Since 2014, Teatr Polski, one of Poland’s leading theatre companies, has toured worldwide with an adaptation of Thomas Bernhard’s Woodcutters, directed by the widely acclaimed Krystian Lupa. Last December in Paris, at the curtain call, audiences were treated to an additional performance: the actors returned to the stage with their mouths defiantly stuck shut with black tape.



The silent protest was the most recent of many against the company’s management and its director, Cezary Morawski, who took over in September 2016, replacing the long-serving Krzysztof Mieszkowski. The escalating row casts a spotlight on the complex relationship between politics and culture under the jurisdiction of Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party. It also echoes a recent dispute at Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre, where critics have questioned incoming director Chris Dercon’s stage experience, and fear he will take the company in a more mainstream, commercialised direction. Teatro Polski’s actors have said Morawski’s artistic approach is old-fashioned, lacking in ambition and risk, and has already damaged the theatre’s credibility.

The dispute at the publicly funded institution, based in Wrocław in western Poland, has seen staff dismissals, petitions against Morawski – including one in France that was signed by more than 1,200 people, including Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Peter Brook – and the intervention of Poland’s culture minister, Piotr Gliński, whose department supplies a substantial part of the theatre’s funding. Regional Polish authorities began preliminary dismissal proceedings against Morawski in February, and the national government is expected to make a non-binding recommendation on his future by 15 March. If he is dismissed, Morawski has said he will appeal against the decision.

A silent protest held on stage after Polski theatre’s production of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s They. Photograph: Archive of Polski Theatre in the Underground

“Leading actors have left the theatre, others have been fired by the director for their part in the protests, and even for making negative statements about his directorship,” Lupa told the Guardian. “If this fight will indeed be a success, that victory is not to be underestimated.”

The roots of the conflict go back to 2015, shortly before the theatre’s premiere of Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden I-V: Princess Plays), based on a book by the Nobel prize-winning Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. At the time, Gliński wrote to the Lower Silesian administration, which oversees the theatre’s management, to accuse the play of “pornography in its full and literal meaning” and calling for it to be cancelled. The play begins with a scene of simulated foreplay, which the theatre claimed was an “exploration of the relationship between torturer and victim”. The production was typical of what Lupa – a former collaborator who has severed ties over Morawski’s appointment – describes as the institution’s “aura of independent art and independent discourse” – something that is increasingly at odds with the pro-Catholic, ultra-conservatism of Poland’s government. Croatian playwright Oliver Frljić’s production of Klątwa (The Curse), which premiered at Warsaw’s Teatr Powszecheny last month and tackles subjects including sexual abuse in the Catholic church, has attracted nationalist protesters, political condemnation and criticism from state media.

Morawski, a former television actor, replaced Mieszkowski after a selection process that detractors claim was non-transparent and politically motivated. Morawski’s opponents say he lacks experience in running a similar venue. “He won’t risk anything. He will do everything the government will say,” said Michał Opaliński, one of the protesting actors, against whom the theatre has started dismissal proceedings. Morawski blames Mieszkowski, who has been a member of parliament in the liberal Modern party since 2015, for the theatre’s politicisation.

Morawski’s relationship with staff who were already upset by his appointment quickly deteriorated, exacerbated by his artistic priorities. “I wanted to make the number and quality of the pieces in the theatre broader. We want to go back to the classics,” Morawski said in a telephone interview. “We want to attract new people and new, broader audiences. Of course we want to have a modern interpretation, and this can translate into some experimentation.” He emphasised that “when it comes to topics, there are no restrictions”, and claimed he inherited significant debt from his predecessor.

Since starting in the job, Morawski’s has cancelled seven productions in the company’s repertoire, blaming declining audience numbers, and actors moving to other theatres. He said Der Tod und das Mädchen is not currently being staged because of a lack of performers and the “high cost of storing [scenery]”. After failed negotiations, he has fired three actors, six administrative employees and the literary director, Piotr Rudzki. Other dismissal proceedings are ongoing. “As a new director I have the right to shape my team in such a way as to cooperate with them,” he said. Faced with such turmoil, a delayed run of Molière’s The Hypochondriac, originally billed as the first major production under Morawksi’s leadership, will premiere on 16 March.

As press interest across Europe has increased, pressure on Morawski has risen. A petition with almost 10,000 signatories was presented to regional government officials in late February. Local officials noted failings – including Morawski’s reduced repertoire, the departure of his staff and his delayed productions – and began dismissal proceedings against him. But a spokesperson for the government’s culture ministry highlighted in an email that Morawski has been in position for “less than half a year” and that “removing a director in the course of the season will make a precedent for the functioning of the whole system of cultural institutions in Poland”.

Those concerned about the theatre’s future now anxiously await the minister’s recommendation. “The conflict has polarised into two extremes – a national Catholic culture and [those] who wish to defend the culture of independent art,” said Lupa. “My only hope is that the Polski Theatre gets back on track, after being derailed, and I can get back to work.” If a standoff between regional and national politicians ensues, the theatre’s future – though not its status as a political pawn – will remain unclear.