Grotowski's Poland: Poor Theatre and the Party

Grotowski's Poland presents the first ever comprehensive record of the influential director's relationship with the Polish United Party of Workers (PZPR).

Author Seth Baumrin examines Grotowski's own political activities and explores their connection to his aesthetic and methodological practices. The book is based on over 70 interviews with figures that worked with or knew Grotowski well, including actors, critics and theatre administrators, but also regional ministers, political informers and former secret police. The conversations offer a unique insight into what it meant to be an artist living and creating theatre under Soviet control in Poland.

The study presents a radical alternative to the traditional view that Grotowski was an apolitical theatre reformer, revealing his actions as a member of PZPR and his complex relationship with the Polish Secret Service. Grotowski's Poland paints a fascinating and previously unseen portrait of one of the twentieth century's most influential theatre directors, and will be invaluable to students and scholars of theatre studies, history and politics.