"The Szopka" and Its Strategies of Participation "Gra o Herodzie" (A Play on Herod) by Witold Wandurski
"The Szopka" and Its Strategies of Participation "Gra o Herodzie" (A Play on Herod) by Witold Wandurski

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the work of Witold Wandurski as a form of historical, participatory, and immersive dramatic practice. The main focus is Gra o Herodzie (A Play on Herod)—a proletarian carnival—which has been interpreter as a performance actively negotiating with the surrounding socio-cultural environment. The author has explored, using Wandurski’s works, how in the interwar period it was possible to create art that reacted to and negotiated with reality, without being strictly interventionist. These reflections have been supplemented with relevant historical contexts regarding the nativity play itself as a performance that has always balanced the tension between the sacred and the profane. The significance of forms such as factomontage, along with other practices relevant to the poetics of Wandurski’s works, has also been examined. In light of these considerations, Wandurski has been presented not only as an active organizer of the first Polish proletarian stage and a writer involved in engaging the workers’ milieu, but also as a dramatist who found in dramatic tradition modern tools that shifted attention to the “onlookers,” thus making them active participants in the reception process.

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