stage” is a universal and timeless theme. It refers to a broader context, too. What does the stage give to the actor? What does it take away from him? Is there a line between the artist on the stage and the artist off the stage? And if so, what is the line? Who is the artist on the stage? Is he there himself? Why is it dangerous to „quit the stage”? Can the artist afford to do it? And if so, when? What are the consequences of such decision? The theme will become the starting point for discussions on modern theatre transformations, the changes not only from formal and thematic angle but from the point of view of human experiences concerning the theatre artists’ condition, too…

I invite you to the Theatre

Ewa Pilawska
artistic director