Mój Mickiewicz

Abstract

On 11th May 2021 at 5 p.m. at the Wierszalin Theatre’s premises, Piotr Tomaszuk gave a lecture entitled My Mickiewicz. It was the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to which it was impossible to organise the lecture in a traditional form. In consultation with the Wierszalin Theatre staff, Dariusz Matys and Rafał Gąsowski, it was decided to hold the lecture on the theatre’s stage with the participation of the acting troupe. The event was broadcast using professional equipment and produced by the Wierszalin staff. From the very beginning, the audience had the impression that they were participating in television theatre, reminiscent of a performance masterfully directed by the show’s main protagonist, Piotr Tomaszuk. Organizers were welcomed by prof. Krzysztof Korotkich, who led the meeting via the Internet. Thanks to the broadcast, the event was attended by over hundred listeners, including high school students and teachers as well as students and lecturers from other universities, including Slavic studies at the University of Vienna. Piotr Tomaszuk’s lecture had the features of an artistic event, the Master’s statement was illustrated by discrete music performed by actors, recalling live motifs known from plays, including those based on Mickiewicz’s Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve). During the speaker’s colourful, lively narration, interspersed with accents reminiscent of performance, Tomaszuk allowed his actors to take the floor and the audience to join in the conversation. The formula of the event was planned as a meeting with an actor, director, writer, thinker, man immersed in Romantic drama. The meeting was coordinated by Konrad Szczebiot, M.A., a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Białystok and an expert on Piotr Tomaszuk’s works. He joined the dialogue with the speaker and the actors several times. One of the aspects raised in this dialogue was the place of the director and actors in transferring a literary work to the stage. The problem of the condition of the artist in contemporary theatre, his relation to the drama, the extent of the director’s presence and his personality in the show became one of the main themes of the lecture. Actors from the Wierszalin Theatre, including Rafał Gąsowski, who plays the role of Konrad in the production of Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve), and the audience joined the conversation several times. After the lecture, Mr Piotr Tomaszuk invited the audience to ask questions, which they gladly took advantage of. The speaker’s answers became a kind of elaboration on the lecture given, thus creating a coherent whole. The text of the lecture included in this volume is a transcript of the broadcast. The lecture was transcribed, edited and annotated by Karol Zimnoch. Przełożył Dariusz Piechota