A SECOND POLISH NORA: GABRIELA ZAPOLSKA IN SEARCH OF HER OWN IBSEN

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THEATRE REVIEWS:

Echo 1882/56. Kłosy 1882/872. Kurier Warszawski 1882/57. Goniec Wielkopolski 1882/258. Kurier Poznański 1882/258. Kraj 1883/3. Gazeta Narodowa 1883/91. Dziennik Polski 1883/92. Dziennik Łódzki 1887/224. Kurier Warszawski 1887/265. Wędrowiec 1887/39. Kurier Codzienny 1887/265. Czas 1889/88. Świat 1889/9. Przegląd Polski 1895/118. Czas 1895/246. Życie 1989/8. Gazeta Lwowska 1899/99. Słowo Polskie 1899/103. Przegląd Polityczny 1899/100. Gazeta Lwowska 1899/99.

Notes

1 All quotes from Polish translated by Zofia Weaver.

2 Connections between Zapolska’s and Ibsen’s plays have occasionally attracted mention and comment (see: Podraza-Kwiatkowska 2006 [first version 1997], Chałupnik 2004), but there is no extensive and thorough study of those relations.

3 Raszewski’s unfavourable opinion about Zapolska as an actress was challenged by Tadeusz Peiper (2004). Peiper (1891–1969), highly esteemed for his avant-garde poetry written before the II world war, wrote his book on Zapolska’s acting as kind of polemic with Raszewski in the latter half of the 1950s, but it remained unpublished until 2004. Peiper’s detailed study is based on Zapolska’s letters as well as reviews of her roles, but his reading of the documents seems often to be not only speculative, but also mythicizing. Jarosław Fazan, the editor of Peiper’s unpublished works, says that by creating a myth of Zapolska as a very innovative and unfairly unrecognized actress, the poet aimed in fact at constructing his own metaphorical auto-portrait (Peiper 2004, 7). Although Fazan has a point in saying that Peiper’s book can be regarded as “an unintended parody of theatre-historical discourse” (Peiper 2004, 8), Peiper is undoubtedly right when he suggests reevaluating Zapolska’s stage career. Recently, Zapolska’s acting career was recalled and described by Elżbieta Koślacz Virol (2011; based on her PhD theses Gabriela Zapolska actrice polonaise de la fin du XIXe siècle delivered in 2002 (Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3)).

4 General remarks on the Polish theatre in the nineteenth century are based on both older (Raszewski 1977; Sivert 1982, 1987, 1988) and recent research treatments (Kosiński 2011; Partyga 2016a).

5 IbsenStage data on Ibsen’s early reception in Poland are based on Lewko 1996. An unpublished PhD thesis by Katarzyna Maćkała (2016), covering Ibsen’s reception in Polish theatre up to 2006, is also based on Lewko’s thorough study (up to 1918). Since Poland was stateless in the period, which renders the questions of identity particularly complex, it is still best to use Lewko’s book to determine which productions are to be included in Polish theatre history.

6 The role of German culture in Ibsen’s Polish reception has been discussed a number of times (Michalik 1971; Lewko 1996; Kłańska 2006; Sokół 2014).

7 For a discussion of this translation/adaptation see Kłańska 2006.

8 The biography and career of Helena Modrzejewska is well researched. The main sources used in this paragraph include Modjeska 1910; Terlecki 1991 [first edition 1962], Szczublewski 2009 [first edition 1975], Maresz 1997; Holmgren 2012.

9 Aktoromania, translated by Holmgren as the public’s actor worship, together with gwiazdorstwo (the star’s self-promotion) (Holmgren 2012, 87) were two intertwined phenomena defining Polish theatre-life from the late 1860s to 1890s (see Got 1970).

10 In the strictest sense of the word, Zapolska was not the second Polish Nora. In May 1882 Et dukkehjem was staged in Lublin with Józefa Dobrzycka but very little is known about it and it is regarded as an insignificant episode in the history of Polish theatre and Polish Ibsen reception (Lewko 1996, 691).

11 For biographical information on Zapolska see: Raszewski 1951, 1956, 1960; Czachowska 1966; Rurawski 1981; Borkowska 2011.

12 There was no animosity between them. Zapolska always admired Modrzejewska and mythologized their relation. In 1903, she wrote a one-act play especially for the great actress.

13 The most arresting picture of young actresses’ experience can be find in a sketch Krowięta. Studium teatralne (Zapolska 1958b, 56–63) and in a play Panna Maliczewska (available in English translation: Zapolska’s Women. Three Plays. Ed. and trans. by Teresa Murjas, Chicago/Bristol: Intellect. 2009).

14 See also Partyga 2016a, 186–195. An interesting dramatic picture related to this issue can be found in Zapolska’s play Mężczyzna (available in English translation: Zapolska’s Women, op. cit.).

15 In A Global Doll’s House the authors suggest that Małaszka “begins where Et dukkehjem ends. It is a story of a Ukrainian peasant who abandons her husband and child; when she returns home, she finds her child dead and her husband mad” (Holledge et al. 2016, 88). In Małaszka, which was later turned into a theatre play, Zapolska does not refer to Ibsen’s drama, but takes up and creatively transforms a motif well known in Polish (and not only Polish) literature: a girl from a low social background who for various reasons becomes a mistress of a well-born man (see Chałupnik 2004, Partyga 2016a). Various, sometimes polemical, references to Ibsen can be found in other works by Zapolska, but that is a separate and very extensive subject.

16 She might have had Ibsen’s play in mind when in August 1901she wrote to her lover and husband-to-be, Stanisław Janowski: “you told me a word so wonderful that I don’t know how to thank you for that. you told me: ‘you are a human being’” (Zapolska 1970, 828).

17 For example, Irena Solska, Wanda Siemaszkowa or Karol Adwentowicz (his Ibsen roles are commented in English in Wosiek 2006.) yet, it is intriguing to notice that for all Polish actors highly appreciated for their Ibsen roles, Ibsen was but a stage in their career, a step towards more esteemed roles in Shakespeare or Polish romantic drama.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) [grant number UMO-2013/11/B/HS2/02494].

Notes on contributors

Ewa Partyga

Ewa Partyga is an associate professor and head of the Theatre Department at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in theatre and literary studies from Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her research is focused on the comparative drama and theatre history (19^th and 20^th centuries). She published three books, Chór dramatyczny w poszukiwaniu tożsamości teatralnej [The Dramatic Chorus in Search of Theatrical Identity] (2004), Wiek XIX. Przedstawienia [Nineteenth Century. Performances] (2016), Ibsenowskie konstelacje. Ćwiczenia w patrzeniu i czytaniu [Ibsen in Constellattions. Excercises in Looking and Reading] (2016) and co-edited six volumes.