25 x XXI: 25 Years of Iconic Polish Performances – A Reconnaissance
Teatr Magazine, in partnership with Culture.pl, is delighted to present their selection of the 25 most iconic Polish performances of the first quarter of the 21st century. A few words from Teatr editor-in-chief, Tomasz Plata.
Establishing a canon and considering its various versions is a risky task. Canons are not in fashion nowadays; we believe that we have lost the tools to unequivocally decide that a particular work should be considered more important, interesting or better than others. But how can we find our way through the space of current artistic endeavours without wondering what should be remembered a little better and what should definitely not be forgotten? How can we understand the meaning of contemporary art without looking for works that can serve as benchmarks?
We, at Teatr magazine, decided that the end of 2025 was the perfect opportunity to compile a list of the most significant Polish performances of the first twenty-five years of the 21st century. We are taking this list seriously; it is more than just a fun ranking. However, we also realise that it’s actually more of an invitation for debate and discussion than a final say on the topic. It’s more a preliminary inventory, a tidying up of the ground we’ve managed to cover, so we don’t yet fully know what happened to us along the way.
Over the next three weeks, we will present 25 performances from this last quarter-century. The list was compiled by the editorial staff of Teatr magazine. Texts about the performances, prepared by a group of distinguished authors, will appear here, with English translations published simultaneously on Culture.pl (thank you for your cooperation!). Next year, we will turn it all into a book. We hope that it will fill a rather crucial gap in the market and become a useful guide to contemporary Polish theatre, a compendium attractive to both the theatre community and beyond.
We encourage discussion: who and what have we omitted? Whose value have we overestimated? Where are we spot on, and where have we made mistakes? We look forward to your emails and comments under our social media posts.
Written by Tomasz Plata
Plata is a PhD and a professor at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw. A curator, the author of numerous books, including 'Pośmiertne życie romantyzmu' (The Posthumous Life of Romanticism, 2017) and 'Czułość nas rozszarpie' (Tenderness Will Tear Us Apart, 2024). As an editor, he has worked for, among others, Machina, City Magazine, Film, Newsweek, Art & Business. Since January 2025, he is the editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Teatr.