Are we able today to say something about Jerzy Grotowski as a person? Or is this personage so fundamental to contemporary performing arts as to be completely consumed by his own myth? Perhaps, the only solution is to look awry – through the prism of the actors of the Laboratory Theatre, in particular, Ryszard Cieślak – say Radziszewski and Sajewska.
Ryszard Cieślak was the most important of Grotowski’s collaborators, whose role in the staging of Książę Niezłomny (The Constant Prince) was a breakthrough in the art of acting. In his performance he incorporated the most important of Grotowski's ideas – that of “poor theatre", which was founded on physicality and movement. Roman Pawłowski in Gazeta Wyborcza explains:
Well, according to Grotowski, theatre, in order to maintain its distinctiveness in a contemporary culture dominated by the media, must return to its ritual origins. It should reject all that is unnecessary: set design, lighting effects, music, make up, costumes. Anything that obstructs or hinders contact between the actors and the audience, which is the basic element that makes theatre.
Książę (The Prince) by Karol Radziszewski, which he co-wrote with Dorota Sajewska, directly relates to Grotowski's 1965 performance. It was based on Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s drama, as translated by Juliusz Słowacki, and told the story of the martyrdom of the son of the Portuguese king.
Radziszewski's work, which is dedicated to the relationship between the outstanding actor and the legendary director, is neither a feature film, a documentary, nor a staging - despite the fact that the artist employed professional actors and dancers. It is a sort of theatre recorded on camera, based on archival materials, while improvised and played out. The artist himself describes it as video theatre.
I'm interested in rewriting the history of art, or even more broadly – culture. I am interested in questioning apparently objective truths. I like to look awry, uncover holes, expose margins. Paradoxically, by questioning the past one can tell a lot about the present. And of course can contribute to the future - said Karol Radziszewski in an interview with Łukasz Musielak for Obieg.
The Prince not only touches on the queer issue, and shows the relationship between the two men and Grotowski's fascination with the male body, but also gives voice to the women who were almost invisible in the legendary reformer's theatre. Radziszewski managed to reach the actress Teresa Nawrot, and their recorded conversation appears in the film. Nawrot was an important figure in Grotowski’s group. She joined the troupe after the master had decided not to put on any more performances and focus on paratheatrical creativity (1969). Therefore, Nawrot never played in any of Grotowski’s stagings. She dealt mainly with the organization of meetings and trips, and became his long-time assistant.
Radziszewski seeks to find the human side of the legend. "I wanted Cieślak to come out of black and white photos, on which he is as a great actor, and become an ordinary man," – the artist said in an interview with Łukasz Jakubowski for Gazeta Wyborcza. Disrupting existing interpretations and attempting to change the perception of the two "sacred" personages of Polish theatre came to be a pretext for a heated debate between the creators of Książe and persons closely connected with Jerzy Grotowski.
"I never wanted to make an objective documentary. I see it as a result of the available documentation and the legend " – explained Radziszewski after the premiere.
The Prince by Karol Radziszewskiego premiered at the 14th International Film Festival T-Mobile New Horizons in 2014, at the International Competition of Films on Art.