Teatr Polski

a Polish drama theater. The Teatr Polski was opened in Warsaw on Jan. 29, 1913, by A. Szyfman, who was manager and artistic director during the years 1913–15, 1918–39, 1946–49, and 1955–57. The first performance was Krasiński’s Irydion. The company included many prominent actors and stage directors, namely S. Broniszówna, S. Wysocka, M. Przybylko-Potocka, J. Węgrzyn, A. Zelwerowicz, J. Leszczyński, J. Osterwa, L. Solski, M. Cwiklińska, W. Brydziński, and L. Schiller, who managed the theater from 1949 to 1950.

The Teatr Polski was organized to do away with theatrical conventions and popularize Polish and foreign classics; many plays of Shakespeare and G. B. Shaw were staged. Much emphasis was also placed on modern drama. After the formation of the People’s Republic of Poland (1944), the theater in 1946 resumed its work, which had been interrupted by the war and occupation. As it had before the war, the repertoire included the classics, romantic plays, and works by such contemporary Polish playwrights as L. Kruczkowski, J. Iwaszkiewicz, and E. Bryll, as well as Russian and Soviet plays. The most significant plays have included Slowacki’s Fantazy (1948), Gorky’s The Lower Depths (1949), and Krasinski’s Irydion (1966). The Teatr Polski has an affiliated theater, the Seena Kameraina. In 1954 and 1975 the company of the Teatr Polski toured the USSR.