Bogusław
Schaeffer is a Polish
playwright, and music
composer. He has written 46
plays and created 550 musical
works.
Schaeffer is the most
frequently performed
playwright in Poland today,
and he has been acclaimed as
one of the most interesting
artists of the European
culture in the last few
decades.
I
began translating Schaeffer in
2001. Since then, we have
maintained an active
correspondence, and so far I
have translated five of his
plays.
To learn more about
Schaeffer and the art of
translation, read my article in
the The
Cosmopolitan Review.
The
Monologue for One Possible but
Improbable Instrumental Actor (Scenariusz
dla nie istniejacego, lecz
możliwego aktora instrumentalnego,
1963)
Staged
over 1,500 times around the
world since its premier in 1976,
the Monologue
is based on Walter
Benjamin´s famous essay
“The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction.” The Monologue
has been critically acclaimed
and won many awards, including
the 1995 Grand Prix at New
York’s Theatre Festival.
Translation in progress.
Quartet
for Four Actors
(Kwartet dla czterech
aktorów, 1966)
Since its premier
in 1979, the
Quartet has been staged
by practically every Polish
theatre. The premise of the
play is simple: four male
actors dressed in tuxedos
mime a music quartet while
performing acrobatic tricks,
singing, and musing on
various topics, from art to
women.
Translation
completed for production to be
performed by the Grupa
Dochodzeniowa (2012)
Scenario
for Three Actors
(Scenariusz dla trzech aktorów,
1970)
Meta-theatrical
play about theatre and theatre
artists: their private
conflicts, antics, neuroses,
desires and artistic
aspirations humorously
deconstructed. Winner of many
prestigious international
awards, Scenario
has been a permanent fixture
in many Polish theatres since
its premier in 1987 at Theatr
Stu in Cracow.
Translation completed
(2011).
HereThere(Tutam,
1991)
An
unconventional love story of
two couples in 19 short scenes
taking place in a corner
café.
The play premiered in 1992 at
the Theater Powszechny in
Warsaw, and has been performed
on and off since then more
than 300 times.
Subtitled: “Theatrical Play in
the form of instrumental
concerto,” Dream
and Not opened
in 2004 in Theater “Elsynor.”
A dark parody of bourgeouis
life, it explores the power
dynamic of a family rooted in
strong patriarchal tradition
caught in between its
ambitions and reality.
Translation published
in Slovo,
journal of the University
College of London (2008).
Alles
(1997-98)
An
aburdist play about
unemployment, blending
Pirandello’s
self-referentiality, Beckett’s
grotesque, and Durang’s absurd
cynicism.
Andrzej
Wajda is a Polish film and
theatre director. Recipient of
an honorary Oscar, he is the
most prominent member of the
famed "Polish Film School"
(1955 to 1963). He is known
especially for a trilogy of
brilliant war films: A
Generation
(1954), Kanał
(1956) and Ashes
and Diamonds
(1958). Four of Wajda's movies
have been nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign
Language Film.
Wajda's equally
prominent theatrical career
has been less-known, but his
theatrical productions are
just as important as his
films, particularly his
milestone and internationally
acclaimed adaptations of
Dostoyevsky.
Crime and
Punishment (Zbrodnia i
kara, 1987) Based on the novel by
Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The
novel, exploring the commandment
'Thou Shalt Not Kill,' follows
the moral fortunes of
Raskolnikov, a poor student, who
kills an old woman, justifying
his actions with a higher moral
purpose. For this adaptation of
Dostoyevsky's classic,
Wajda gathered some of Poland's
most celebrated actors for this
film, and they provide profound
insight into the notion of guilt
and repentance.
November
Night
(Noc Czerwcowa, 2001) Based on
the novel by Jaroslaw
Iwaszkiewicz.
Several
months before his death, the
remarkable Polish poet and
novelist Iwaszkiewicz wrote this
theatrical adaptation of his own
novel specially for Wajda. The
context of the story is the
fallout from the failed January
Uprising of 1863. June
Night
illustrates the difficulties of
choosing between the demands of
the duty and of the heart.
