1993 (MY TELEVISION DEBUT)
This is one of the most beautiful dramas about the art of theatre,” Kazimierz Braun, a well-known director and author of a book on Norwid’s dramaturgy, once wrote about Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s 'Actor’.
The main characters of the play are two actors. Count Jerzy (Mariusz Bonaszewski) is a bankrupt aristocrat who, in order to earn a living, decides to enter the service of Melpomene. Pszonk-Kean (Jarosław Gajewski) is a professional actor, a great artist of the stage surrounded by contempt of the aristocracy, who regard him as a stray (the prototype of this character was Bogumił Dawison – a famous 19th century tragic man of Polish origin). The two became friends during their school years, and now Pszonk-Kean engages Jerzy in his theatre and gives him the leading role in „Hamlet”. This will, of course, cause a great social scandal and, in the process, fill the auditorium to the last seat. The success of the performance will allow the Count to pay off his debts. Not only the financial ones, but also the moral ones. The former vanity and wastrel will gain a profession, making him a useful member of society.
When writing The Actor, Norwid was influenced by the philosophical concepts he included in his poem Promethidion. According to them – „art is a banner on the work of human towers. Therefore, anyone who practices it deserves the highest respect. The poet never finished his work on The Actor. Two manuscripts of this drama have survived. The first – complete, and the second – later, intellectually and formally richer, but lacking an ending. In the staging by Maciej Prus, both were used. The director especially highlighted the existential dimension of 'The Actor’. He showed the fragility and futility of human fate, bound by often falsely understood moral norms and conventions.
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