Axer, Erwin

Born Jan. 1, 1917, in Vienna. Polish producer and stage director.

After graduation from the State Institute of Theatrical Art in Warsaw, Axer worked during 1939–41 in the theaters of L’vov and łódź. He became the stage manager of the Teatr Wspólczesny in Warsaw (called the Kameralny prior to 1949) in 1946; during 1955–57, he also headed the Teatr Narodowy in Warsaw. Axer has paid special attention to the production of modern Polish plays, including The Germans (1949) and The First Day of Freedom (1959) by Kruczkowski, Business as Usual by Tarn (1951), Uneasy Duty by Lutowski (1955), and Two Theaters by Szaniawski (1968). He has also produced such foreign plays as Biedermann and the Incendiaries by Frisch in 1959 and Arturo Ui by Brecht in 1962 and again in 1963, at the Gorky Bolshoi Dramatic Theater in Leningrad. His journalistic temperament is shown in the forms of intellectual theater.

Since 1947, Axer has taught at Polish dramatic schools in łódź and Warsaw. He writes theoretical articles in the periodical Teatr and feuilletons for the stage. Axer was awarded the State Prize of the Polish People’s Republic in 1962 for his productions of Goethe’s Iphigenie in Tauris and Brecht Arturo Ui.