{"id":909,"date":"2020-01-09T19:51:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T19:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=909"},"modified":"2023-03-15T11:37:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:37:46","slug":"counterpublics-cause-so-much-trouble-oliver-frljic-protest-collectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/counterpublics-cause-so-much-trouble-oliver-frljic-protest-collectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Counterpublics Cause so Much Trouble: Oliver Frlji\u0107, Protest & Collectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bryce Lease<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Using Oliver Frlji\u0107\u2019s highly controversial production of Kl\u0105twa (The Curse)<\/span> at Warsaw\u2019s Teatr Powszechny in 2017 as a starting point, this paper addresses the challenges of collectivity in theatre institutions and the forms of political participation they produce, both deliberately and unintentionally. Moving across performance sites (ensemble, protest, audience) the paper problematises easy assumptions around collectivity as an uncontested public good. Drawing on Michael Warner\u2019s concept of \u201ccounterpublics,\u201d Lease unpacks the ways in which publics need to be understood as plural rather than singular. The assertion of a singular public constitutes culture as autonomous in time and space, rather than porous, open to change and multivalent. This article argues that the emergence of rival publics and counterpublics challenge the assertion of a singular public and invites readers to interpret theatre performances and public protests collectively. 
Keywords:<\/strong> Protest, Polish theatre, political theatre, Oliver Frlji\u0107, counterpublics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, I came across a picture of protestors\nsetting off smoke bombs in front of a theatre in the Praga district of Warsaw.[1]<\/sup><\/a> The image had been circulating around social media for several days. This was\nthe reaction to Oliver Frlji\u0107\u2019s controversial production of Kl\u0105twa<\/em> (The Curse<\/em>) at Warsaw\u2019s\nTeatr Powszechny. What was happening in Poland? As images of public protests\ntravel easily around the internet, I would like to argue that the response to\nFrlji\u0107\u2019s production needs to be understood in a much wider context of political\ncensorship and moral panic, at the intersection between two publics that\ncollectively assemble each evening for opposing purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: Magda Hueckel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Since the Law and Justice Party (PiS) came to power in 2013, five Polish artistic directors of major public theatres have not had their contracts renewed. In public \u201ccompetitions,\u201d local authorities have replaced critical directors with artists they see as more amenable. Polish critic Mike Urbaniak claims that PiS\u2019 victory responded to the Polish right\u2019s sense that theatres in Poland are ruled by the left and have insulted the nation, the Church, the flag, the cross, and have promoted sodomy. Such factions feel the theatres should be silenced.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frlji\u0107 already had a reputation in Poland.\nAfter Jan Klata canceled Frlji\u0107\u2019s production of Nie-boska komedia<\/em> (Un-divine Comedy<\/em>)\u2014which was intended to\naddress anti-Semitism in Poland\u2014at the Stary Teatr, a political storm blew to\nTeatr Polski Bydgoszcz (TPB). The TPB had a robust political programme after\nPawe\u0142 Lysak took over as manager, who was then succeeded by Pawe\u0142 Wodzi\u0144ski and\nhis deputy director Bartosz Fr\u0105ckowiak. The latter pair invited Our Violence and Your Violence<\/em> to the\ntheatre in 2016. The extraction of the Polish flag from a woman\u2019s vagina caused\noutrage and resulted in legal battles and impacted the city\u2019s decision not to\nrenew the artistic directors\u2019 contracts in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: Jakub Szafranski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And so, why were there smoke bombs being set off in front of a theatre in the Praga district of Warsaw? Pawe\u0142 \u0141ysak proposed a controversial play for Frlji\u0107 to stage at Powszechny. Kl\u0105twa<\/em> (The Curse<\/em>), written by neo-Romantic Stanis\u0142aw Wyspia\u0144ski in 1899, is based upon the real-life events of a local priest impregnating a young woman and abandoning her and the child to the judgment of their local community. Given its brutal depiction of the Catholic Church, the play has proved unpopular and was rarely staged in the twentieth century. Frlji\u0107 accepted, explaining that Wyspia\u0144ski\u2019s text was radical in its contemporaneous moment. The director was particularly interested in examining the position of a woman in a strongly clerical, religious society, the political power of the Catholic Church and the boundaries of freedom of artistic expression in a public theatre.