ABSTRACT
We are extremely fortunate that Tadeusz Kantor insisted on documenting his productions with a view to creating an archive of his work, which eventually became the Cricoteka, the collection housed at various locations in the city of Krakow. This insistence came from his major preoccupation in his later years, that of the function of memory. In archiving his theatre work on film, he was aware that only a partial record would be left, but his obsession gives us a privileged way of seeing the shape and hearing the sound of his productions. In this chapter we will examine four of Kantor’s key theatre pieces created between 1975 and 1989 – The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1986) and I Shall Never Return (1989). These were the works by which he became internationally known, and which toured the world, winning numerous awards and prizes. A performance of The Dead Class was filmed in the Krzysztofory gallery in Krakow in 1976 by the great Polish film-maker Andrejz Wajda, thus providing the format in which most people can see the piece today. There are several film versions available for consultation in the Cricoteka of Wielopole, Wielopole, Let the Artists Die and I Shall Never Return, the most readily available of which are those by Andrejz Sapia. His film of Wielopole, Wielopole, was made in Wielopole itself in 1985 and published for the Krakow 2000 festival.
