Maja Komorowska studied puppetry at the National Academy of Theatre of Krakow. After working for a year at Kraków's Theatre of Masks and Puppet Grotesque she moved to Jerzy Grotowski's 13 Rows Theatre in Opole, and then to the Laboratory Theatre in Wrocław. She worked with Grotowski until 1968, starring in a number of productions including Juliusz Słowacki's Kordian, Calderon's and Słowacki's Worker's Oratory and The Unshaken Prince. In the early 1970s she was taken on at the Contemporary Theatre of Warsaw by its director, Erwin Axer. There, she has played in Edward Bond's Lear, Thomas Bernhard's Boris's Feast, Ernest Bryll's The November Thing and Słowacki's Kordian; she is still working with this theatre today. From 1982 to 2014 she was a lecturer at The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw, she obtained the title of professor in 1991. She has also performed in several dozens of plays in the Television Playhouse (Teatr Telewizji).
Film and Stage Carrer
The 1970s also witnessed Komorowska's screen debut in a short film by Krzysztof Zanussi called Mountains at Dusk, after which Komorowska soon became the director's favourite actress. He cast her in his best productions, including The Family Life, The Quarterly Balance, The Spiral and At Full Gallop. She also worked with Andrzej Wajda on The Wedding and The Maids of Wilko, with Tadeusz Konwicki on How Far from Here, How Close and The Lava, and with Istvan Szabo on Stories of Budapest.
During the 1980s Komorowska's theatre career was overshadowed by her film work, and the actress performed on stage only five times: in Max Frisch's Triptych (staged by Erwin Axer), in Witkiewicz's Water Hen, in Czechow's Three Sisters and in Peter Shaffer's Laetitia and the Lovage (directed by Maciej Englert).
During the following decade, however, Komorowska began to appear on the stage much more often. She created a number of outstanding and mature parts in productions such as Friendrich Durrenmatt's The Visit of the Old Lady directed by Wojciech Adamczyk, Samuel Beckett's The Happy Days directed by Antoni Libera, Thomas Bernhard's At the Goal staged by Erwin Axer, and Ausloeschung-Extinction / Ausloeschung-wymazywanie directed by Krystian Lupa.
Komorowska is considered to be an outstanding artist and a moral authority within the actors' community thanks to her charismatic personality and acting skills. "There's no doubt that Maja Komorowska is a star, but a particular kind of a star – a unique one. She is untouched by ostentation, an actor's capriciousness or self-content. If one could use the word star, then Maja Komorowska is a star of love and shared responsibility. She loves her landscapes, her family, her friends and her colleagues", said poet and essayist Artur Międzyrzecki.
Collaboration with Krystian Lupa
The actress continued to work with Krystian Lupa. After appearing as Maria in Extinction on the stage of the Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw, she played Irina Arkadina in Niedokończony utwór na aktora / Unfinished Piece for an Actor based on Chekhov's Seagull (2004) and the expressive Pilar in Sztuka hiszpańska / The Spanish Play by Yasmina Reza (2004), followed by a role as Anna Meister in Thomas Bernhard’s Over All the Mountain Tops (2006). This was another of “Komorowska’s Bernhards". She seems to be predestined to act in his dramas.
She creates an evocative portrait of a selfless, slightly bitter, but still strong woman who devoted herself entirely to her husband and skilfully takes care of his business" – wrote Rafał Węgrzyniak about the role of Anna. (Odra 2006, No. 11)
A great display of her acting craftsmanship was the role of Sarah Bernhardt in the play Mimo Wszystko / Memoir by John Murrell directed by Waldemar Śmigasiewicz (Współczesny Theatre in Warsaw, 2007) about the last years of the actress’s life. She portrayed a big star accustomed to being paid tribute that was at the same time an intelligent, ironic woman aware that her life is coming to an end. Komorowska, immobilized in a chair, poignantly showed how Bernhardt dealt with old age and impending death.