Andrzej Wajda - Plays for TV theatre (219/222)

Описание: To listen to more of Andrzej Wajda’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Andrzej Wajda (Film director)  

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016), whose début films portrayed the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes which established his reputation as storyteller and commentator on Polish history. He also served on the national Senate from 1989-91. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki]

TRANSCRIPT: I worked in in Stockholm, I did another play by Wyspiański, I tried to do 'The Straw Hat', a comedy by Labiche, I did 'Romeo and Juliet' but these were no longer plays that brought something new into my experience of the theatre. And so I stopped there. I parted company with Stary Teatr, it has become something completely different. Perhaps they'll manage to rebuild their profile, I'd very much like them to, but I think in order to do that they'd need to find another three young, fit and dedicated directors like we were then - Konrad Świnarski, Jerzy Jarocki and me. They would have to be able to discipline that huge and defiant group of actors. Instead of that living theatre, you began to do TV plays. Yes, I have to say that as far as our TV is concerned, in its cultural programme, because as soon as TV appeared, it took on itself the duty so to speak of disseminating theatre. What sort? Well, TV theatre. At the beginning of the Sixties, I was involved with the first theatre for TV which was still going out live. That meant that the cameras were in position and what we performed, we performed. If someone made a mistake, they made a mistake. But what was interesting then, which today may seem totally unlikely, was the fact that theatre directors knew exactly who in Warsaw had a TV set. So the director would say, 'No, don't do that scene because he won't like it'. And everyone knew who'd be sitting in front of their TVs that evening and who wouldn't like it. Since it was primarily Party activists who owned TVs we knew who we were addressing. So when today people say that we have an audience of millions, then we were being watched on just a handful of TV sets. This of course had its own charm, the beginning of these TV dramas which were shown live. But I very quickly made the first play after several years. It was 'Macbeth'. I'd always wanted to square up to 'Macbeth'. 'Macbeth' was hard to do on stage, but here on TV theatre. What did TV theatre in Poland begin to produce as a phenomenon in itself? Namely, a kind of conjoining of theatre with film because film directors had forced their way into TV. We brought open air scenes into TV theatre. 'Hamlet' - why not? 'Macbeth' - why not? There could be battle scenes, there could be anything within the boundaries of the modest staging that TV made available to us. But gradually, I transferred a few performances, particularly November Night, to TV theatre. I did a few dramas which weren't my films at all nor were they plays I'd done transferred to TV. TV theatre began to play a more important role in Poland and perhaps it's significant that it became something between theatre and film. Theatre directors moving to TV theatre slowly became film directors. We film directors, on the other hand, came to know theatre repertoires because TV theatre required this of us. And this mixing was very beautiful and healthy. I have to say that if this theatre were to disappear from our cultural world, it would do a great deal of damage to our culture and would be a great loss. Because this halfway form, this hybrid is very creative and envigorating for theatre, for film and if I'm thinking about working for the theatre, then I'm thinking more about working for TV theatre.