Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl, «Za kulisami: Narodziny przedstawienia w teatrze polskim w XIX wieku»: Book review

Magdalena Raszewska

Abstract

A review of Za kulisami: Narodziny przedstawienia w teatrze polskim w XIX wieku [Backstage: The Birth of Performance in the Polish Theatre of the 19th Century] by Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl, based on her habilitation thesis (Kraków, 2016). The author of the book, on the basis of the impressive library research, presents all aspects of the theatre’s workings, all that happens behind the curtain. She studies official documents (announcements, books of ordinances and orders, work logs) as well as memoirs, letters, and press reports (from an era when “behind-the-scenes” and “inside-the-artist’s-studio” reportages just started becoming popular). Jarząbek-Wasyl uses materials known to theatre historians in a new way: they are not employed for analysing a performance but for describing the process of its production. The author presents a world of personages that no longer exist (such as the theatre copyist, or woźny [assistant house manager]) and notions unknown for today’s theatre-goers (rola [role, part] understood as the actor’s part of the script). The readers get to know the backstage area, its topography and architecture (so much less interesting for the audience than the stage), theatre customs, and finally, problems with costumes, grease paints, fellow actresses, and prejudices. We get a chance to see the process of creating a role and how it changes over the years. This is a book about a veritable maze of the theatre, a maze inaccessible to most viewers.