Metamorfozy {Budy jarmarcznej}: Aleksandr Błok − Wsiewołod Meyerhold − Tadeusz Kantor
{Puppet Show} metamorphoses. Alexander Blok − Vsevolod Meyerhold − Tadeusz Kantor

Summary/Abstract: {Puppet Show} ({Балаганчик}; 1906), Alexander Blok's short lyrical drama introduced new perception of the principal elements of the theatrical performance structure. These include the scene-audience, actor-scenic character and illusion-disillusion relations. The paper attempts to reconstruct how Vsevolod Meyerhold saw {Puppet Show} and what Tadeusz Kantor derived from his reading of the piece. Influenced by Blok, Meyerhold began the process of theatre's theatrical restitution reaching to the beginnings which include commedia {dell'arte}. {Puppet Show}, which influenced the theatre during the entire second half of the 20th century, can be read as a meta-text commentary to the very essence of theatre. It addresses the strain between the building of the scenic illusion and its disassembly. This strain pertained to the theatre of Tadeusza Kantor, who from his early years on, was fascinated with Blok's drama. Kantor’s presence on stage in his performances is the consequence of Blok introducing the character of the Author in his drama. Furthermore, for Kantor, the expression "puppet show" was synonymic to the theatre of "love and death", in other words - the theatre of constructed emotions.

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