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to director and dramaturg Weronika\nSzczawi\u0144ska, Frlji\u0107\u2019s production is the first to deal with the Church in the\nhistory of Polish theatre in such an open and direct manner. The theatre has\nbeen accused of blasphemous anti-Catholicism and has received vocal criticism\nfrom PiS, nationalists, conservative Catholics and the neo-right group the ONR.\nThe organizers of the demonstrations wrote, \u201cPassivity is enough for evil to\nwin.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a> The theatre, in turn, issued a response that indicated the performance only\nreflected an artistic vision and that buying a ticket was a conscious choice.\nThe freedom of artistic expression itself cannot be questioned. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Scene from Stanis\u0142aw Wyspia\u0144ski\u2019s Kl\u0105twa<\/em> (The Curse<\/em>), directed by Oliver Frljic. Photo: Magda Hueckel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Interestingly, on both sides of the argument we see how political performance (directly in a theatrical frame or in the performative frame of public protest) is reliant on the activation of voluntary members. It is the opposite of what is perceived to be \u201cpassivity\u201d and requires intentional participation. This argument breaks down, however, when such forms of participation are jeopardized. The National-Radical Camp (Ob\u00f3z Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) is a far-right nationalist non-political movement in Poland associated with the Polish National Movement. Tomasz Kalinowski, a spokesman for ONR, claimed that \u201cCatholics have to take matters into their own hands,\u201d after the Ministry of Culture \u201cfailed\u201d to take action against the production.[5]<\/sup><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April and May 2017, this group attempted\nto block the entrance to the theatre in order to prevent spectators from\nattending the performance. Blocking access is confusing the right to freedom of\nspeech with the exercise of power. In the pages of Krytyka Polityczna<\/em>, journalist and film critic Jakub Majmurek\nrefracts the arguments through the lens of the Polish constitution. Citing a\nnumber of constitutional articles, he demonstrates the complexity of the legal\narguments that at times stand in potential conflict with one another, including\nthe right to inherent dignity, principle of equality, prohibition of\ndiscrimination, the freedom of conscience and religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, two opposing collectives, two opposing\nconstitutional rights. Majnurek recommends an independent body who can analyse\nthe case and asks when the \u201chighest values of the Catholic Church became constitutional<\/em> values.\u201d Ultimately, he\nconcludes, the task of a Minister of Culture in a liberal democracy is not to\nuphold religious values or to attribute these to the constitution but rather to\nensure that artists have the necessary conditions to discuss cultural values as\nsuch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As interested as I was in seeing the\nperformance, it was only after the dramaturg and curator Marta Keil posted this\nimage on Facebook of protestors setting off smoke bombs outside of the theatre\nthat I booked my ticket to Warsaw. It is not only that I wanted to be present\nas a witness, to know firsthand that these protests were occurring, a personal\nand political reminder that the theatre does really matter. It was also that I\nhad a desire to place my body in close proximity to these protestors. I wanted\nto mingle among them, walk through them. I wanted to gaze at them and allow\nthem to gaze back at me. I wanted to defy them. So, it was not that I traveled\nto Warsaw to get through the demonstrators to see the performance, but that I\nwanted to see the performance in order to get through the demonstration. This\nalso resituates the actors themselves as agents of protest. By continuing to\nperform, they were themselves performing a protest that was not simply the\ninverse of the outside demonstration. The question of the collective here, for\nme, is the way in which the demonstrators opened up this possibility, to\nmaterialise and physicalise the discourse, to make us all active agents. Was\nthis then a cooperative exercise between inside and outside? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I was not the only one who wanted this.