BECKETT’S ‘ELEUTHERIA’
the director’s analytical “biting through”, with the actors’ participation, the enigmatic and unclear texts of the dramas, in line with Wyspianski’s message from “Liberation”:
“For there is no obscure thought which a man, thinking clearly and distinctly,
has not penetrated and understood” (Act II. Konrad to Mask 8)
“Eleutheria” (Freedom) was written in 1947. It is a play in three long acts
with seventeen characters. It was submitted by Beckett to the Paris theatres and was brutally rejected by the well-known directors of the time. Beckett found it deeply affecting.
Following the success of “Waiting for Godot”, he already banned the publication and staging of “Eleutheria”.
The publication ban was later unblocked, but the staging ban was never unblocked. There were some three to four attempts at underground staging, including in Tehran.
The first staging of the project (the result of the first stage of Staniewski’s work with students) took place during the ‘Between.Between’ Festival.
The film featured:
Włodzimierz Staniewski
oraz Studenci XIV Akademii Praktyk Teatralnych “Gardzienice”:
Anna Bielecka
Katarzyna Dudziak
Jakub Kalinowski
Marta Łaska
Maria Matosek
Marta Olech
Rima Sadurska
Anna Maria Słowikowska
Mateusz Suchan
Krystyna Szymura
Zofia Wojtkowska
Anna Złomańczuk
Dobromiła Życzyńska
Adam Chabiera
Sabina Krauze
Przemysław Mrowiński
Eryk Pawłowski
Maria Pilch
Monika Szydłowiecka
Milena Ślósarz
Rita (Margarita) Udovichenko
Patryk Zabielski
Marta Zamora
Listen to (in Polish):
Włodzimierz Staniewski’s story was recalled by Radio Lublin in the programme: “Not just an entertaining radio Sunday”. In the radio programme by Grażyna Lutosławska, we will hear answers to questions such as: Why did Staniewski reach for this text? What do Wyspiański and Beckett have in common? And what was it like rehearsing online and working on the play during the pandemic?