Modernisations of Polish identities in contemporary Polish plays: The right to individuality

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Polish playwrights were released from the stranglehold of communist censorship, becoming free to do and say whatever they liked in whatever ways they chose, no longer bound within the confines of allegorical stage languages when addressing political issues. While clandestine, politicised performances did take place under communism, the content of mainstream theatre was officially controlled by the censor. After 1989 there was an initial brief wave of restagings of classics, Western European plays, and psychological dramas. Then there came a surge of contemporary new Polish playwriting which once again engaged with politics, but now the writers had freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression. Marginalised characters were placed in the spotlight, demanding to be heard. They frequently did so in ‘real’, though not realistic, language, often full of obscenities. Since Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004, contemporary Polish playwrights have continued to engage with the ongoing processes of reshaping Polish identities and tackling national stereotypes. This paper focuses on a selection of plays written after that important moment in Poland’s cultural history