The Theatre of Tadeusz Rozewicz

Abstract

From that experience, Rozewicz has emerged with very few verities intact. Built on irony and grotesque, his works for the theatre reveal a mistrust of abstractions and ideologies, and they expose the absurdities of the Polish and European cultural heritage. Through the erosion of character and plot, they reflect the disintegration of post-war reality, which recognizes no fixed standards for absolutes and subjects everything to opportunistic calculation. Visually forceful and evocative, they deconstruct the dramatic tradition since the romantic period and reconstruct a unique ensemble of theatrical signs. In concrete images, Rozewicz's plays brilliantly dramatize the richest variety of interests and break down traditional categories of thought about the nature of theatre. Any individual play by Rozewicz may baffle
the spectator when considered in isolation. If examined within the context of his other works, the nature and meaning of his images become clear.