Mistrzowie, liderzy, a może uzurpatorzy? Niejednoznaczny status twórców teatrów Cricot i Cricot 2
Masters, Leaders, or Usurpers? The Ambiguous Status of the Creators of the Cricot and Cricot 2 Theatres

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to look at the principles of operation and the resulting organizational practices characteristic of the Cricot and Cricot 2 Theatres. By recalling the work of the pre-war Cricot Theatre, the author puts forward a thesis that the theatre had developed practices and modes of action typical of the contemporary artistic collective. The cooperating group of artists, with Józef Jarema as an undoubted leader, was quite a flexible constellation, re-established in different configurations with each subsequent undertaking. This mode of operation strongly influenced the aesthetics of particular performances and artistic evenings. The further part of the article raises the issue of the impact of Jarema’s theatre on its post-war successor, the Cricot 2 Theatre. It turns out that the initial Cricot 2 performances stemmed from similar concepts of theatre group organization. When describing also Tadeusz Kantor’s later work in this context, the author emphasizes the artist’s perverse takeover of the collective modus operandi, which he consciously utilized in the realization of his own authorial vision of theatre. The disputes which emerged over the artistic heritage of the Cricot 2 Theatre immediately after Kantor’s death are also discussed. By raising questions about the status of creators and co-creators of the Cricot and Cricot 2 Theatres, and thus about the type and distribution of power in these organizations, the author observes certain organizational mechanisms which, in these cases, took or could have taken place.

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