Two plays by Sławomir Mrożek, crowning his twentieth-century achievements.
He wrote The Reverends / Wielebni (1996) shortly before his return to Cracow. The reverend Richard Bloom arrives in a small provincial town in New England. Soon it turns out he's not the only candidate for the post of parish priest. The second candidate is a woman, the Reverend Gloria Burton, while the Reverend Bloom is a converted Jew. The final decision is left to the blasé and erotically roused parish council. They make no bones about it - neither a Jewish nor a woman minister is exactly the candidate they've been looking for...
A Beautiful Sight / Piękny widok was written in Poland in 1998. Mrożek's characters meet the challenge of alienation - national, religious, political, sexual, which sometimes evokes hilarity, sometimes anxiety. They try to find a place for themselves in a hostile and threatening world.
"As usual Mrożek is fascinating for his hypnotic dialogues, which all the time balance elegantly on the edge between reality and improbability." (Paweł Głowacki)
Sławomir Mrożek (b. 1930), the contemporary Polish dramatist whose plays are most frequently performed both at home and abroad; for many years one of Poland's most popular prose-writers. His work has been translated into a nearly a score of languages.
- Sławomir Mrożek
Works for the Stage. The Reverends. A Beautiful Sight / Utwory sceniczne. Wielebni. Piękny widok
Oficyna Literacka Noir sur Blanc, Warszawa 2000
translation rights: Diogenes Verlag AG, rights available
124 x 172, 339 pages, hardcover
ISBN 83-86743-54-9