Teatr Slowackiego, Dziady, and Hamlet

I love this theatre in Krakow, in southern Poland. Flower-sellers in Krakow have sold flowers in front of Cloth Hall since 1200.


Cloth Hall in Krakow; flower-sellers with yellow umbrellas

The Slowackiego is a big theatre, built in 1893, focussing on the classics. You walk past it on your way from the train station. I thought it was a library. In soft beautiful Polish it is called, "Tay-ahtr Swovah-skee-ay-go." Pour that over your tongue.


Teatr Slowackiego


On your way to the balcony (double-click for full beauty)


The actor's view, strangely skewed


The spectator's view: a scene from Dziady

I was in Krakow by fluke. My plane to Warsaw had been rerouted due to fog. Instead of taking the next flight, I slid out the back and headed into town. "What's playing at the Slowackiego?" I asked the hotel clerk. "Dziady," he said. "Very classical Polish drama. Dark, philosophical. Not good for American girl." I grinned. "Jeg teatr regisseura," I said, one of my few clumsy Polish sentences: "I am a theatre director." He grinned back, bowed, and called the theatre to get me a ticket. I got their last one, after he assured them I was indeed willing to sit on one of the wood chairs they had added at the last minute for the sold-out crowd.

This is one of my favorite things -- to see theatre in a language I don't understand. It makes the mystery so much higher. You work harder; and what you find, you keep.

I first saw Hamlet in Russian, in Moscow, in a production by Robert Sturua. During her mad speech, Ophelia calmly gathered swords from all the court noblemen, then dropped them in a circle, one by one. Each stuck quivering in the stage. "There's rue for you; and here's some for me..." When she left, an empty stage remained, sprouting its crown of trembling iron swords.

Back to the Slowackiego -- whose productions have that same reverberation.


One of their gorgeous posters


Another one, equally strange and beautiful

And now for the best treat of all -- they have made two little videos, as if you had walked into the theatre and looked around.

This is a video of their stairs (takes a while to load, but worth it).

This is a video of inside the theatre (another slow load, but REALLY worth it).

This is their homepage, with a button for English. Galeria is the section with the pix; in there, Wnętrza is theatre pix, Plakaty is more gorgeous posters.

With that, thus endeth today's Moment of Beauty. Thank you Krakow, and Teatr Slowackiego, for your good effort.