Niepełnosprawność w teatrze polskim lat dziewięćdziesiątych „Madam Eva, Ave Madam” Teatru Zenkasi
Disability in the Polish theatre of the 1990s – Madam Eva, Ave Madam by the Zenkasi Theatre

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the play Madam Eva, Ave Madam, conceived by Zenon Fajfer and Katarzyna Bazarnik, who founded the “Zenkasi” Theatrical Association in the 1990s in Poland. The origins of the play take us back to the times when Zenon Fajfer worked as a social officer in a home for people with disabilities – the Brother Albert Hall – on what was then Zielna Street in Kraków. The job was in lieu of doing the then compulsory military service. Observing the monotony that accompanied the residents with physical disabilities, Fajfer strived to distance himself from art therapy and establish a professional avant-garde theatre. He wished to address stereotypes concerning the disabled body, but also create space that both actors and spectators could share. At the same time, the play became an aesthetic response to the understanding of theatre proposed by Tadeusz Kantor. His bio- objects were juxtaposed with the condition of the human, for whom the object-wheelchair is an integral part of everyday life; Zenkasi also defined the concept of an Even Lower Rank. The analysis of Madam Eva, Ave Madam presented in this article is based on original research in the private archive of Fajfer and Bazarnik; access to the theatre programmes and leaflets makes it possible to track the stagings both in Poland and abroad while articles and reviews shed a light on the reception of the work. I also ground the findings in a broader context of disability studies, referring to Lennard Davis, Petra Kuppers and Sunaura Taylor, among others.

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