\nCritics arrived in droves. From London, from Madrid, from Budapest, from Berlin\nand Amsterdam and The Hague. The deputy artistic director of Powszechny, Pawe\u0142\nSztarbowski, welcomed each of us, apologising to those who arrived on the\nevenings that the protesters had taken a break and were not around. I could see\nthe look of disappointment on their faces. They were still excited to see the\nshow that had caused so much furor, so much public outrage, but in the absence\nof the protesters their pleasure was diminished. Their own activity in the\ncollective reduced, less visible, perhaps even unseen. I saw the performance\ntwice. On the first occasion, the protestors were present, on the second, they\nwere absent. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Stanis\u0142aw Wyspia\u0144ski\u2019s Kl\u0105twa<\/em> (The Curse<\/em>), directed by Oliver Frljic. Photo: Magda Hueckel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2017, the first time I attended the performance, I crossed the bridge to the Praga district where the theatre is located and, as I drew closer, I grew more and more anxious. By the time I saw the haze of the smoke and the sounds of their chanting, I was downright terrified. I no longer wanted to defy them. I wanted to slip in through the backdoor. I wanted desperately to be undetected. When I returned a year later with fresh courage, they were gone. And I do not think that is a coincidence. Something had changed for both of us. What was infuriating the ONR in this performance? Without going into detailed performance analysis\u2014indeed, performance analysis here would not reveal the roots of the ONR\u2019s fury but obscure it\u2014there are a few key moments in the production that the media had described with relish that fanned the flames. Two of the most controversial staging choices frame the beginning and end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assembling on stage, the actors tell us that\nthey have decided that they will work with Frlji\u0107, though with some reluctance.\nThey then move into the world of Wyspianski\u2019s text, if not directly into his\nlanguage. As a representation of the priest\u2019s seduction of the young woman, a\nlarge statue of John Paul II is dragged onto stage. The former pope gazes down\nat the girl kneeling before him, his hands delicately clasped in prayer.\nAttached to his body is a long white dildo, onto which the girl first rolls a condom\nbefore performing fellatio for several agonising minutes. This is not an erotic\nencounter, but one that feels forced and unequal. Her choice to use a condom is\nalso a direct attack against the Polish pope\u2019s strict stance against\ncontraception. Through an overhead recording, we hear the voice of John Paul\nII. This disarticulation of his religious speech from his body foregrounds\nanother departure between public (faith, good manners, decorum, sanctity) and\npersonal (desire, power, manipulation, abuse) life that Wyspia\u0144ski explores in\nhis play. No small part of the shock of this stage image is the revelation that\nJPII has a penis at all, which is another consequence of the exposure of the\nprivate life and thoughts of a Catholic priest. Around the pope\u2019s neck a sign\nis placed that reads \u201cObro\u0144ca Pedofili\u201d (Defender of Pedophiles) and a noose.\nBy positioning these images at the outset of the performance, Frlji\u0107 allows\nmore room to interrogate questions around xenophobia, public perception of\nMuslims, sexual abuse of the clergy and women\u2019s rights later on. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: Jakub Szafranski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What interests me is the way in which the performance anticipated and indeed relied upon the protestors, not only in their publicist function\u2014and indeed they were fabulous publicity for the production\u2014but also in terms of their public aim. Without the protestors the audience is disappointed, the evening is a letdown. When they fail to show up, they are in fact behaving badly\u2014as opposed to when they block entrance and set off smoke bombs. Paradoxically, that is when they are performing well. When they are participating in the collective effort of producing the performance. My question is how we understand the limitations, the borders, the make-up of a collective in circumstances such as this. And to what extent does the theatre disavow its reliance on the protestors? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word collective occurred to me almost\nstraight away. This is perhaps because I have never felt so visible as an\naudience member. I was submitted to four forms of inspection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n