Performed Biography, or Stage Play of/with an Actress’s Life Archive: A Case Study
Performed Biography, or Stage Play of/with an Actress’s Life Archive: A Case Study

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the representation of biography in theater plays in which an individual’s “course of life” constitutes the basis of re-creating procedures. Among recent, often autothematic performances inspired by biographical material, which oscillate between fact and fiction, the author distinguishes the category of “performed biography.” As a representative example of this kind of performance, she selects Wielce Szanowna Pani (The Right Honourable Lady, dir. Martyna Peszko, Teatr Polski im. Hieronima Konieczki in Bydgoszcz, 2020), inspired by the biography of actress Halina Mikołajska. The poetics of this performance can be described as playing with or of the archive. Mikołajska’s biography is performed onstage through the use of written and film documentation, literary works, autothematic comments and behavior of the performers, and interaction with the audience. In this way, the fragmentary re-creation of an individual biography is intertwined with personal and general reflections on the ethical and emotional challenges inherent in the stage actress’s profession. The analysis of the performance is based on the concept of “reenactment,” introduced by Rebecca Schneider to describes those practices of evoking the past in which the affective act of reconstructing history at the same time creates a personal statement by the performers.

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